“THY KINGDOM COME”: MEANING AND CONSEQUENCES.

“THY KINGDOM COME”: MEANING AND CONSEQUENCES.

“Thy kingdom come.” This is the first petition we ask God everytime we pray the “Lord’s prayer” or “Our Father”. But what does this phrase mean and what are its consequences? Below you have an excerpt taken from In Conversation with God, vol., 5 (formatting mine to facilitate reading) which will surely help explain our queries. A great day ahead! Fr. Rolly Arjonillo.

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Thy kingdom come. St John Chrysostom has commented that the Lord wants us to desire that which will accelerate our heavenward pace. While we are living here on the earth, He wants us to strive to embody the life of Heaven.

The expression kingdom of God has a triple significance.

• It refers to the Kingdom of God present in our souls in grace, the Kingdom of God on earth which is the Church, and the Kingdom of God in Heaven.
• We ask God to reign in our hearts as a king in his court. We ask his help that we may remain united to him through the virtues of faith, hope and love. We pray that these virtues reign in our minds, our hearts and our wills.8 When we pray each day for the coming of the Kingdom of God, we pray also that He will help us to overcome temptation. The reign of God in our soul will endure as long as we correspond with the graces He offers us.

The parables of the Kingdom should be fulfilled in our hearts.

• The Kingdom of God begins its action like the grain of wheat hidden in the earth. It grows to be a stalk of wheat in full ear, ripe for the harvest.
• The Kingdom is also like the leaven that transforms the entire heart until it becomes one with God. The Kingdom also resembles the grain of mustard seed which has a tiny beginning but grows to a great size.
• The Kingdom of God is present in our soul through grace while it awaits the definitive encounter with God that immediately follows death.
• The Kingdom of God is here, at hand, Jesus said. The kingdom of God is in the midst of you.9 We can perceive its presence in our soul by the action of the Holy Spirit.

When we say thy kingdom come we pray that God will enter into us more fully, that we will be completely his. We pray that He will help us to overcome the obstacles we put in the way of divine grace. Before, we were slaves, but today we are empowered to reign under the protection of Christ.10

If our prayer is trusting, constant and sincere, it will be heard by God. As we read in today’s Gospel: For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent?11 How much confidence we can draw from these words of Jesus

• When we pray thy kingdom come we ask that the Church may grow throughout the world for the salvation of souls.
• We are praying for the apostolate she carries out on earth. We commit ourselves to do what we can to extend the Kingdom of God.
• It is not enough to pray for the Kingdom of God if we do not match our prayers with deeds.12 These deeds are the apostolic initiatives which we put into effect, no matter how small they may appear.

We cannot become discouraged because the world seems to be regressing to paganism. The Second Vatican Council challenges us: On all Christians, accordingly, rests the noble obligation of working to bring all men throughout the whole world to hear and accept the divine message of salvation.13

Our first obligation lies with those whom God has placed by our side, those with whom we have regular dealings. We cannot excuse ourselves from this apostolate. What is at stake is the eternal salvation of our neighbors. We should also be concerned about orienting the world to Christ: the dignity of persons, the rights of conscience, the respect due to work and to the payment of just wages, the sincere desire for peace among peoples – all of these are proper concerns for Christians in the middle of the world. They should unite with all men and women of good will to realize these ideals.

Thy kingdom come. Jesus reminds all of us: ‘And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things to myself. If you put me at the center of all earthly activities, he is saying, by fulfilling the duty of each moment, in what appears important and what appears unimportant, I will draw everything to myself. My kingdom among you will be a reality!

That is the calling of Christians, that is our apostolic task, the desire which should consume our soul: to make this kingdom of Christ a reality, to eliminate hatred and cruelty, to spread throughout the earth the strong and soothing balm of love. Let us ask our king today to make us collaborate, humbly and fervently, in the divine task of mending what is broken, of saving what is lost, of fixing what man has put out of order, of bringing to his destination whoever has gone off the right road, of reconstructing the harmony of all created things.14 Let us begin, as always, with the little things of each day which are within our reach.

1. Cassian, Conferences, 9, 18
2. Catechism of St Pius X, 290
3. John 17:6
4. St Augustine, Letter 130, to Proba
5. Jas 4:15
6. St Teresa, The Way of Perfection, 31, 13
7. St John Chrysostom, Homilies on St Matthew’s Gospel, 19, 5
8. cf Catechism of St Pius X, 294-295
9. Luke 17:21
10. St Cyprian, Treatise on the ‘Our Father’, 13
11. Luke 11:5-13
12. Catechism of the Council of Trent, IV, 10, 2
13. Second Vatican Council, Decree Apostolicam actuositatem, 3
14. J. Escriva, Christ is passing by, 183

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