In today’s Gospel the disciples ask: Lord teach us how to pray. A simple request to which Jesus gives an amazing response! It surely amazed the disciples, to speak to God in such warm and familiar terms.
Think for a moment of reaching out to the Creator of the universe as the “perfect parent,” a loving Mommy or Daddy. It is both intimate and tender. Scholars have for years concluded that since Jesus and his disciples spoke Aramaic, and he had an intimate, indwelling, relationship with his Father, he would have used the common Aramaic word “Abba,” which is trans-lated into English as: “Daddy”. A profoundly intimate name for our Divine Creator.
He is calling his disciples, and us, into an intimate relationship with God. The intimacy of this prayer sets up a whole new world view. Taken seriously, it has the power to affect how we interact with each other, it can shape our stance towards the world, our stance towards life itself!
In place of a distant and impersonal deity, Jesus’ words call us into an intimate relationship with the Creator as a loving and caring parent! That would mean then we are the beloved children of this God!
So, then this prayer not only speaks to God’s identity as loving parent but in a very real way proclaims us to be the beloved children of our Abba God.
In this prayer we pronounce that the very name of God is holy, and then we cry out that “God’s way” should prevail both in heaven and on earth. So, as we pray for this to be a reality then we are also called to work for it to be so, by the way we live our lives…building up the Reign of God. And we do this by our daily actions, by who and what we stand up for and by what we denounce as unethical, immoral and evil. We shine a light on the evil atrocities happening in Gaza, in Ukraine, in the DRC and right here in our country!
As the prayer progresses, we next ask for the necessities of daily life…not for a super abundance, but for “our daily bread”. Just that which we need -- not for riches and excess! This request has much to do with how we live on this earth. For instance, it has everything to do with our carbon footprint, with how we care for our common home by how and what we consume and waste.
Not “my daily bread” but rather “our daily bread,” that which we need as a community. I believe that buried within these simple words is a call to see the interconnectedness of all humanity. There is a call to acknowledge that we are part of a much greater whole, and we are called, on a deeply spiritual level to take a stance towards that greater whole, and live and pray and work for the good and needs of our neighbor! That would include all the strangers who roam the face of the earth in search of a safe home.
That would include all of the immigrants and refugees, all those who are marginalized by political policies and social structures that exclude and deny the fullness of people’s human dignity, whether because of the color of their skin, their gender or who they love, or where they were born…excluding them from our praying for “their” daily bread is failing to pray as Jesus taught us to pray.
Asking only for “our daily bread” impacts the needs of others, especially the poor and the marginalized. If we truly seek “only what is necessary for our lives” then our excess can be shared with those in need.
I would argue that this reality is directly connected to the previous request that “God’s way should prevail both in heaven and on earth” because surely sharing our excess with the poor and the marginalized is building up the Reign of God, as Jesus taught us through his words and actions.
As the prayer moves along, we ask to be forgiven as we forgive others. This is a very dangerous ask because it seems to be asking to limit God’s forgiveness to the same extent we forgive. Do we really want God’s forgiveness to be modeled on and limited to the manner and extent of our personal forgiveness of others? I am not so sure that is the case.
But I think there is a challenge here for us: to look at how we forgive others. A call to more freely forgive our sisters and brothers; to let go of grudges and past hurts; walking in the light of Christ; seeking to be a healing presence; to “be the face of mercy” to others. Fortunately for us, God’s grace and forgiveness is limitless, always available, and just waiting for us to ask for it, and accept it, and allow it to transform us more and more into who it is that God dreams us to be!
And finally we ask our loving Abba God to guide us and guard us as we journey through our day. In the midst of all the “violent words” we hear spoken each day, let us speak these words of intimacy, tenderness and forgiveness. Let us open our hearts to these words and allow them to transform us and our world into a place of peace and healing…ever more fully into the Reign of God.
May God’s most abundant grace be upon you. Amen.
Fr. Tim
Think for a moment of reaching out to the Creator of the universe as the “perfect parent,” a loving Mommy or Daddy. It is both intimate and tender. Scholars have for years concluded that since Jesus and his disciples spoke Aramaic, and he had an intimate, indwelling, relationship with his Father, he would have used the common Aramaic word “Abba,” which is trans-lated into English as: “Daddy”. A profoundly intimate name for our Divine Creator.
He is calling his disciples, and us, into an intimate relationship with God. The intimacy of this prayer sets up a whole new world view. Taken seriously, it has the power to affect how we interact with each other, it can shape our stance towards the world, our stance towards life itself!
In place of a distant and impersonal deity, Jesus’ words call us into an intimate relationship with the Creator as a loving and caring parent! That would mean then we are the beloved children of this God!
So, then this prayer not only speaks to God’s identity as loving parent but in a very real way proclaims us to be the beloved children of our Abba God.
In this prayer we pronounce that the very name of God is holy, and then we cry out that “God’s way” should prevail both in heaven and on earth. So, as we pray for this to be a reality then we are also called to work for it to be so, by the way we live our lives…building up the Reign of God. And we do this by our daily actions, by who and what we stand up for and by what we denounce as unethical, immoral and evil. We shine a light on the evil atrocities happening in Gaza, in Ukraine, in the DRC and right here in our country!
As the prayer progresses, we next ask for the necessities of daily life…not for a super abundance, but for “our daily bread”. Just that which we need -- not for riches and excess! This request has much to do with how we live on this earth. For instance, it has everything to do with our carbon footprint, with how we care for our common home by how and what we consume and waste.
Not “my daily bread” but rather “our daily bread,” that which we need as a community. I believe that buried within these simple words is a call to see the interconnectedness of all humanity. There is a call to acknowledge that we are part of a much greater whole, and we are called, on a deeply spiritual level to take a stance towards that greater whole, and live and pray and work for the good and needs of our neighbor! That would include all the strangers who roam the face of the earth in search of a safe home.
That would include all of the immigrants and refugees, all those who are marginalized by political policies and social structures that exclude and deny the fullness of people’s human dignity, whether because of the color of their skin, their gender or who they love, or where they were born…excluding them from our praying for “their” daily bread is failing to pray as Jesus taught us to pray.
Asking only for “our daily bread” impacts the needs of others, especially the poor and the marginalized. If we truly seek “only what is necessary for our lives” then our excess can be shared with those in need.
I would argue that this reality is directly connected to the previous request that “God’s way should prevail both in heaven and on earth” because surely sharing our excess with the poor and the marginalized is building up the Reign of God, as Jesus taught us through his words and actions.
As the prayer moves along, we ask to be forgiven as we forgive others. This is a very dangerous ask because it seems to be asking to limit God’s forgiveness to the same extent we forgive. Do we really want God’s forgiveness to be modeled on and limited to the manner and extent of our personal forgiveness of others? I am not so sure that is the case.
But I think there is a challenge here for us: to look at how we forgive others. A call to more freely forgive our sisters and brothers; to let go of grudges and past hurts; walking in the light of Christ; seeking to be a healing presence; to “be the face of mercy” to others. Fortunately for us, God’s grace and forgiveness is limitless, always available, and just waiting for us to ask for it, and accept it, and allow it to transform us more and more into who it is that God dreams us to be!
And finally we ask our loving Abba God to guide us and guard us as we journey through our day. In the midst of all the “violent words” we hear spoken each day, let us speak these words of intimacy, tenderness and forgiveness. Let us open our hearts to these words and allow them to transform us and our world into a place of peace and healing…ever more fully into the Reign of God.
May God’s most abundant grace be upon you. Amen.
Fr. Tim
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