Matthew 6:7-15

Matthew 6:7-15

Jesus said to his disciples:

“In praying, do not babble like the pagans,

who think that they will be heard because of their many words.

Do not be like them.

Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

“This is how you are to pray:

‘Our Father who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name,

thy Kingdom come,

thy will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread;

and forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us;

and lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.’

“If you forgive others their transgressions,

your heavenly Father will forgive you.

But if you do not forgive others,

neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”

Opening Prayer: Heavenly Father, I ask today that your name be hallowed throughout the whole world, that your reign be extended to all peoples, and that your will be accomplished here on earth. Grant me the bread of life, forgive my sins, strengthen me in times of tribulation, and deliver me from all evil.

Encountering the Word of God

1. The Past Kingdom: One way to understand the second petition in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy Kingdom Come!” is to contemplate the past, present, and future of the Kingdom. We need to understand the prefiguration of the Kingdom in the Old Testament, the establishment of the Kingdom by Jesus in the New Testament, and the definitive establishment of the Kingdom that will come at the end of time. Hints of the Kingdom of God are found in Genesis. God reigns over all things and is their Creator and Lord. God created Adam and Eve and granted them a share in his reign and commanded them to “have dominion” over the earth. Adam and Eve were not faithful to their royal vocation and rebelled against God. God did not abandon humanity and promised a royal dynasty to Abraham. The descendants of Abraham, the twelve tribes of Israel, were also offered the promise of being a royal priesthood. After crossing the Red Sea, they sang, “The Lord reigns” (Exodus 15:18). Like Adam and Eve, the tribes of Israel rebelled against God and chose to serve an idol. But God did not abandon Israel and was faithful to his covenant promise. The Lord called David, made him king, and promised that his kingdom would last forever (2 Samuel 7). When the Kingdom of David was decimated by the Assyrians and the Babylonians, the prophets promised that David’s Kingdom would be restored. And during the Babylonian Exile, the prophet Daniel foretold that the Kingdom of God would be established during the time of a fourth earthly kingdom, the time of the Roman Empire (see Daniel 2 and 7). 

2. The Present Kingdom: This background helps us understand Jesus’ announcement of the Kingdom in the Gospels. The people were waiting for the royal son of David, the Messiah, to restore the Kingdom of David. Jesus often spoke about the mystery of the Kingdom of God in parables. On the night of the Last Supper, the Kingdom of God was entrusted to the Apostles (Luke 22:29), who were charged with governing the Kingdom as servants and shepherds. The seed and beginning of the Kingdom of God are present in the Church. As Jesus taught in his parables, the Kingdom will grow during the centuries and welcome all peoples and nations. It will transform society. When we pray “Thy Kingdom Come!” we are asking God to extend his reign throughout the world and in the human heart. In the Eucharist, the Kingdom of God is in our midst (CCC, 2816). “By the second petition, the Church … prays for the growth of the Kingdom of God in the ‘today’ of our own lives” (CCC, 2860).

3. The Future Kingdom: Christ already reigns through the Church. “Though already present in his Church, Christ’s reign is nevertheless yet to be fulfilled ‘with power and great glory’ by the King’s return to earth. This reign is still under attack by the evil powers, even though they have been defeated definitively by Christ’s Passover. Until everything is subject to him, ‘until there be realized new heavens and a new earth in which justice dwells, the pilgrim Church, in her sacraments and institutions, which belong to this present age, carries the mark of this world which will pass, and she herself takes her place among the creatures which groan and travail yet and await the revelation of the sons of God.’ That is why Christians pray, above all in the Eucharist, to hasten Christ's return by saying to him: Maranatha! ‘Our Lord, come!’” (CCC, 671). When Jesus ascended into heaven, he told the apostles that the hour had not yet come for the glorious establishment of the messianic kingdom awaited by Israel. The hope for the definitive establishment of the Kingdom remains. “The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection. The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God’s victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven (Revelation 13:8; 20:7-10; 21:2-4). God’s triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgement after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world” (CCC, 677). “In the Lord’s Prayer, ‘thy kingdom come’ refers primarily to the final coming of the reign of God through Christ’s return” (CCC, 2818). 

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, thank you for teaching me how to pray and giving me the model of all prayer. I humbly recognize that prayer is a gift from God and that I do not know how to pray as I ought. I trust in you and your Spirit to guide me as I pray so that I may enter into deeper communion with the Father.

Living the Word of God: When I pray the Lord’s Prayer, how does the Spirit invite me to work to extend God’s reign? What am I called to do to let God reign more fully in my own heart? In my family? At my workplace? In my community? In my local Church?