Today's gospel passage contains the "perfect prayer" that a human being can make to God: perfect, because it was given by Jesus himself; perfect, because of its content; perfect because of its oftentimes unremembered emphasis.
It is interesting to note that this version of the Lord's Prayer, found in Matthew, is the only place in the New American Bible: the scriptural translation used at Mass, that the outdated and mostly culture-based usage of the words "art" "hallowed" "thy" is employed. This rendition was purposely maintained when the Lectionary was reconstructed in 2002 because this one prayer, the Lord's own Prayer, is the one sure thing that all of the Christian denominations can agree upon as a priceless treasure. Therefore as a valid and licit compromise we use it – as is – to promote unity among us all: the unity and peace which are so lacking, and so needed more now than ever in history.
Each and every word of the prayer was carefully chosen by Jesus: "do not rattle on like pagans," just call God your "Father, because he truly is your Father as well as he is mine," call his name "holy" because he is holiness itself, pray that his "kingdom" will come as he has planned it, pray that his "will" will be done on earth as in heaven, especially as you each cooperate in making it happen. In bringing this about you are to ask for "daily bread" – the nourishment not only of physical needs, but also spiritual as well, and especially the daily bread of Eucharist – the Holy Bread of Friendship; you are also to "forgive others" who sin against you, even as you ask to be forgiven for what you do to others and God; you are to ask that "temptations" to deviate from God's will be not too strong for you; and you are to pray to ever be "delivered from" the plots and ploys of the "evil" one.
But then Matthew gives the often times unremembered emphasis to the whole prayer, in the subsequent paragraph: if you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you yours, but if you don't, then, he won't either! So long as we all are destined to live with each other in some kind of community on our pilgrimage to heaven – then we must regard one another with compassion, mercy and forgiveness no matter how many obnoxious, unruly, or ignorant fellow pilgrims we run up against in our daily lives. No one of us is perfect yet, no one of us ought to cast the first stone (Jesus said in another place).
And so we must forgive one another from the heart, while at the same time trying to effect a change for the good in situations that call for it: after all we are called to charitable fraternal correction as well. May we have the wisdom to know the difference between correction and condemnation.
And, of course, we pray for Christian Unity – so that the Lord's Prayer may eventually and simply cover all of his people under one umbrella of not only faith, but of organization and practice! There will be one flock, one shepherd; may it be sooner as a preparation for what it will be like later!
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