"Your kingdom come." (MT 6:10)
We have repeated these words so many times in our life, whenever we say the Our Father, the prayer we learned from Jesus himself. He came, in fact, to announce that the kingdom of God is near.
This kingdom is neither a country nor a place in some other world. It is, instead, an event for which we must await the end of time, when God will manifest his sovereignty fully and forever, destroying the power of evil and inaugurating a new world.
But God is not going to wait until then to assume his kingship.
Simply by coming on earth Jesus overcame evil, but it was by his passion and resurrection that he triumphed over it and inaugurated the new creation in his own body.
The prayer, "Your kingdom come" is, therefore, not a justification for withdrawing from the world in order to wait for the future kingdom, but rather a reason for our getting very involved in this life.
We cannot say these words without saying yes to God, and thereby actively participating in the plan he has for all of humanity, making it our own.
"Your kingdom come."
God wants to reign not only in the individual, but in the collectivity: among all of us. Then there will be true brotherhood, and the unity among all people which Jesus asked of the Father before dying will be a reality.
In order to prepare the way for this unity, we must do our utmost so that God may reign in our families, in our places of work, in our gatherings, in schools and universities, in political and civic meetings.
This new relationship with God and among ourselves, which Christ brought on earth, will be the greatest witness in the eyes of the world that the kingdom of God is present and that evil can be overcome.
"Your kingdom come."
Alfred is someone who, in the midst of a tragic situation, uttered this prayer, not with mere words, but with his life.
Although he was the general manager of a business with 100 employees, and he had a very strong personality, he had learned to welcome the kingdom of God like a child.
One morning he woke up gasping for breath. He was the victim of a completely unexpected heart attack! It seemed he had only a few more minutes to live. In spite of the severe pain he remained at peace, and gathering what little strength he had he said to his wife: "This, too, is God’s love. All we have to do is his will," in other words, submit to his kingship. "In spite of my failures I am grateful to God for the life I have been given." Then he spoke to his daughter, urging her to always seek God’s kingdom above all else in life.
He was taken to the hospital where he was given immediate medical attention and brought to the intensive care unit. Although at times pain disfigured his face, he never stopped smiling, revealing a serenity and joy that are not of this world. Even the paramedics in the ambulance had noticed it. One of them said he had never seen such an expression on the face of a person in that condition.
After several days, Alfred was out of danger, and by then he had already begun to establish deep relationships with the other eight patients in the unit. He had communicated his serenity to all of them.
Returning home he discovered that, since he had said good-bye to this world, it now appeared completely new to him: a place where the only thing that mattered was to do God’s will. He felt his soul was now marked by an unmistakable closeness to God which the kingdom brings.
Chiara Lubich
The commentary to the Word of Life is translated in 90 different languages and dialects, and reaches more than 14 million people worldwide, through the press, and radio and TV programs
If you would like to read experiences of life related to this or to past "Words of Life," they can be found in Living City magazine, the monthly publication of the Focolare Movement. For information or to subscribe, write to: Living City, P.O. Box 837, Bronx, NY 10465. A book, From Scripture to Life, containing Words of Life with commentary by Chiara Lubich and related experiences of life is available through New City Press, the publishing house of the Focolare, 202 Cardinal Road, Hyde Park, NY 12538. To order the book or magazine call 1-800-462-5980. E-mail: ncporder@aol.com
© 1998 - Living City of Focolare Movement - P.O. Box 837, Bronx, New York 10465
Presented here with permission of the publishers
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