Jesus did not establish an earthy kingdom through organising people externally. He builds up his reign in every heart that opens to him, and restores their bond with the Father and each other. This is how he is uniting the fractured human family from within. It is now in process. As it proceeds, society will become more just and the earth will flourish.

People might object that such talk of flourishing is wishful thinking, and tell us to get real - that the world is full of injustice and poverty. But has there ever been a time when material progress is so achievable, if only we human beings could share and live together?

There is a popular pessimism which proclaims that we are ruining the earth with our greed, yet the potential of science to discover ways of balancing our lives with that of our planet has never been so great. What is needed above all is humanity’s interior, spiritual renewal within the body of Christ.

And don't swallow the rubbish that Christianity is a negative force. When Jesus founded his Church,  the Roman economy was founded on slavery, public entertainment was full of violence and killing, women were chattel, and warface was merciless extermination. Where did this all change gradually? In the Christian West. It has been a long struggle to improve, but, with the grace of God, it is happening. Because progress is gradual and costly, let us not judge real events through the mentality of instant gratifiction which is blinding our age.

It is hard to counter the pessimism of the worldly who are dismayed by the discord experienced everywhere. That is no wonder; the devil engineers media coverage of every tragedy and horror, and we have to admit that people are guilty of turning towards every sensational happening. I suppose that is because we want to scrutinise all possible threats in order to build defences against them. But the spiritual revolution of our minds called for by St Paul (Ephesians 4: 23 ) convinces us that we are safe in the hands of our Father, no matter what evil we encounter. It also opens our eyes to the growth of the kingdom – remember that Jesus told us it is like the seed scattered by the farmer; it grows quietly largely unseen.

Here we see again the difference between the kingdoms of this world and the Kingdom of God. The politicians and economists of this world call for policies and laws which will structure human affairs so as to produce the desired effects of security, balance and harmony. They have been doing this for thousands of years, and every attempt ends in repression, after which individualism reasserting itself in revolution. Empires fall. Then others start the whole process again organising our world in the hope of improving it.

The Kingdom of God does not work through systems imposed on everybody. It works through the liberation and healing of each individual heart. As each heart is healed the urge to communion with other people grows. The Kingdom of God is the only remedy for selfishness. Only Jesus can infuse our human spirits with the Holy Spirit so that we mature. And it is a continual process in every human heart whether they are conscious of Christ or not. And it is a continual process in all of human history.

The new Body of Christ evolving

Only two human beings have reached perfection during their lives on earth, Jesus and Mary. The rest of us take our place in a long line of brothers and sisters ascending the stairway together to the house of God. The best efforts of people in previous times will always seem inadequate to us today, as ours will seem defective to people in the future. What matters is that we do our bit today and leave the gradual process of human improvement to the guidance of God.

We are in a process of evolution in cooperation with the Holy Spirit.

A Christian should resist the temptation of saying ‘they ought to do this or that’, and instead concentrate on asking ‘what is God asking of me now?’ If each person sought to know the will of God here and now, and allowed the Holy Spirit to transform them spiritually, the healing of humanity and the whole creation would gather pace.

A warning lest we deceive ourselves by our pride. Much as we may desire it, God will not normally ask us to accomplish spectacular tasks. He will generally ask us to humbly proceed in little steps. It is so easy to neglect God’s calls to little steps of love and service because we want to be heroic and do ‘meaningful’ actions.