“For the Kingdom, Power, and Glory are Yours”

The following is the eleventh of twelve monthly reflections about the phrases of the “Lord’s Prayer” and what they tell us about family life.

            The weekly saga of the Allen family’s attempt to go to Mass with three little boys is seldom without some sort of drama.  While my wife and I have learned the tricks of building in extra preparation time, tag teaming the dressing of the kids, and packing the bag with supplies for almost any mishap, it remains a challenge to arrive on time and with a peaceful, reflective demeanor.  This past Sunday, however, we were on target.  They boys were dressed and playing together while they waited for me to finish getting ready.  I remember looking at the clock and thinking, “Wow, we still have 30 minutes.  We are definitely going to make it on time today.”  As you might guess, this assumption was premature because no sooner had I thought it than my wife came into the house to announce some news that dealt a blow to my hopes.  The sliding doors on our minivan had frozen shut.  Apparently, as we had been out driving the previous day while the snow fell, enough melted snow had made its way to the door seal to freeze overnight and entomb the entire midsection of the vehicle!

            Mustering all the warm thoughts I could, I dutifully made my way outside to see if I could remedy the problem.  I sensed my internal clock ticking the minutes away as I worked to free the doors.  Realizing that my efforts were ineffective, I switched to the backup plan.  Able to open the front passenger door, I reclined the seat as fully as possible and went inside the house to get the kids.  One by one, I heaved each boy towards his respective seat, and then my wife climbed over herself to fasten seat belts for all.  There was a distinct moment when, as I watched the woman I love clamber over the front seat of our car, that two thoughts crossed my mind.  The first was imagining what our neighbors were thinking if they were observing this spectacle, and the second was asking myself why in the world we were doing all this in the first place.

            The penultimate phrase of our Lord’s Prayer series, “for the kingdom, power, and glory are yours,” is the first half of the doxology portion.  While these are not part of Jesus’ recorded words in the gospels, they emanate from a venerable prayer tradition and have some valuable lessons for us with respect to family life.  They certainly were instructive to me as I labored to get my family to Mass despite our icy predicament.  We were, in those moments of frustration, motivated as members of God’s kingdom, acutely sensing our powerlessness, and hoping to glorify God by our perseverance.

            The kingdom of God is a popular concept in Christian thought.  We often speak of it in two ways.  In one sense, the kingdom is established by Christ and is already here.  Yet in another vein, the kingdom has not fully arrived and only will do so at the end of time.  Considering these together, we as Catholic-Christians try to live out the kingdom here on earth while looking forward to its completion in the life to come.  This allows us to be witnesses for Christ and cultivate holy individual and family lives here and now while never losing sight of our ultimate intended destination, eternal happiness with God in heaven.  This is what can be so wonderful about coming to Mass as a family.  There we receive both spiritual nourishment for our life on earth as well as a foretaste of the heavenly banquet we wish to share together.

            The power of God is something we easily acknowledge but perhaps fail to consider with regularity.  Instead, we can become preoccupied with our own power, control, and authority.  Whether at home or work, we get distracted and overestimate our importance and ability to influence events.  In each family, though, there comes moments when we truly realize our powerlessness.  Whether it is a sudden illness or death, loss of a job, or any number of other events, we are sometimes brought to our knees because that is our only remaining option.  God’s power is of particular comfort in moments such as these.  After all, in the seeming hopeless void that accompanied Jesus’ death came a miracle of God’s power beyond all others, i.e. the raising of Jesus from the dead.  By submitting to God’s power, we endure our earthly suffering in the sure hope that we will follow in the footsteps of Christ after death.

            The third idea from this month’s phrase is that of God’s glory.  We are called to glorify God by our virtuous living, and we have a tremendous opportunity to do this in our families.  Indeed, the example of a holy family life is leaven for a troubled world.  It does not mean that family life is not sometimes crazy, messy, or imperfect, but especially because of these realities, the fact that we show love unconditionally for one another evangelizes the culture and glorifies the God who is our source of strength and mercy.

            In conclusion, I will admit that few of these reflections came to mind immediately in the stressful moments of my family making its way to Mass this past week.  Fellow parents can identify with the feeling of sitting down at the beginning of Mass and already being exhausted by the effort simply to get there.  Nevertheless, we continue on our journey of faith as families, firm in our convictions of serving the kingdom, trusting in God’s power, and living in a way that glorifies God in all we do.