Talk on The Our FatherTo

People of Joy Prayer Group

This talk was built first on my own reflections but more importantly on the sections in the CCC and a book by Cardinal Jean Marie Lustiger, a convert from Judaism. who was made a Cardinal by JP II, and he died in 2007, predeceased by his mother who was killed in the Holocaust.

First of all, let’s have a look at what we are talking about. Please read with me Luke 11 1-13 and Matthew 6 5-15.

( Note all quotations are taken from the online version of the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible).

Luke 11 He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” 2 He said to them, “When you pray, say:

Father,[a] hallowed be your name.       Your kingdom come.[b]

3         Give us each day our daily bread.[c]

4         And forgive us our sins,                for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.       And do not bring us to the time of trial.”[d]

Perseverance in Prayer

5 And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6  for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ 7 And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

9 “So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for[e] a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? 12 Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit[f] to those who ask him!”

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Matthew 6: 5-15

 “And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 6 But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.[a]

7 “When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

9 “Pray then in this way:

Our Father in heaven,    hallowed be your name.10     Your kingdom come.    Your will be done,        on earth as it is in heaven.11     Give us this day our daily bread.[b]

12     And forgive us our debts,        as we also have forgiven our debtors.13     And do not bring us to the time of trial,[c]

        but rescue us from the evil one.[d]

14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; 15 but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

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Now some of this really surprises me. Let me give you an example. Suppose I was a follower of Eric Clapton and after he came out from practice for a show I asked him to teach me how to play the guitar and he said something like this:

“ well first of all you have to eat and sleep with your guitar.

You have to get totally absorbed.

You have to learn to sing and dance and hear music everywhere.

You have to hear the harmony of the universe.

Then you will be ready to start.”

Not at all what I was expecting, like put your fingers here or this is 4/4 timing, this is how you bend notes for the blues… etc.

This is kind of what Jesus did. They may have been probably expecting to be told, stand like this, fast like that, make these incantations, and also say these words. Instead they got a radical introduction to turning the heart towards God. I am sure they were quite surprised at first and it no doubt took years of repetition to understand what Christ had actually taught them.

The other thing that surprises me is that Christ knowing who he was did not explicitly say anything about himself or the Holy Spirit, and yet it is considered a Christian prayer.

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Question: Is the Our Father a way of praying or a prayer?

Well from what I can gather it was introduced almost as a liturgical prayer by Jesus as a Rabbi who in the tradition of Rabbis taught their disciples prayers to be used in the liturgies. So it is a liturgical prayer and according to the Didache (teachings of the Apostles it is to be prayed three times a day in a liturgical setting.

We Catholics also use it as a liturgical prayer in the Mass, but we also use it as a recitation on its own and as part of the Rosary, or Chaplet of Divine Mercy.

It is a meditative prayer, to ponder in the soul, to absorb into our life and to guide our relationship to God.

It is a prayer of study. As with all words of Christ we can never come to the end of the depths of meaning of this prayer. Each language, French, English, Latin, Greek has slightly different connotations, as does the original Aramaic version.

It is a prayer of life, to be lived as it gives clear instructions and even I would say commands.

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Besides the surprise that I found in this response to the Apostles request. There are some problem areas:

First we have Jesus implicitly and even explicitly naming God… the same God who refused to be named by Moses.

Then we are to Hallow his name… as if God needs us to do that.

And finally there is a warning about forgiveness, that unless applied cancels out the rest of the prayer.

I will try and deal with each of these as I work my way through the prayer.

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Regarding the structure of the prayer I am using the prayer passed on by St Matthew in his Gospel as it appears to be more complete, and it is the one all Christians use as the common version.

The prayer starts with a brief introduction that sets the stage for what we are about to do and say:

Our Father who art in Heaven.

This is followed by seven (7) requests, three of which are directed towards God:

That His name be made holy

That His Kingdom come

That His Will be done.

Then the next four requests we boldly (as we say in the intro in the mass “dare to say”) we almost demand of God the following:

Give our daily Bread.

Forgive us AS we forgive (more on that AS later.)

Not tempt us

Save us from Evil.

Finally in some version there is a doxology … which I will not address in this talk other than to say it is a very well documented historical addition to the prayer from its earliest use even by the apostles.

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OK… lets get into the meat of the prayer.

The Introduction:

We should know we are in trouble from the very first word: OUR. The apostles wanted to pray each one thinking they could have this communion with God and suddenly they are cast right away into a relationship with the entire human race. No one is excluded. Of course it is more immediate to the community of prayer and the Church and all Christians.

Following this disorientation that prayer is not a one on one spiritual experience of mystics alone we are confronted with an entirely new concept: The God of the Jews is FATHER. Not I AM, not Yahweh, not El-Shaddai, Not Elohim, not Adonai, not Jehovah, not Lord, not even Creator. But Father, our ABBA. The one only Christ Jesus can call My Father as he did in the Garden calling out ABBA! By his actions he has made us sons and daughters, adopted fully into God through himself.

Romans 8:15 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba![a] Father!”

Who art in Heaven:

I am reminded of how stupid people are when I think of this passage. When the Russians first sent a man into space they claimed the went up to heaven but found out there was no God there… imagine. Then to compound the stupidity we had some Bible thumpers saying it was because God is in the 7th heaven and the Russians only go to the first heaven… WOW…

So let’s be clear, Heaven is not a place according to our understanding of the physical universe as it is used in this sentence. It is by definition the place where God makes his home. We have images of temples, paradise, a spiritual place, even a state of being such as some mystics might see. It is not accessible to us in our physical or even spiritual nature without God acting for us. We recognize it in hope as our final destiny through Christ. Therefore, it can be a reality even in our hearts today in as much as the Holy Spirit dwells within us.

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The Three Petitions to God:

Hallowed be thy name.

The name we hallow is the name Christ made known:

John 17:25-26 25 “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

Now we have to ask ourselves how can we make God’s name holy or sanctified? God is complete in Himself what can we add to his holiness; and yet it is his command that we do sanctify his name:

Leviticus 22:31-33 31 Thus you shall keep my commandments and observe them: I am the LORD. 32 You shall not profane my holy name, that I may be sanctified among the people of Israel: I am the LORD; I sanctify you, 33 I who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the LORD.

Jesus in keeping with the command of God is telling us in this prayer we must make His name holy in us. We have work to do so we can pray with Christ as he was entering his passion:

John 12:27-30“…what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”

The fact is when we pray this way we are committing ourselves to make God’s name known through our own holiness, the name Father given to us in every sense through Jesus Christ His Son.

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Thy Kingdom Come.

Once again we have a word that has so many meanings and interpretations… what is the Kingdom, is it the same as heaven, or paradise, is it a time, is it a place, or a state of being?

John the Baptist proclaimed as recorded in the Gospel:

Matthew 3:1-2 “3 In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”[a] “

What has come near is that Jesus the Messiah is among the Jews, still hidden, known only to a few such as John, Mary, Joseph, and perhaps a few others. John is telling them… keep your eyes open… it’s here… it’s coming…

Jesus himself started his ministry by proclaiming:

Matthew 4:17 17 From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”[a]

What he is saying is look, it’s happening right before your eyes … the kingdom is coming to you!

In his final hour Jesus continued to proclaim the kingdom to the good thief:

Luke 23:39-43 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into[c] your kingdom.” 43 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

The kingdom is inextricably associated with Jesus. The kingdom is where there is no sin and death, it is the resurrection… as such it is Jesus himself! It is a kingdom for all people, not just the Jews; we are lucky because we include ourselves through the faith God has given us, but no one is excluded.

Cardinal Lustiger says:

“Thy kingdom come” is a request which disconcerts us owing to the fact that the request itself can be made only because the reign of God is already here. It fulfills the promise of the ‘kingdom not yet here’, since the kingdom comes at the very moment when the spirit of Jesus puts words on our lips and unites us with Christ, who is himself, in his person the kingdom of God.”

I imagine it like a field already planted and sprouting the process is in place, the harvest is coming, it is near, it is visible and it is here. Because we say so we are acting in bringing about the very thing we are praying for.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states in item 2816 quotes Saint Cyprian as saying:

“It may even be .  .  . that the Kingdom of God means Christ himself, whom we daily desire to come, and whose coming we wish to be manifested quickly to us. For as he is our resurrection, since in him we rise, so he can also be understood as the Kingdom of God, for in him we shall reign.”

In other words: Come Lord Jesus. Come to me, reside in me.

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Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven:

I see this as part of the couplet with Thy kingdom come, but now the meaning is unavoidable… we are putting ourselves right there saying we are willing to complete God’s will. We can also see Jesus completely fulfilling this prayer in the garden when he prays:

Luke 22:42 42 “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.”

And we know what happened, he completed the will of God at great expense, in fact no greater expense was possible, and we are the reward. To do the will of God requires obedience, acceptance, sometimes trial, but also an understanding that our actions in conformity to the will of the Father will produce unimaginable fruit.

Consider the similar prayer of Mary, the suffering she endured and the salvation she brought about when she said that fateful YES to God:

Luke 1:38 “38 Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.”

We are not only asking that we participate in this will but that the whole world , all of humanity, that is: all the earth, participate. It is an entirely inclusive request even I would say it is a request for the removal of original sin and the death and destruction this brought into the world.

JM Lustiger gives us the proper inclination and I quote:

“…in other words accomplish in me and in all your children... (such that) we are participating in the creative act of God because we are embracing his redemptive plan for the world.”

It is a completely new thing since we are stating that all creation which already has the hallmarks of God’s will be renewed as God intended. Then we can look to the heavens and sing: How great thou art, how great thou art … thy power throughout the universe displayed.

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The final four requests:

JM Lustiger says of this part of the prayer:

‘In the second part of the prayer, the perspective seems to be reversed: it focuses on us. Note that the personal pronoun is used 6 times: ”Give US this day… forgive US our trespasses, as WE forgive those who trespass against US… lead US not … but deliver US from evil”.’

Many people coming before God would grovel. But given we have just confirmed our relationship as obedient and active children we turn with confidence and ask God to fulfill our needs.

The first thing we ask is:

Give us this day our daily bread.

There are some obvious meanings to the word bread which cannot be overlooked. We are dependent on God’s good graces and his creation for our sustenance, the air, the food water and all our physical needs.

But bread has such strong connotations in this prayer, we think about the daily manna, we think about Christ tempted to turn stones into bread: Christ quotes Deutoronomy 8:3 and says:

Matthew 4:4

4 But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone,       but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

We can think about his statement to the apostles when he was with the woman at the well and said:

John 4: 31-3431  “Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work”

We can think of Jesus feeding the 4,000 with bread or his other miracles of multiplication of bread and fish.

Finally the most sublime meaning is revealed when Christ says he is the bread come down from heaven and institutes the Eucharist instructing us to eat his body under the impression of Bread:

John 6:51

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

Matthew 26:26

While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat;  this  is my body.”

This bread in whichever form we understand it is meant to be shared … even when we pray alone we do not say give ME, but give US, in this way we are committed to sharing this bread with others.

Since this is a daily request it conforms completely with the other teachings of Christ where he tells us not to worry about tomorrow, not to be anxious about food and clothing but to depend on God who counts even the hairs of our head.

Consider if you were going in a return trip across Canada by car, who would be so foolish as to try and bring enough gas for the whole trip. We bring enough to get us on our way and enough to ensure we are safe until the next station. God does not want us piling up riches in barns out of selfishness. He wants us free to travel, knowing full well he will be there every day:

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states in section 2837:

Taken literally daily means (epi-ousios: "super-essential"), it refers directly to the Bread of Life, the Body of Christ, the "medicine of immortality," without which we have no life within us.130 Finally in this connection, its heavenly meaning is evident: "this day" is the Day of the Lord, the day of the feast of the kingdom, anticipated in the Eucharist that is already the foretaste of the kingdom to come. For this reason it is fitting for the Eucharistic liturgy to be celebrated each day.

The Eucharist is our daily bread. The power belonging to this divine food makes it a bond of union. Its effect is then understood as unity, so that, gathered into his Body and made members of him, we may become what we receive. .  .  . This also is our daily bread: the readings you hear each day in church and the hymns you hear and sing. All these are necessities for our pilgrimage.131 (st Augustine)

The Father in heaven urges us, as children of heaven, to ask for the bread of heaven. [Christ] himself is the bread who, sown in the Virgin, raised up in the flesh, kneaded in the Passion, baked in the oven of the tomb, reserved in

churches, brought to altars, furnishes the faithful each day with food from heaven.132 (St Peter Chrysologus)

Like our car ride when we ask for daily bread we are anticipating already tomorrow and each day, but taking one day at a time with all its sorrows and joys. Daily mass is our sustenance, we share our food, we perform our work and we share the word of God with others.

Our dependence on God does not absolve us from our spiritual feeding does not absolve us from our share in the work. In 2834 of the CCC it quotes St Ignatius who said “Pray as if everything depended on God and work as if everything depended on you”. Note that the manna stopped on the day after the first harvest in Canaan:

Joshua 5:12

The manna ceased on the day they ate the produce of the land, and the Israelites no longer had manna; they ate the crops of the land of Canaan that year.

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Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Oh, oh… we have a problem, we are accepting a condition on our request, and a biggy!

In our hearts we are probably thinking: “God forgive me my peccadilloes which I know you can overlook so easily because I have a weakness for this and that thanks to the way you made me, and I will do my best to overlook (maybe even forgive) the monstrosities committed against me by my neighbor.”

But look what Jesus said:

Matthew 6:14-15 14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you;  15 but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Matthew 18:32-35 32 Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.  33 Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’  34 And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt.  35 So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

OUCH!! When we pray the Our Father are we ready for that? Probably not. It is only Christ who can truly forgive completely, he prayed this ultimate prayer:

Luke 23:33-34 33 When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus[a]  there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.  [[34 Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”]][b] And they cast lots to divide his clothing.

We have the example of the apostles, such as St Stephen prayed as he was being stoned to death:

Acts 7:60 60 Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he died.[a]

We have the example of the Canadian martyrs some of whom even after being tortured to near death and maimed beyond belief returned to the Iroquois with love and forgiveness only to be killed. That is praying this prayer. Can we do the same to a boss who mistreats us, a spouse who fails to make supper, or take out the garbage, to a neighbor who does not pick up his leaves, to those who ridicule our big ears, to those who call us names, to those who mock us, hurt us revile us? Can we in fact love our enemies as we promise here in this prayer meant to be recited three times a day? Lord help us!

The Lord also said: revenge is mine. We cannot build any kind of community harboring resentments and plotting revenge. We can see all throughout the world today how blood feuds between families become wars between nations. Heaven forbid we would allow these behaviors to permeate our marriage, our families, our friendships, our communities, our cities or our nation.

When Chesterton was asked what was wrong with the world he had a one word answer: “Me”. If we don’t forgive where will forgiveness come from.

All that being said we have fait that God will recognize our heartfelt prayer to be forgiven for sins against him, ourselves and our neighbor. He knows we are weak, and will sanctify every effort on our part to have a change of heart.

The CCC puts this in perspective in section 2839:

 Now, in this new petition, we return to him like the prodigal son and, like the tax collector, recognize that we are sinners before him.133 Our petition begins with a "confession" of our wretchedness and his mercy. Our hope is firm because, in his Son, "we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."134 We find the efficacious and undoubted sign of his forgiveness in the sacraments of his Church.135

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Lead us not into temptation.

This is a very troubling statement and it seems that regardless of the translation it is hard not to interpret it on the surface as meaning that God could lead us into temptation which could result in evil.

But that simply cannot be the case as the apostle James says in his letter:

The CCC has this to say:

This petition goes to the root of the preceding one, for our sins result from our consenting to temptation; we therefore ask our Father not to "lead" us into temptation. It is difficult to translate the Greek verb used by a single English word: the Greek means both "do not allow us to enter into temptation" and "do not let us yield to temptation." "God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one"; on the contrary, he wants to set us free from evil. We ask him not to allow us to take the way that leads to sin. We are engaged in the battle "between flesh and spirit"; this petition implores the Spirit of discernment and strength.

The apostle James says this in his letter:

James 1:13-1413 No one, when tempted, should say, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one. 14 But one is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it;

What is this temptation?

JM Lustiger says this of temptation in moral life:

It is “… moral choices with a person hesitating between the path of sin and of virtue. And yet good and evil cannot have a comparable attraction. Man can be tempted by evil only when it appears to promise a certain good.”

Therefore in this sense we need discernment to avoid the wiles of the Father of Lies who misleads us with false “goods”.

In the spiritual sense our faithfulness to God is a test, a choice between love of self and love of God, to the creation of false idols made for our own purposes replacing the true God. Christ in the garden vanquished Stan refusing even his own life in favour of his love for doing God’s will.

But unlike Christ we are often ignorant of both the sources and effects of temptation. We cannot recognize which ones come from ourselves and our more “animalistic” nature and which ones come from Satan. When an effort of the will is sufficient (for example refraining from overeating, and when prayer is required to refrain from disowning God in favour of some false promise.

The interpretation can sometimes be taken as “ don’t test us beyond our means”. Every human father tests his children. The value of a test is that it confirms the growth and demands strength. Fathers known for throwing their children in the water with a sink or swim demand. However no father lets a child fail when the effort is insufficient. Christ himself was tested by the devil and by many of the Jewish leaders and Roman leaders, by disbelieving people and it appears even by members of his extended family.

In preparation for the test in the desert he fasted and prayed for 40 days, and overcame Satan. In the garden he told the disciples to stay awake and pray so they would pass the test. He prayed, they slept and were unprepared for the trial that befell them.

We know that God is faithful even when we fail and succumb to temptation. Knowing that Peter would fail, that he would deny the Christ, Jesus says to him:

In Luke 22-31-32:

31 “Simon, Simon, listen! Satan has demanded[a] to sift all of you like wheat, 32 but I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

So we know that God will not fail to save us from these temptations, even though while trying to meet his exacting will we fail. We can be sure of this because as St Paul says in the 1st letter to the Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 10:13 13 No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.

God wants to give us the Kingdom.

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Deliver us from Evil.

The way this is written in Latin, French and English at least evil is written in lower case. And yet the CCC in section 2851 says the following:

In this petition, evil is not an abstraction, but refers to a person, Satan, the Evil One, the angel who opposes God. The devil (dia-bolos) is the one who "throws himself across" God's plan and his work of salvation accomplished in Christ.

In section 2854 there is the clarification that it encompasses all evils:

When we ask to be delivered from the Evil One, we pray as well to be freed from all evils, present, past, and future, of which he is the author or instigator. In this final petition, the Church brings before the Father all the distress of the world. Along with deliverance from the evils that overwhelm humanity, she implores the precious gift of peace and the grace of perseverance in expectation of Christ's return By praying in this way, she anticipates in humility of faith the gathering together of everyone and everything in him who has "the keys of Death and Hades," who "is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."

As is clear this prayer is also accomplished in Christ who has defeated Satan, who has provided the Church and her guidance, who has provided the Bible, priests, friends, prophets and saints to help us along our way. If we are tested and tempted we have the sacraments to strengthen us to feed us, to forgive us, to strengthen us and finally to send us on our way to heaven. Implicit therefore in this prayer is a cry to save us from Hell. A prayer added to the Rosary at Fatima expresses this most succinctly:

Oh My Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those in most need of Thy mercy.

There is no presumption in the Our Father, but there is a desire for God’s mercy expressed in prayer that God will surely not ignore.

Amen… it is so.

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Conclusion

The “Our Father” or the “Lord’s Prayer” is truly surprising in its simplicity, its depth, its power, its universality.

It is accomplished in the life of Christ, and calls us to be Christ like.

We are to pray like Christ, in every sense from liturgical to meditative.

We pray through Christ, who alone is worthy to call God Father.

We pray the mission of Christ, and for our part in it.

We pray with the power of Christ demanding from God those most pressing needs.

We pray the victory of Christ as the kingdom of God, the mercy of God and defeater of death and Satan.

We pray to be workers with Christ in the vineyard, accomplishing God’s will, forgiving as he forgives, sharing as he shares.

God will surely forgive us and save us.

Now let us join hands and together say the “Our Father”

Thank you.