Whenever we pray the Our Father, we say the following words: “Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be done” (Matthew 6:10). God’s Kingdom is present whenever we do God’s will. Jesus teaches in today’s Gospel that we must “do” what we pray: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” Jesus practiced what He preached. In His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane He puts God’s will before His own will:
“My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will…My Father, if it is not possible that this cup pass without my drinking it, your will be done!” (Matthew 26:39, 42).
Fully doing God’s will can take a lifetime but we can begin by listening to Jesus’ teaching, especially His Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). A Franciscan scholar stated that St. Francis of Assisi interpreted the Gospel by doing it. Francis did not wait to figure out exactly what Jesus meant. Sometimes he took Jesus’ words too literally and had to adjust his actions but at least he was doing something. In a similar way as we listen to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount let us “do something,” such as being merciful to one specific person or being a peacemaker, or stop judging someone, or forgiving someone. All of these are very concrete actions that we can start to do as we put the Lord’s prayer into action: “Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be done.”
Jesus calls us to be wise builders: “Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise person who built their house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.” This solid rock is Jesus, His words and His actions.