Chapter VI.
20. In the next place there follows, “Thy kingdom come.” Just as the Lord Himself teaches in the Gospel that the day of judgment will take place at the very time when the gospel shall have been preached among all nations:282
a thing which
belongs to the hallowing of
God’s name. For here also the expression “Thy
kingdom come” is not used in such a way as if
God were not now reigning. But some one perhaps might say the expression “come” meant
upon earth; as if, indeed, He were not even now really reigning upon
earth, and had not always
reigned upon it from the
foundation of the
world. “Come,” therefore, is to be understood in the sense of “manifested to men.” For in the
same way also as a
light which is present is absent to the
blind, and to those who shut their
eyes; so the
kingdom of
God, though it never departs from the
earth, is yet absent to those who are ignorant of it. But no one will be allowed to be ignorant of the
kingdom of
God, when His Only-begotten shall come from
heaven, not only in a way to be
apprehended by the understanding, but also visibly in the person of the
Divine Man, in order to
judge the
quick and the dead. And after that
judgment,
i.e. when the process of distinguishing and separating the
righteous from the
unrighteous has taken place,
God will so dwell in the
righteous, that there will be no need for any one being taught by man, but all will be, as it is written, “taught of
God.”
283
Then will the
blessed life in all its parts be perfected in the
saints unto
eternity, just as now the most holy and
blessed heavenly
angels are
wise and
blessed, from the fact that
God alone is their
light; because the
Lord hath
promised this also to His own: “In the resurrection,” says He, “they will be as the
angels in
heaven.”
284
21. And therefore, after that petition where we say, “Thy kingdom come,” there follows, “Thy will be done, as in heaven so in earth:” i.e., just as Thy will is in the angels who are in heaven, so that they wholly cleave to Thee, and thoroughly enjoy Thee, no error beclouding their wisdom, no misery hindering their blessedness; so let it be done in Thy saints who are on earth, and made from the earth, so far as the body is concerned, and who,
although it is into a heavenly habitation and exchange, are yet to be taken from the earth. To this there is a reference also in that doxology of the angels, “Glory to God in the highest,285
| 285 In excelsis; Vulgate, in altissimis.
|
and on
earth peace to men of goodwill:”
286
so that when our goodwill has gone before, which follows Him that calleth, the will of
God is perfected in us, as it is in the heavenly
angels; so that no antagonism stands in the way of our
blessedness: and this is
peace. “Thy will be done” is also rightly understood in the sense of, Let obedience be rendered to Thy
precepts: “as in
heaven so on
earth,”
i.e. as by the
angels so by men. For, that the will of
God is done when His
precepts are obeyed, the
Lord
Himself says, when He affirms, “My
meat is to do the will of Him that sent me;”
287
and often, “I came, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me;”
288
and when He says, “Behold my mother and my
brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of
God,
289
the same is my
brother, and sister, and mother.”
290
And therefore, in those at least who do the will of
God, the will of
God is accomplished; not because they cause
God to will, but because they do what He wills,
i.e. they do according to His will.
22. There is also that other interpretation, “Thy will be done as in heaven so on earth,”—as in the holy and just, so also in sinners. And this, besides, may be understood in two ways: either that we should pray even for our enemies (for what else are they to be reckoned, in spite of whose will the Christian and Catholic name still spreads?), so that it is said, “Thy will be done as in heaven so on earth,”—as if the meaning were, As the righteous do
Thy will, in like manner let sinners also do it, so that they may be converted unto Thee; or in this sense, “Let Thy will be done as in heaven so on earth,” so that every one may get his own; which will take place at the last judgment, the righteous being requited with a reward, sinners with condemnation—when the sheep shall be separated from the goats.291
23. That other interpretation also is not absurd, nay, it is thoroughly accordant with both our faith and hope, that we are to take heaven and earth in the sense of spirit and flesh. And since the apostle says, “With the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin,”292
we see that the will of
God is done in the
mind,
i.e. in the spirit. But when
death shall have been
swallowed up in
victory, and this
mortal shall have put on immortality, which will happen at the resurrection of the
flesh, and at that change which is
promised to the
righteous, according to the prediction of the same
apostle,
293
let the will of
God be done on
earth, as it is in
heaven;
i.e., in such a way that, in like manner as the spirit does not
resist God, but follows and does His will, so the body also may not
resist the spirit or
soul, which at present is harassed by the
weakness of the body, and is prone to fleshly
habit: and this will be an element of the
perfect peace in the
life eternal, that not only will the will be present with us, but also the performance of that which is good.
“For to will,” says he, “is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not:” for not yet in
earth as in
heaven,
i.e. not yet in the
flesh as in the spirit, is the will of
God done. For even in our misery the will of
God is done, when we
suffer those things through the
flesh which are due to us in
virtue of our mortality, which our
nature has deserved because of its
sin. But we are to
pray for this, that the will of
God may be done as in
heaven so in
earth; that
in like manner as with the
heart we
delight in the
law after the inward man,
294
so also, when the change in our body has taken place, no part of us may, on account of earthly griefs or
pleasures, stand opposed to this our
delight.
24. Nor is that view inconsistent with truth, that we are to understand the words, “Thy will be done as in heaven so in earth,” as in our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, so also in the Church: as if one were to say, As in the man who fulfilled the will of the Father, so also in the woman who is betrothed to him. For heaven and earth are suitably understood as if they were man and wife; since the earth is fruitful from the heaven fertilizing it.
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