Matthew 6.10

Your Kingdom come.  Your will be done.

Reflection

After addressing the Father and acknowledging his divinity the Our Father teaches us to pray for the two things necessary for our salvation: faith and obedience.

To pray "your kingdom come" is a profound expression of faith in the reality of the Fathers hidden kingdom, the recognition of the seduction of the kingdom of this world and the explicit rejection of it, and the belief that the Father's kingdom will arise on earth in its finality with the return of Christ in glory.  Faith is the redemption of our intellect through Christ, an intellect which by its fallen nature is inclined to desire its own kingdom of its own making.

To pray "your will be done" is to submit our will in obedience to God.  This is the other half of our redemption in Christ for "faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead."  (James 2.17)  Furthermore, "whoever disobeys the Son will not see life."  (John 3.36) This is perfectly natural for our will is also fallen and by its fallen nature is inclined to desire to follow its own wishes in all things.

We see then, in the very first requests made in the only prayer Jesus explicitly taught us, a submission of our intellect through faith and our will through obedience to the Father in heaven.  The fulfillment of this prayer is Jesus himself, who in his activity as high priest submits his perfect intellect and will to the Father so that those who do likewise in him can be redeemed by him and thus share in the communion and fellowship he has with the Father.  Amen!  So be it!