This week we explore two petitions in the Our Father: “Thy kingdom come,” and “Thy will be done.” In these we are reminded that Christ has indeed established his kingdom, yet not fully. As the saying goes, “already and not yet.” We have an entire liturgical season highlighting this – Advent – in which we remember all of salvation history and key moments in Scripture that anticipated the coming of Christ and the establishment of the kingdom. We look forward with great hope to Christ’s second coming; when the kingdom will be fully established. We pray for Christ to come again as he promised and for God’s reign to prevail definitively.
Additionally, in this petition, as well as in Advent, we are reminded of another sense of the coming kingdom; that is, Christ and his kingdom coming daily in our hearts. Praying for the kingdom to come fully strengthens our commitment to building the kingdom of God in the world as we are called to do; to renew and transform the world around us through the joy of the Gospel. We are praying that God’s kingdom would come through our sanctification in the Spirit, and through our commitment to love and serve others, to work for justice and peace.
It is here we can point back to our previous post, “Hallowed Be Thy Name.” In this petition we see that we are called to further the reign of God and his kingdom through the way we live our lives; or a more accurate way to phrase it, the way we allow him to live his life in and through us. The joyful expectation of the final and full, coming of the kingdom should animate our lives; guide us in the way of peace and help us to live our lives as though what we believe is true. Because it is!
With the petition, “Thy will be done,” we may ask, “What is his will that we pray to be done?” The answer is easy enough. He “wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth” (1Tim 2:4). In this petition we are praying that our will would be so united with his, that his plan of salvation for the world would be fulfilled. We all have a part to play in bringing about this great plan of salvation. In this petition we are praying that, following the example of Christ, we would endure our crosses for the joy that is set before us (Heb 12:2): the salvation of souls. The joy that was set before Christ was every one of us; the gift of salvation he made available through his suffering. The joy that is set before us are our family members, friends and neighbors; coworkers and acquaintances, even our perceived enemies. We are ambassadors of Christ and agents of evangelization. The crosses we bear in life, whatever they may be, can do much to help bring about their salvation.
C.S. Lewis in The Great Divorce, said there are two kinds of people in the world: those who say, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done;” and those who say, “My kingdom come, my will be done.” We see this in Scripture as well. In the example of Mary, we see surrender to the will of God, “Be it unto me according to thy word.” But in the example of Eve, we see, “Be it unto me according to my word.”
Praying this petition helps to direct our hearts toward him and doing his will. In this petition we pray that our will would be united to that of Christ, the Blessed Mother and the saints. We ask that his loving plan would be fully realized in the earth and in our hearts as it has in heaven. It is in this prayer that we can discern what is his will, but also receive the grace and the courage to do it. In fact, the Our Father reveals much about the will of God: that we would work to make his name known; that we would pray our own needs and the needs of others; that we would work to help meet the needs of others as we are able; that we would be merciful to others as he has been merciful to us. Much more can be said, which is why we will continue to look at the Our Father over the coming weeks.
One of the best summaries of this petition that I have found comes from the YouCat: “As long as we continue to set our hearts on our own plans, our will, and our ideas, earth cannot become heaven. One person wants this, the other that. We find our happiness, however, when together we want what God wills. Praying means making room bit by bit for God’s will on this earth” (521).