The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory

Scott Hahn
From the Nov/Dec 2003 Issue of Lay Witness Magazine

Dr. Scott Hahn is professor of theology and Scripture at Franciscan University of Steubenville, OH. He received his M.Div. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and his Ph.D. in biblical theology from Marquette University. This series explores God’s fatherhood, drawing from Sacred Scripture and the Church’s Tradition. This is the twelfth installment.

Dr. Hahn’s numerous books, including Scripture Matters (his newest title), Understanding “Our Father”: Biblical Reflections on the Lord’s Prayer, Catholic for a Reason: Scripture and the Mystery of the Family of God, and Catholic for a Reason II: Scripture and the Mystery of the Mother of God, may be ordered by calling Benedictus Books toll-free at (888) 316-2640. CUF members receive a 10% discount.

The Our Father is a prayer full of hope. Indeed, it is so hopefilled as to sound audacious. The Mass of Pope Paul VI introduces the Lord’s Prayer with these words in Latin: Praeceptis salutaribus moniti, et divina institutione formati, audemus dicere—literally, “admonished by saving precepts, and formed by divine instruction, we dare to say . . .”

The translation most commonly used in Mass is simpler, but also beautiful: “Let us pray with confidence to the Father in the words our Savior gave us” (emphasis added).

Our prayer is confident and daring because our hope is supernatural, surpassing anything that might limit our expectation of fulfillment. God is almighty, so He can deliver. God is our loving Father, so He wants to show us His love. We approach Him with confidence. We speak to Him with the fearlessness of small children before their daddy.

To the unbeliever, or the wavering believer, such hope will surely seem too bold, too ambitious. Yet we must understand it as the very foundation of our Christian life, our spirituality. We are children at play in the courts of our Father, the mighty King. We are, in the traditional formula, “sons in the Son.” We share in the life of the Trinity. We are God’s children.

If divine sonship is the stuff of our life in Christ, then hope is the substance of the Good News we have to tell the world. “Always be prepared,” says St. Peter, “to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you” (1 Pet. 3:15).

What is the reason for our hope— our confidence, our audacity?

A “Because” for Our “Why”
The most ancient liturgical texts of the Lord’s Prayer make the reasons clear in a prayerful postscript that the Church calls the doxology (literally, “word of glory”).

Why do we dare to pray the Our Father? The answer begins with the word for, a conjunction that means “because” or “since.”

“For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen” (Mt. 6:13).[1]

Most Catholics in the West know this doxology from the Mass and also from the devotional prayer of Protestants. When most Protestants pray the Lord’s Prayer, they include the doxology.

The doxology is missing from the earliest manuscripts of the New Testament. We find it, however, appended to the Our Father in almost all the ancient liturgies, dating back to the time of the apostles. It appears, for example, in the Didache (The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles), a manual of instruction which many scholars believe was written in Antioch in 60-90 A.D.

It is significant that the doxology, though absent from Scripture, is always found in the Mass of the ancient Church. For the Mass sums up the reasons for the hope of Christians, then and now.

Why do we pray with confidence? Because we know God is almighty.

We can pray that His name will be holy because we know that His name is holy from all eternity.

We can pray for the coming of His Kingdom because we know that His Kingdom is already here.

We can pray with assurance that His will be done because we know His will is inexorable, in spite of our free choices against Him.

You Call This a Kingdom?
This is absurd to those who lack faith. The critic has always mocked, “Jesus promised you a Kingdom, but all He left you was the Church.”

But few people recognized the Son of God when He came incarnate as Jesus of Nazareth. Why should we expect them to notice Him today, when He reigns as King of Kings and Lord of Lords?

Jesus promised His first disciples He would return within their lifetime, and that He would then reign gloriously on the earth. He kept that promise, as He keeps all His promises, though we lack the vision to see their fulfillment.

He promised us a glorious Kingdom within His own generation— and we boldly proclaim that He made good on that promise. For all time, He has established His Eucharistic Kingdom, the Church.

We know, however, that the Kingdom doesn’t always appear so glorious. Jesus never said it would be paradise. His parables speak instead of wheat growing alongside weeds, and of dragnets taking in both holy mackerel and unholy muck. Only at the end of time will we have the vision to see “the kingdom, the power, and the glory” as they have been from all eternity.

But Our Lord promised us a Kingdom now—and He left us the Church! There’s no contradiction, no unfulfilled promise. What Jesus promised and what He delivered are one and the same. He said the Kingdom is near, and it is. It’s as near as your local parish.

The Kingdom comes where the King is present. Where the Eucharist is, there is the King. The “kingdom, the power, and the glory” are already here on earth, because the Church, the Eucharistic Kingdom, is already in heaven. Forever and ever. Amen!

[1] Alternative reading in footnote n of RSVCE.

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