God’s Kingdom is not a kingdom as we would understand it.  We think of royalty, privilege and entitlement.  Something removed from the world and normal experience.  God’s Kingdom goes beyond this world.  It is an everlasting kingdom.  It is a kingdom that though it is in the world, it is not of the world.  It is the opposite of what we would think a kingdom to be.  Instead of power, it is meekness and humility.  Instead of privilege, it is emptied.  Instead of entitlement, it is service.  In the Scriptures, Christ   references several times that the Kingdom of heaven is at hand, and even it is now here.  If the Kingdom is now here, then why are we petitioning in the Lord’s prayer for it to come?  Maybe the Kingdom is not just a place, but a reality that only lives if we live it in our lives.

              The first reason we call for the Kingdom to come is because, though Christ has the right to the throne and claimed it at the Cross, we still have to subject ourselves to Him.  A king with no subjects is not a king at all.  The subjection to Christ comes in two ways.  The first way calls us to willingly surrender ourselves to Him.   Christ calls us to “deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow [Him]” (Matthew 16:24).  Our crosses are not burdens to carry, but they are us submitting to the Lord and joining Him in His cross.  The willingness to submit ourselves to Christ is the subjecting that Christ calls us to in our faith.  If we prefer to safeguard ourselves and be self-centered, then the subjection occurs by force.  Those who do not surrender themselves to Christ and fall into sin without repentance will be judged harshly and condemned in the end.  Either way, we are going to be subjects to the king because He is our Lord, Creator and Redeemer.  He deserves to rule our lives.  Do we let him?

              Though the Kingdom of Heaven is present in this world, it is not of this world.  The second reason we call the Kingdom to come is because we are awaiting the glory of paradise in heaven.  We submit ourselves to the king, but we await the entrance into heaven and the second coming.  Only in the end times does the fullness of the kingdom come into existence.  We desire this with all our soul, because we desire to be in heaven with our Lord.  But it is not here in its fullness.  So when we do see suffering, hardship, and difficulty in the world and wonder where God and His kingdom are, we must remind ourselves that in the end God eliminates all suffering, condemns the wicked, and ushers in the reign of His Kingdom.

              Finally, in relation to the reality that the Kingdom is not of the world, we recognize that sin still is present.  The Kingdom and sin are completely incompatible.  Sin must be eliminated, redeemed, and overcome in order for the Kingdom to reign.  Since sin exists in the world, the Kingdom is still coming into our world.  We each even personally still struggle with our own sinfulness.  What is our role in this?  Strive to overcome sin, seek forgiveness in the Sacrament of Confession, and drive ourselves to rise above our sinful temptations.  We want God’s Kingdom to reign.  We thus must seek the reality of that kingdom in our own lives first.