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On Prayer

Origen, tr. Oulton, 1954

“Thy kingdom come.” If “the kingdom of God,” according to the word of our Lord and …

THY KINGDOM COME
(Chapter XXV)

“Thy kingdom come.”1 If “the kingdom of God,” according to the word of our Lord and Saviour, “cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo, here! or, Lo, there!” but “the kingdom of God is within us”23 (“for the word is very nigh, in” our “mouth, and in” our “heart”4), it is evident that he who prays that “the kingdom” of God should come prays with good reason that the kingdom of God should spring up and bear fruit and be perfected in him. For every saint who takes God as his king and obeys the spiritual laws of God dwells in himself as in a well-ordered city, so to speak. Present with him are the Father and Christ who reigns with the Father in the soul that has been perfected, in accordance with the saying which I mentioned a short time ago:5 “we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.”6 (And I think that by God’s kingdom is meant the blessed state of the reason7 and the ordered condition of wise thoughts; while by Christ’s kingdom8 is meant the words that go forth for the salvation of those who hear them and the works of righteousness and the other virtues which are being accomplished: for the Son of God is “Word”9 and “righteousness.”10) But every sinner is under the tyranny of “the prince of this world,”1112 since he does not hand himself over to him “who gave himself for” us sinners, “that he might deliver us out of this present evil world,” and “deliver us out of” it “according to the will of our God and Father,”13 as is stated in the [Epistle] to the Galatians. He who is under the tyranny of “the prince of this world”14 through deliberate sin is also ruled over by sin: therefore we are bidden by Paul no longer to submit ourselves to “sin” which desires to “reign” over us; and indeed we are commanded in these words: “Let not sin therefore reign in our mortal body, that we should obey the lusts thereof.”15

But some one will say with regard to these two petitions, that is to say, “Hallowed be thy name” and “Thy kingdom come,”16 that if he who prays prays in order to be heard, and is in fact at some time heard, it is evident that, in accordance with what has been said above, “the name” of God will “be hallowed” at some time for some one, for whom also “the kingdom” of God will be present. But if these things come about for him, how shall he still fittingly pray concerning things that are present already as if they were not present, saying, “Hallowed be thy name; Thy kingdom come”? The reply to this must be as follows. He who prays to obtain “the word of knowledge” and “the word of wisdom”17 will always fittingly pray for these things, for he will always go on receiving more and more intuitions of “wisdom” and “knowledge” as his prayers are continually heard, howbeit he will “know in part” as much as he is able to receive in this present life; but “that which is perfect, doing away that which is in part, shall then be made manifest when, “face to face,”18 the mind without sense perception comes in contact with spiritual realities. Similarly, “that which is perfect” in the “hallowing” of the “name” of God for each of us and in the coming of his “kingdom” cannot be, unless there “come” also “that which is perfect”19 as concerning “knowledge” and “wisdom,”20 and, it may be, the other virtues also. And we go on our journey “unto perfection,”21 if “stretching forward to the things which are before” we “forget the things which are behind.”22 As we advance unceasingly “the kingdom of God” that is in us23 will reach its highest point, when that which was spoken by the apostle is fulfilled, that Christ, when all enemies “have been subjected unto him,” shall “deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father, that God may be all in all.”24 Therefore, “praying without ceasing,”25 with a disposition of the mind that is being deified26 by the Word, let us say to “our Father which is in heaven, Hallowed be thy name; Thy kingdom come.”27

Moreover, concerning “the kingdom” of God this distinction must also be made, that, as there is no “fellowship” between “righteousness and iniquity,” and no “communion” between “light and darkness,” nor any “concord” between “Christ and Beliar,”2829 so the kingdom of God cannot co-exist with the kingdom of evil. If therefore it is our will to be under the reign of God, “let not sin” in any wise “reign in” our “mortal body,”30 neither let us obey its commandments, when it urges our soul to do “the works of the flesh”31 and things that are alien from God. Rather, “mortifying the members which are upon the earth,”32 let us bring forth “the fruits of the Spirit,”3334 so that the “Lord” may “walk in”35 us as in a spiritual “garden,”36 reigning alone over us with his Christ, “sitting” in us “at the right hand of” that spiritual “power”37 which we pray to receive, and seated “until” all his “enemies” within us become “the footstool of” his “feet,”38 and “all rule and authority and power” is “abolished”39 from us. For it is possible that these things should come to pass for each of us, and that the “last enemy” should be “abolished, even death,”40 so that in our case also it may be said by Christ, “O death, where is thy sting? O Hades, where is thy victory?”41 Even now therefore let our “corruptible put on” sanctification in holiness and all purity and “incorruption, and” let “the mortal”42 clothe itself, when “death” has been “abolished,”40 with the Father’s “immortality,”42 so that we may be reigned over by God and even now share in the good things of “regeneration”4344 and resurrection.

Notes

  1. Matt. 6:10; Luke 11:2.
  2. Luke 17:20, 21.
  3. XXV, 1. but the kingdom of God is within us] The variations from the text of Luke 17:21 (“but” instead of “for behold,” and “us” instead of “you”) are not to be regarded as variant readings. It is evident that Origen does not here quote exactly (he changes the order of the Greek in the preceding verse). The significant point of the quotation for him is “within you (us)”: ἐντὸς ὑμῶν, as is clear from the exposition that follows in this section. Origen, therefore, does not agree with those modern commentators who, in defiance of what seems to be the plain meaning of ἐντὸς, interpret it, with the margin of the Revised Version, as “in the midst of” or “among.” For Origen the kingdom is first and foremost immanent and spiritual. Cf. “In our hearts all-sovereign reign” in Archbishop Whately’s hymn: “Thou to whom all power is given”—a paraphrase of the Lord’s Prayer.
  4. Deut. 30:14; cf. Rom. 10:8.
  5. XXV, 1. the saying which I mentioned a short while ago] In XX, 2.
  6. John 14:23.
  7. XXV, 1. the reason] Lit. “the ruling principle”—a favourite Stoic term.
  8. XXV, 1. Christ’s kingdom] Cf. In Jerem. hom., XIV, 5 (C.B., VI, 110 f.): “Jesus Christ uprooted the kingdoms of sin and overthrew the dwellings of iniquity and made instead of these kingdoms righteousness and truth to reign in our souls.”
  9. Cf. John 1:1, 14.
  10. I Cor. 1:30.
  11. Ignatius, Ephesians, 19.
  12. XXV, 1. “the prince of this world”] ὁ ἄρχων τοῦ αἰώνος τούτου, an expression which occurs twice in this section, and also in contra Celsum, IV, 93; VIII, 13, 36, is apparently derived from Ignatius, Ephesians, 19. See also note on XX, 2.
    XXV, 2, 3. See Introduction, pp. 216 f. The kingdom, though immanent and present, is as yet imperfectly realized within us. It must be developed, and also be made perfect at the consummation of all things.
  13. Gal. 1:4.
  14. Ignatius, Ephesians, 19.
  15. Rom. 6:12.
  16. Matt. 6:9; Luke 11:2.
  17. I Cor. 12:8.
  18. I Cor. 13:9, 10, 12.
  19. I Cor. 13:10.
  20. I Cor. 12:8.
  21. Heb. 6:1.
  22. Phil. 3:13.
  23. Cf. Luke 17:21.
  24. I Cor. 15:23–25, 28.
  25. I Thess. 5:17.
  26. XXV, 2. is being deified] Cf. XXVII, 13, and Exhort., 25 (end), in which passages, as here, the word θεοποιεῖσθαι is used. W. R. Inge, Christian Mysticism, 13 (see also pp. 356–368), remarks that “St. Augustine is no more afraid of deificari in Latin than Origen of θεοποιεῖσθαι in Greek. The subject is one of primary importance to anyone who wishes to understand mystical theology; but it is difficult for us to enter into the minds of the ancients who used these expressions, both because θεός was a very fluid concept in the early centuries, and because our notions of personality are very different.” See note on XIX, 3.
  27. Matt. 6:9, 10.
  28. II Cor. 6:14, 15.
  29. XXV, 3. “Beliar”] This spelling is supported by the best textual authorities in II Cor. 6:15; and Origen so spells the name here and also in contra Celsum, VI, 43; In Joh., XIX, 21; XXXII, 24, 30
  30. Rom. 6:12.
  31. Gal. 5:19.
  32. Col. 3:5.
  33. Gal. 5:22.
  34. XXV, 3. “the fruits of the Spirit”] Paul speaks of the fruit (sing.) of the Spirit. Origen falls into the same inaccuracy as the English Litany.
  35. II Cor. 6:16.
  36. Cf. Gen. 3:8.
  37. Cf. Matt. 26:64; Mark 14:62; Luke 22:69.
  38. Ps. 110:1.
  39. I Cor. 15:24.
  40. I Cor. 15:26.
  41. I Cor. 15:55.
  42. I Cor. 15:53.
  43. Cf. Matt. 19:28.
  44. XXV, 3. the good things of regeneration] i.e., the regeneration referred to in Matt. 19:28.

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