Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished,
one of his disciples said to him,
Jesus himself lived a life marked by prayer. Even though he was busy with the work of the Kingdom he still found time in the earlier morning and the late evening to spend time with his Father in heaven. He did not pray the less because he himself was perfectly one with the Father in the Spirit, but if anything, more. He was both truly human and truly divine so we see in him the perfect fulfillment of what a human life of prayer can be. He prayed alone and in secret. Even so, his disciple were sensed there was something special about his prayer life.
“Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.”
The disciples knew that John had taught his own disciples a specific way of prayer. They correctly intuited that Jesus would have something to teach them as well. They sensed how important prayer was to Jesus, how it seemed as though his whole life revolved, not around his activity in the world, but his time in prayer.
He said to them, “When you pray, say:
Jesus gave them his own words to speak to his Father, who became their own Father insofar as they were united to him.
Father, hallowed be your name
The Our Father does contains words, and it is a technique of prayer, but it is more than this. It is a blueprint for prayer generally and therefore for our entire relationship with God. We begin, not with us, not with who we are, nor with what we need, but rather with our source and origin, the Father. We do this before we bring any intentions before him. To pray well, we must have a sense of to whom we pray, of the holiness of the presence of the one to whom we go. It is on the basis of the holiness and goodness of God that we then have the boldness to ask for anything.
We might think that our prayers should first attend to the imperfections of the world and of our own hearts so that we can at length come into the presence of God. But the priority in the Our Father is the opposite. It begins with who God is, expands out to concern to his Kingdom and his will, and only then for our individual needs. This is not meant to sleight us. It is rather that our daily bread and our own lives our sanctity are meant to be ordered toward God and to his Kingdom. In this way the one necessary thing can give shape to its manifold manifestations in the lives of different individuals with different needs and different gifts.
your Kingdom come.
Most of us are more preoccupied with our daily bread than God's name or his will. Yet Jesus desired the Kingdom more than bread, and it was for that reason that the Devil could not tempt him with bread in the desert. While this should be our priority as well Jesus is nevertheless concerned that we have enough for the day. We would prefer to stockpile for the future, but we are called to walk with him one day at a time. His superabundant gift of the bread of the Eucharist is proof that he will never leave us wanting for what we truly need. If he gives us himself each day, as a surely and marvelously does, what would he possibly withhold from us that would be for our good?
and forgive us our sins
for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,
We are called not only to receive the mercy and forgiveness of Jesus, but to let it spill over into mercy for others. If we harden our hearts to others we also at the same time close our own hearts to the mercy on which we depend. It is very human to be like Jonah and to wish the destruction of our enemies. Rather than celebrating who God is, instead we complain:
I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God,
slow to anger, rich in clemency, loath to punish.
If this reality of the truth of God was our starting place, if we hallowed his name first, if we desired his Kingdom first, and relied on him for our needs, we would find ourselves with the supernatural anchor needed to forgive even when we ourselves suffered, perhaps greatly. When we live a story that is mostly all about us forgiveness doesn't make sense. That is why Jesus calls us to begin our story with the reality of who we are in him.
and do not subject us to the final test.
Without grace none of us could live the Christian life. This final petition is a reminder that everything we have, the whole Christian life, is a gratuitous gift. We cannot take any credit, nor compare ourselves to others who seem to lack this grace as though we have something in ourselves about which we can boast. That God will keep us from the tests we cannot pass is a reminder that the tests we do encounter are allowed, with our weakness in mind, in keeping with the divine plan for our lives, and ordered toward our perfection. These tests are opportunities to use the grace we have been given to choose to put God and his Kingdom first, to rely on him, and to receive and share his own mercy wherever we can.
For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving,
abounding in kindness to all who call upon you.
Hearken, O LORD, to my prayer
and attend to the sound of my pleading.
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