Oh King of the nations and Desire of the people, Cornerstone of the Church, who make two peoples one, come and save the man you formed from the mud of the land!
This antiphon, on a first level, refers us back to the promises of the Ancient Testament, where David is a figure of the king who was to come, Christ. Christ is who has to govern his people as the true and only king.
But, as St. Augustine observes, the reign of Christ and his reign have not yet come to completely pass established in this world. It is a kingdom that germinates day after day, but that has not yet reached its fullness. However, the believer is asked to have faith and believe that the kingdom of Christ will come. Saint Augustine offers us three reflections.
First, the reign of Christ cannot be clearly seen in the world in which we live, where it seems that those who live without Christ and doing evil are doing well, while those who try to live according to God’s commandments sometimes are going badly for them, and they have to suffer. Saint Augustine remembers that the wicked are like grass of the field, which has no root and will soon wither, while the righteous have the deep root of love, which will make it flourish in eternal life:
[…] “but if the root of your love is deep, like that of many trees during the winter, the cold will pass, summer will come, that is, the day of judgment; that’s when the green of the hay will dry up and the glory of the trees will appear. You are dead, says the Apostle, just as the trees seem to be in winter, as if dry, like dead So what hope do we have left, if we are dead? The root is below; and where our root is, our life is also there, because there it is also our love” (Commentary on Psalm 36, 1, 3).
On the other hand, Saint Augustine invites us to live with an eschatological hope, wishing that the kingdom of God come. But St Augustine realizes that many believers fall in the paradox of praying the Lord’s Prayer – where we ask God for his kingdom to come -, and yet they do not desire in the depths of their soul that the kingdom of Christ should come, because they love the things of this world too much and not so much those of Christ. Therefore, Saint Augustine invites coherence of life and conversion to ask and wish for the kingdom to come of Christ, for in him we will reign together with the Lord, and the form of this world will pass away with its sins and corruption:
“Once you have already begun to desire Christ to come, having already become a soul chaste that longs for the husband’s embrace, renounces the adulterous embrace and internally she becomes a virgin by virtue of faith itself, hope and charity. She already has confidence on the day of judgment; when she prays and says: Thy kingdom come, she no longer conflicts with herself same. For he who fears that the kingdom of God will come, fears that he will be heard. As can it be said that he prays who fears being heard? On the other hand, whoever prays with confidence that charity grants, she wants it to arrive now. Regarding that wish, he said psalmist: And you, Lord, until when? Return, Lord, and deliver my spirit. I moaned because her departure was postponed. Well, there are men who arm themselves with patience to die and there are, on the contrary, others who arm themselves with the same patience to live” (Treatise on the 1st Letter of John 9, 2).
Thirdly, when Saint Augustine explains the Lord’s Prayer and reaches the part where he asks for the kingdom of God to come, meditates and points out that the kingdom of God is going to come some day, whether we want it or not, whether we ask for it or not. The kingdom will come. That is why Saint Augustine asks about the meaning of this request. And he says what we ask is that, when this kingdom of Christ comes, may we be found within it, not outside for our sins and rebellions, but within. Thus we will be blessed to be able to fully receive what this kingdom means, that is, that God reigns, governs in our lives and makes us happy. In fact, man’s happiness is in God,
As Saint Augustine himself points out: “You made us for yourself and our hearts are restless.” until I rest in you” (Confessions 1, 1):
“We also wish for his kingdom to come. He will come whether we want it or not, but wish and Begging for his kingdom to come is nothing other than wishing, expecting it from him, that we make them worthy of his kingdom, lest—God forbid—he come, but not for us (…) What does it mean for us that he comes? May he find us good. This is what we ask: that he make us good; then his kingdom will come to us.” (Sermon 58, 2)
In this time of Advent, may we prepare the ways for the kingdom of God to come, and that its grace allows us to be the kingdom of God and to be within it when Christ returns with all his saints on the day of final Judgment.
