“O Key of David, opening the gates of God’s eternal Kingdom:
come and free the prisoners of darkness!”
~~~
O come, O Key of David, come,
And open wide our heav’nly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to you, O Israel!

1.  O Key of David

In the fourth antiphon, we receive another kingly image (cf. the third antiphon, “O Root of Jesse’s Stem”), now referring to Jesus as the Key of David. This is nothing fanciful, but just like the previous antiphon, this is specific and intentional language. Jesus could be called the Son of David, the Crown of David, the Rulership of David, but instead he is called the Key of David. Why is this? Perhaps, especially as Catholics, when we hear of “keys” language in the Bible, we might think of that famous passage in Matthew 16 where Jesus hands Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven—and you’d be right! But Matthew 16 is not the first time we encounter the theme of keys and the kingdom in the Bible. In fact, it goes back to David and the structure of his kingdom.

In the king’s court in the Old Testament, among the leaders who served under David and his successors, there was always one who was called “over the household” (Hebrew ‘asher ‘al-habayith). This officer was second-in-command to the king and would rule the kingdom in the absence of the king (somewhat like the role of a prime minister). Frequently in 1 & 2 Kings, it will list the one who was “over the household” shortly after the king. For example, in 2 Kings 15, we see Azariah was king over Judah, but was stricken with leprosy, so “Jotham the king’s son was over the household, governing the people of the land.” (2 Kgs 15:5; c.f. 1 Kgs 16:9; 18:3; 2 Kgs 18:18)

Another place we see this is in Isaiah 22, where the Lord commanded Isaiah to go to the current ‘al-habayith, Shebna, who was wicked, and tell him that someone else was to take his office. This is found in Isaiah 22:15-25. A few things are worth observing about how Isaiah describes Shebna and his role as “over the household”:

• It is not just an office, but a royal office, with a robe and a belt (22:21)

• It is an office whose authority is passed down or is transitioned (22:21)

• The one who is over-the-household shall be a “father” to the Israelites (22:21)

• On his shoulder is “the key of the house of David” (22:22)

• He shall open and none shall shut (22:22)

2.  O Jesus, Key of David

Here we can finally return to the perhaps more familiar passage of Peter and the keys, found in Matthew 16:15-20. Let us, again, observe some key points from this scene:

• Jesus, throughout the Gospel, has been establishing his kingdom, as King, and now he begins to build his royal office

• Peter confesses Jesus as the Christ (the “anointed one”, like King David)

• Peter receives the keys to the kingdom of heaven (16:19)

• Whatever Peter binds shall not be loosed, and whatever he loosens shall not be bound (16:19)

What are we to take away from this? That the kingdom of David had a set structure—just like our government today consists in a President and his cabinet, two houses of Congress, a Supreme Court with lower courts beneath it, and so on. Likewise, the kingdom of David had a structure to it; in that structure was one such role, who was second-in-command, and was identified as the one who was “over the household.”

The implication, then, is that if Jesus came as the Son of David, and came to establish God’s kingdom forever, his kingdom won’t be something new or built from scratch, but one that is going to build on and fulfil the structure of the kingdom of David. Thus, when Jesus, who has been presented as the long-awaited son-king of the line of David (see Matt 1 and Luke 1), and he sets selects one of his followers, giving him keys and authority, this is a significant moment in understanding what the kingdom of heaven will look like. The kingdom of Jesus has an al bayit! We have one who is “over the household,” who governs the Church under Christ the King, and who leads us like a father (or “papa,” pope).

~~~

“O Key of David, opening the gates of God’s eternal Kingdom:
come and free the prisoners of darkness!”
~~~
O come, O Key of David, come,
And open wide our heav’nly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to you, O Israel!

3.  Prayer & Meditation

We have seen that with the Kingship of David, and so with the Kingship of Jesus, there is an authority and a structure that is set in place in their kingdom. Let us conclude this reflection antiphon by considering that authority that was given—that is, what are these “keys” supposed to unlock?

We saw that in Matthew 16 Jesus told Peter, “…whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” That’s still not crystal clear though on what is being bound or loosened—it’s simply labeled as “whatever.” Consider when Jesus, after the Resurrection, says to his apostles in similar terms, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld” (John 20:23). What does this great Key of Jesus unlock? It unlocks our sins! And not just the petty things I’ve done that need corrected—“I lied…” “I was mean…”—no! These are the keys that free us from that very condition that keeps us from being who we were created to be—the very condition that separates me from being with the One I was created to be with.

This is why we sing with jubilation every year on Christmas day, “Today is born our Savior! Today is born our Savior!” Friends, we are a people who need a savior. The condition of sin is like weighted chains that bind us and keep us from true freedom. Without a Savior, we are chained in a state of depravity, of suffering and death, of void and senselessness. Perhaps this is why, in the Divine Comedy, Dante doesn’t first climb up to the heights of heaven—but at the outset of his spiritual journey he first climbs down—down, down, down into the icy pit of hell where Satan dwelled in the center, stuck in a frozen lake and weeping. As if that was not enough to behold, in order to move on he has to crawl down the shaggy sides of the giant beast that was Satan, “tuft by tuft…between the tangled hair and the frozen crust” (Inferno, 381). It was not sufficient to look at the ugly face of sin from a distance—we are called to come face to face with the reality of sin and our own personal sins if we are to 1) realize the gravity of sin, and 2) appreciate what it means to be given a savior. No matter how hard we ever try, we cannot save ourselves. The enemy has done a fine job at convincing the world around us that we are perfect the way we are, that I was ‘born this way,’ and that there is nothing wrong with who I am—but that is someone who does not need a savior. To quote Bishop Barron:

One of the greatest dangers in the spiritual life is to fall into the trap of auto-salvation, the conviction that one can save oneself through heroic moral effort or mystical insight or flights of theoretical knowledge. The principal problem with such a strategy, of course, is that it simply results in the strengthening of the very egotism that one is hoping to overcome. . . Sin is not simply a weakness that we can overcome, but rather a condition from which we have to be saved. (And Now I See, 38).

When we come face to face with the ugliness and emptiness of sin, aware of our helplessness to free ourselves from its chains, we begin to understand the magnitude of Jesus coming to unbind those chains as our Savior.

As we meditate on this antiphon, spend some time reflecting on the things in your life that “chain” you down that you wish for Jesus to come remove. Keep in mind that it is not we who convict ourselves of sin, but the Spirit, who convicts us only in a manner that invites healing. One way you could do this is by praying with the account of Jesus healing blind Bartimaeus (see Mark 10:46-52). I especially invite you to seek this freedom in the confessional, where the authority of those keys are fully expressed in the forgiveness of our sins.

Come, Holy Spirit, into my heart, and reveal to me the things that keep me from experiencing the freedom of Christ Jesus.

December 20