What a marvelous event we see in today’s Gospel. We continue listening to the Sermon on the Mount. There are many beautiful and deep prayers in the Old Testament: SHEMA Israel (Deut 6:4-9), the Ten Commandments, MAH TOUV (prayer of Baalam – Numbers 24:5), the Passover seder prayers, and all sorts of Berakhah thanksgiving prayers. Jesus knew all these prayers and I am sure he prayed them with his disciples. The OUR FATHER is the one prayer that Jesus taught his disciples. It is a new, original prayer that springs from his relationship with God the Father and the Holy Spirit. It is central in the life of the Christian family and community. It ties our life with God to our life with others. All the pronouns are plural: our, us, and we. Other people’s lives with God and conversion before God are tied to ours.
forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us
It does not say: forgive me, as I forgive. Most of us tend to pray and live out our relationship with God with the understanding of “forgive me, as I forgive”. But in the OUR FATHER, somehow, we are responsible for the other’s capacity to forgive and their capacity to live in communion with God and others. This is a remedy for our tendency towards hypocrisy and our tendency to judge others, condemn, gossip, and just generally feel that we are saved while others are condemned. It does not say: My Father. Suddenly we all have the same loving, forgiving Father and we are all brothers and sisters of the same family. That family includes our enemies and all those we think are justifiably condemned.
One of the core points in the Sermon on the Mount is how Jesus calls us to action, to conversion, and to a real change in our daily lives. The Our Father and all Jesus’ comments about prayer show how his relationship with God the Father produced a deep confidence in God’s presence.
How can our neighbors and enemies see God’s forgiveness and learn about God as Father? The answer is through us: the local Christian community. Living and witnessing to the OUR FATHER is our mission as individual Christians, Catholic families, and parish community.
Image: https://www.emethatorah.com/blog/wearing-mask-hypocrisy