Au In the beginning was the Word
 

1. -   After God´s name invocation pr glorification, Jesus prayer centers in what is the essence of his mission: the irruption of the kingdom of God in the field of history and the necessary conversion. In this sense Jesus asks the Father: May your kingdom come (Lk 11,2).  And, detailing it: Your will be done on earth as in heaven. (Mt 6,10). But, several questions arise: What does that God´s kingdom mean?. Is it identified with the Church?. Has it arrived or not yet?. What are we asking for when we ask to God that his kingdom come?.

2. -    The Gospel is announced in a world where the contrary experience seems to reign. The Gospel announces the kingdom of God together with man’s conversion (Mk 1,15). But, it looks like the contrary is happening: God does not reign in any way and, besides, the man cannot change.

3. -    Nicodemus is a ruler of Israel but he is convinced. More yet, he is contented. The man cannot change. Of all what Jesus says and males he has understood one thing: that God is with him and that he comes from God like a master. But there is something that sounds really strange for him; what Jesus, says: Truly I say to you: Unless one is born again of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. (Jn 3,5). For a change, the man would need to be blended again in his mother´s womb. Nicodemus is already an old man and he knows very well the man´s possibilities. He does not believe that the man can change, be born again, reborn

4. -    Really, the man commits his most radical mistake, when he avoids God´s presence. God uses to walk in this world garden, he wants to be near the man, come out to his encounter, and talk to him. But the man suspects that God is not interesting to live with, that God is enemy of his happiness and of his life, that God is envious. So, the man hears God´s steps noise and he hides. In this way, he expulse God from any function in history, but with this fact the only thing he gets is to close for himself the tree of life (Gn 3)

5. -    Nevertheless, from Abraham to the last of the prophets, to have faith is not only to admit that God intervenes in human history. Faith is a deep experience of God like Lord of history. It is sang in the psalms of the kingdom (Ps 93-100): The Lord reigns!. (Ps 96,10). God reigns over the world and the history, but he desires to reign in a special way over Israel: I shall put my spirit within you and move you to follow my decrees and keep my laws. (Ez 36,27).

6. -    The title of king was given to God from very ancient times, according to a custom very common in the Semitic peoples. Logically the thought was that Israel was the kingdom of God; it was an actual reality (1 Sm 12,12), But, with the beginning of the foreign rule, the existing contrast between that belief and the sad reality drove to the idea of a future kingdom of God that hardly could be perceived at the present time. In an age in which Israel was living subdued to the rule of pagan empires and in which the name of the Lord was desecrated, the prophets announced it: How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who herald peace and happiness, who proclaim salvation and announce to Zion: “Your God is king!”.

7. -    God´s kingdom is sung in the psalms, a kingdom that reaches to all people: Clap your hands, all you peoples; acclaim God with shouts of joy and songs of praise. For the Lord, the Most High is to be feared; he is a great king all over the earth. (Ps 47,2). His justice is sung: You are a king who loves justice, teaching virtue and equity, as you did for Jacob. His judgment is sung: Zion hears and rejoices, and the towns of Judah exult, because of your judgments, O God. His works are sung: Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done wonders. His love is sung: He has not forgotten his love and his faithfulness to Israel. (98,3). His majesty is sung: The Lord reigns, robed in majesty; the Lord is invested with strength. Firmly founded, the world cannot be moved. (93,1). The Lord reigns from ever: Since then your throne stands, from all eternity you are. (93,2).

8. -    Although initiated in the pass, Jesus announces a radical novelty, the kingdom of God. It is a reality hidden in the womb of history. It does not come spectacularly nor is tied to a precise timing, nor reserved to a place. It is entailed to a person. Jesus makes feel the proximity of God with no turns to whom needs it: The kingdom of God is among you.

9. -    The kingdom comes when the word of God is addressed to men, the word of the kingdom (Mt 13,19). It is like a seed sowed in the ground (13,4), like a mustard seed that becomes a tree where the birds come and rest in its branches (13, 31), like the yeast buried in the flour (13,33), like a treasure hidden in the field (13, 44), like a pearl that he buys selling all he has (13,46), like a net thrown to the sea that catches every kind of fish (13,47).

10. -  The word reaches the rest in parables. Nevertheless, the disciples look at the secrets of the kingdom: Fortunate are you who see what you see! (Lk 10,23). Even more, the disciples inherit the kingdom: Do not be afraid, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom (Lk 12,32). In a special way, Peter receive the keys of the Kingdom (Mt 16, 18). The Church, converted to the Gospel, constitutes in the earth “the seed and the beginning of that kingdom” (LG 5). It is necessary to set the heart first on the kingdom and justice of God (Mt 6,33).

11. -  Jesus announces God´s kingdom program in the middle of congratulations. The true happiness is not found by the way of the power, the money and the strength, but trough those of peace, generosity, mercy, the fight for justice, the confident surrender in the hands of God. The crowd is amazed. Besides, those who are not even able to accomplish the law are announced like a grace. With its accomplishment merriness, peace and happiness blossoms in the heart (Mt5).

12. -  Jesus announces a word that is accomplished, The facts accompany the words. In him the hoped for signals take place: the blind see again, the lame walk, lepers are made clean, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the poor are given good news (Lk 7,22). Peoples admire themselves, because he teaches like one with authority (Mt 7,29). According to this, we can pray: Give new signs, do fresh wonders (Sir 36,5).

13. -  Accused of willing to be the king of the jews, Jesus declares that his kingdom is not from here (Jn 18,36), Nevertheless, the powerful of this world condemn and crucified him. Following this, the disciples announce the kingdom of God, but already centered in the Jesus name. The crucified has become Lord (Acts 2,36). Same like God!. So, the kingdom of God is already the kingdom of Christ. In the middle of persecution the apostles pray as follows:  But now Lord, see their threats against us and enable your servants to speak your word with all boldness, Stretch out your hand to heal and to work signs and wonders though the Name of Jesus your holy servant.  (Acts 4,29-30; see Ps 65,9).

14. -  In the prayer we discover the Father will and the part what we must accomplish, we prepare our heart to place it to God´s kingdom service, which is in action. God is near: In him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17,28). We can pray like Jesus: Here I am. I will do your will (Heb 10,7; Ps 40,8-9); send forth your light and your truth; let them be my guide (Ps 43,3), teach me to do your will (Ps 143,10). We also can pray like the primitive church, saying: Come, Lord Jesus (Rev 22,20). Christ secretly raised, like the magnet attracts the iron’s filings, attracts everything to him according to the lines of a progressively visible sketch..

 

         * Dialogue: What is what we are asking when we say: May your kingdom come?.