I tell you, then, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. Matthew 21:43

“Even though it may be realistic to admit that there is hardly any news in the Sermon on the Mount for most people, the core message of the Gospel nonetheless contains a truth that no one has yet fully made true. . . . We have not yet realized what we profess to believe. Who likes to hear, for example, that the last will be first, if we happen to be first? . . . The truth, after all, is radical: it goes to the roots of a person’s life in such a way that few are those who want it and the freedom it brings with it. . . . Christians are Christians only when we increasingly ask critical questions of the society in which we live and continuously stress the necessity for conversion, not only of the individual but also of the world. Christians are Christians only when we refuse to allow ourselves or anyone else to settle into a comfortable rest. . . . As long as Christians live we keep searching for a new order without divisions between people, for a new structure that allows every person to shake hands with every other person and a new life in which there will be lasting unity and peace.”

to read the rest of this devotional see Show Me the Way: Daily Lenten Readings by Henri Nouwen