O King of the Nations

O King of the nations, so long desired, the cornerstone making both one: come!  Save mankind whom you formed from clay!

What do we see through the round window of O King?

We find ourselves down at the potter’s house, watching him work at his wheel.
He molds his clay into one shape or another, and when the vessel fails to meet his intention, he begins again to remold the clay.  Our forebears knew God at first as King of Israel, their Lord and Father, and themselves as clay in his hands.  Gradually, they came to see him as the one God, King of all nations, of the whole world.  Having made all peoples from clay, he can build them up or tear them down according to their merits, but his one desire is to draw them back to himself.  So, he laid a stone in Zion, a stone that has been tested, a precious cornerstone as a sure foundation.  And they will come from east and west, from nations of every language, and take hold, yes, take hold of the cloak of every Judahite and say, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”

What are we asking for?  What is our need, our desire, our hope?

We need to be unified.
We need to be saved from the divisions that beset us and threaten disintegration.  Racial, ethnic, or cultural differences used as a motive for marginalizing or even demonizing the other.  Fratricidal warfare in search of vengeance for historical wounds that have festered with the passage of time.  Political divisions that have hardened into culture wars, leaving little or no common ground for dialogue.  So-called religious conflicts that take the name of God in vain.  Theological, liturgical and moral battles that tear at the fabric of the churches.  We need to be healed of our tendency to build walls rather than bridges, emphasizing irreconcilable differences rather than meeting points of unity in diversity.

We stand in the name of the Church and for the people of the world we pray: Come to us, O King of the nations, break down our dividing walls and save us from the evil of enmity.  Refashion your creatures of clay as one people, bound together by a cornerstone, made whole under the peaceful rule of Christ the King.

Image: Linda Witte Henke, The Great O Antiphons