"Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples."
There is no one who can teach us to pray like Jesus does. He tells us to call God Father because he himself is the Son. He allows us to enter into his own relationship through the prayer he gives us. This changes how we should understand every line of the Our Father. They are lines which Jesus himself first lives and embodies out of love for the Father. They represent him thriving and flourishing in a perfectly fulfilling relationship. We, made in the image and likeness of God, are invited to participate in that relationship.
Father, hallowed be your name,
your Kingdom come.
It is not the submission of a slave so much as the complete dependence of a child.
Give us each day our daily bread
We learn to receive what we need and to trust in God that it is enough without needing to fill our barns to overflowing.
and forgive us our sins
for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us
Jesus himself enters into our sinful condition to free us. He is able to forgive even those who crucify him. Showing mercy, he deserves mercy enough for the whole world.
and do not subject us to the final test.
The Father and Jesus want all to be saved and come to knowledge of the truth. They do not delight in the death of sinners. Jesus comes into the world to save and not to condemn. This is the heart of the one who came to seek and save the lost of the Father who gave his only Son to save us.
Our relationship with the Father can gradually transform our lives. It can deliver us from fear. We even see that Peter needed to grow in this deliverance. He chose to please men rather than God when he drew back and stopped eating with the Gentiles. Paul on the other hand was willing to criticize the actions of even the first pope because he cared more about pleasing God than men.
I said to Cephas in front of all,
"If you, though a Jew,
are living like a Gentile and not like a Jew,
how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?"
This is the Spirit we need in the Church today. We need to care what God thinks more than man. But the only way we can truly internalize this is by experiencing God as Father. The prayer Jesus teaches us holds the key.
For steadfast is his kindness toward us,
and the fidelity of the LORD endures forever.
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