https://youtu.be/lMCtF_SGdCY
+ The gospel passage today presents to us “the PERFECT prayer.” When asked to teach them to pray as John’s
disciples were taught, Jesus immediately responds as though he had been just
waiting for them to ask this question:
When you pray say: OUR Father, who is in heaven, holy is your
name, your kingdom come, your will be done (on earth and it is in heaven). This
first half not only tells us who to pray to in all things: THE FATHER, but it
also tells us that he is in a heavenly kingdom and that in this kingdom His
Will reigns supreme – even as it exists already in seed form on the earth now –
because it is ENTIRELY DIRECTED TO OUR GOOD, OUR WELL-BEING and OUR ETERNAL
HAPPINESS with him in this glorious kingdom.
The key phrase in this first
half is: THY WILL BE DONE – for when you think about it, there really is no
other will: he gives us “free” will in order to freely choose his amazing will
for us: then he gives us hints constantly on how to go about choosing the
beautiful, the good and the truthful – so that we can end up in the kingdom.
Yes, life is just one big “testing ground” – we are all “in a race – slow or
fast – to cross the finish line: we are gifted by the Designer of our Trials –
to make it across the line – its not that difficult actually – its just spending
as many moments strung together as we can where our focus is on HIM rather than
US – its means living in heaven HERE and NOW! Then we can’t possibly go off the
track!
The second half of the prayer
speaks about protection from the Evil One who certainly does exist and is doing
all in his power to detour us to another whole “kingdom” – a hellacious kingdom
– where God is not there – and the only company we will ever have is ourselves
in a diabolical loop of acting out over and over again our deepest, darkest,
dirtiest self-gratifying pleasures: this is no escape – there is no hope!
So we need protection but we
also need to know that the key to assuring our own salvation – is FORGIVENESS –
to realize we are not perfect and GOD KNOWS WHAT WE NEED – we don’t! so we need
to forgive our own self for our sinfulness; but we also need to forgive others
their sins against us – all of them – they are not perfect either – and we
leave it up to God to bring about justice – his way, his time – sometimes that
means here in this lifetime, or it can mean later when it counts even more.
Don’t worry, God will give just desserts to whomever has them coming.
The first line of the second
part of this prayer however is the sublime act of faith, and trust and hope,
that we can ever make: it is a quintessential act of surrender to God who IS
our Father: “feed me, Dad” – is what we are saying: GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY
BREAD, DAD: give us exactly what we need and not ever what we simply want to
amuse ourselves – not that we can’t have a comfortable kind of life – but
nothing extravagant. And he will do it! This goes with the phrase in the 23rd
Psalm – “the Lord is my Shepherd, there is NOTHING I SHALL WANT!” What could I
possibly want if God will surely provide all I need?
But, we have to ASK – Sure he
knows what we need – but he did give us free will – so we must simply ASK FOR
HIS WILL TO BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN – THIS IS THE MAIN INGREDIENT
OF OUR DAILY BREAD!
Yes, this prayer has got
everything we need to steer us in the right direction any time of the day or
night! Let’s use it often!
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