Jesus tells us in today’s gospel that prayer alone is not sufficient to enter into his kingdom.
How can one say: “Our Father, hollowed be Thy name; Thy Kingdom come” without including: “Thy will be done”? Jesus wants me to be like himself: faithful in doing the will of his Father; faithful, as he was, in serving those about him: all his brothers and sisters.
To want to live this way is to take the Gospel message seriously. It mans being tough on one’s self, preparing oneself for conflicts and battles. It means being realistic, arming oneself for confrontations that come so easy in our present society.
Advent is the time for us to renew our fidelity to Christ, He will come to us at Christmas only if we provide a solid foundation upon which he can build his kingdom.
Our world has need of strong men and women, not those who are content in saying prayers in a perfunctory manner, but those who put Jesus’s message into action.