of an earthly Davidic kingdom. It would seem that for them (as for many other Jews of their time) hope in the Kingdom went no further than expectation of a world-wide Jewish hegemony to be established with God’s help. Our Lord’s reply shows them that that hope is a false illusion: God’s plans operate on a much higher plane; they have nothing to do with political objectives, but seek to transform people through the action of the Holy Spirit: “It seems to me that they had not any clear notion of the