On The Solemnity of Christ The King - Your Kingdom Come

On The Solemnity of Christ The King - Your Kingdom Come

(Reading for Feast of Christ The King by Origen, one of the early Church Fathers)

The kingdom of God in the words of our Lord and Savior, does not come for all to see; nor shall they say: Behold, here it is, or behold, there it is; but the kingdom ­of God is within us, for the word of God is very near, in our mouth and in our heart. Thus it is clear that he who prays for the coming of God's kingdom prays rightly to have it within himself, that there it may grow and bear fruit and become perfect. For God reigns in each of his holy ones. Anyone who is holy obeys the spiritual laws of God, who dwells in him as in a well-ordered city. The Father is present in the perfect soul, and with him Christ reigns, according to the words: We shall come to him and make our home with him.

Thus the kingdom of God within us, as we continue to make progress, will reach its highest point when the Apostle's words are fulfilled, and Christ, having subjected all his enemies to himself, will hand over his kingdom to God the Father, that God may be all in all. Therefore, let us pray unceasingly with that disposition of soul, which the Word may make divine, saying to our Father who IS in heaven: Hallowed be your name; your kingdom come.

Note this too about the kingdom of God. It is not a sharing of justice with iniquity, nor a society of light with darkness, nor a meeting of Christ with Belial. The kingdom of God cannot exist alongside the reign of sin.

Therefore, if we wish God to reign in us, in no way should sin reign in our mortal body; rather we should mortify our members which are upon the earth and bear fruit in the Spirit. There should be in us a kind of spiritual paradise where God may walk and be our sole ruler with his Christ. In us the Lord will sit at the right hand of that spiritual power which we wish to receive. And he will sit there until all his enemies who are within us become his footstool, and every principality, power and virtue in us is cast out.

All this can happen in each one of us, and the last enemy  death, can be destroyed; then Christ will say in us: O death, where is your sting? O hell, where is your victory.  And so, what is corruptible in us must be clothed in holiness and incorruptibility; and what is mortal must be clothed, now that death has been conquered, in the Father's immortality. Then God will reign in us, and we shall enjoy even now the blessings of rebirth and resurrection.

Almighty and merciful God,

you break the power of evil

and make all things new

in your Son Jesus Christ, the King of the Universe.

May all in heaven and earth acclaim your glory

and never cease to praise you.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who live and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.