The Kingdom isn’t synonymous with heaven. When Jesus taught his apostles how to pray he said ‘Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  In this world we have the first fruits of the Kingdom, but we experience enough to know that it is the only thing that will satisfy us.

 The Kingdom is really a metaphor for a state of consciousness; it is not a place you go to, but a place you come from. It is a new way of looking at the world, a new awareness that literally turns this world into a different place.  The world has suffered from the various forms of Christian colonialism. Yet the Reign of God is an alternative to domination systems and all ‘isms’. Jesus teaches that right relationship is the ultimate and daily criterion. If a social order allows and encourages strong connectedness between people and creation, people and each other, people and God, then you have a sacred future: the Reign of God. It is not a world without pain or mystery, but simply a world where we are connected and in communion with all things. (adapted from Richard Rohr’s writings from the Centre for Action and Contemplation, in New Mexico in the US)