We continue our reflections on the O Antiphons with the Antiphon for this evening…

O Key of David,
opening the gates of God’s eternal Kingdom:
come and free the prisoners of darkness!

I remember once getting locked out of my dorm room.  I was an undergrad.  Three o’clock in the morning on a Sunday and here I am, calling the Residential Adviser to get a key to get into my room.  The RA met me at the front desk; he pulls out a shoe box overflowing with keys.

It looked less organized than it actually wasn’t.  After about fifteen minutes of rummaging through the shoe box, the RA selected four or five keys and we went to my locked room.  It took way too long, but he opened my door, and I was allowed to fall back asleep.

The way of life that Jesus illuminates is the key to heaven.  In imitating Jesus, we imitate a life of virtue.  We grow closer to Jesus and the Father, and seek a deeper relationship with Him, and we are rewarded with seeing Him face-to-face in the life to come.

But the funny thing with keys and doors is human desire.  We need to desire the key.  We need to desire to walk through the door.  In other words, it is one thing to be given the grace to act like Christ, but it is completely different to utilize the grace we have been given to follow Jesus unreservedly.

It is one thing to be given all the graces to act like a good Christian. It is another thing to act like a Christian.

The door has been opened.  But we must step through.