The Pleasant Surprise of God's Kingdom

Faith also means believing in God, believing that he truly loves us, that he is alive, that he is mysteriously capable of intervening, that he does not abandon us and that he brings good out of evil by his power and his infinite creativity.  It means believing that he marches triumphantly in history with those who “are called and chosen and faithful” (Rev 17:14).  Let us believe the Gospel when it tells us that the kingdom of God is already present in this world and is growing, here and there, and in different ways: like the small seed which grows into a great tree (cf. Mt 13:31–32), like the measure of leaven that makes the dough rise (cf. Mt 13:33) and like the good seed that grows amid the weeds (cf. Mt 13:24–30) and can always pleasantly surprise us.  The kingdom is here, it returns, it struggles to flourish anew.  Christ’s resurrection everywhere calls forth seed of that new world; even if they are cut back, they grow again, for the resurrection is already secretly woven into the fabric of this history, for Jesus did not rise in vain.  May we never remain on the sidelines of this march of living hope!

— Pope Francis, from The Joy of the Gospel, 278