THE Gospel reading of last Sunday’s Mass were two parables about the kingdom of God. Jesus introduces the first parable by saying, “This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come.” (Mark 4:26-29)Kingdom is a political concept. For many centuries “kingdom” was the word used for territories with their inhabitants that were ruled by a king. This word however has been generally replaced by “state” and “nation”.The Israelites at first did not believe in the idea of a kingdom. While their neighboring countries had kings and were kingdoms the Israelites believed that they had no need of a king because they were ruled by God himself. God was their king and their country or nation was the kingdom of God. Later on however they gave in to the prophet who told them that God accepted the idea of them having a king. This king will be anointed by God. He will have the right to rule the people as God tells him how. This king will eventually become the ruler of all people in the world.The first king of Israel was Saul. Saul however did not live up to his calling and was displeasing to God. Succeeding him was David. David was also a sinner but he repented of his sins and did his best to rule according to the teaching of Moses and the prophets. He too however also failed in many ways in fulfilling what was expected of him as the anointed one of God.The prophets and the people continued to pine for the day that the kingdom of God would be established in their midst and ruled by the anointed one who will rule according to God’s wisdom. The prophets prophesied that the day will come when the perfectly anointed one, “The Messiah”, would come to realize all their aspirations as God’s people and he would be the one who would establish the longed for kingdom that would rule the world. This is the background of the parables of the Kingdom of God two of which were read in last Sunday’s Mass.In these parables Jesus wants to disabuse the Jews of their idea about the kingdom God. He tells them that the kingdom of God is not about political power, as they conceived it.The way the Jews thought of the kingdom of God was evident in one episode in the Gospel when Jesus performed the miracle of feeding “four thousand men not counting the women with seven loaves of bread and a few fish” (Matthew 15:34) After that miracle crowd wanted to carry him and proclaim him as their king. He however evaded them and went to the mountain to pray. In reading the parables one might think of the kingdom of God as a spiritual reality. But that is also inaccurate, because although it is mainly about the spiritual life it is however also about life in the material world that God has created.The parable about the kingdom of God that we read in last Sunday’s Mass is but only one of the many parables about the kingdom of God. I think that the reason there are many parables on the kingdom of God is that the reality about this is much richer than we can imagine. Any attempt to categorize the kingdom of God would necessarily fail.We cannot fully understand the kingdom of God because the kingdom of God is a mystery. It is enough that we have an understanding that responds to our need for salvation whatever it is that we need to be saved from. It is a saving message or is about the good news of salvation.It is meant to save us from errors about the meaning of life in its different aspects.