Reading
Matthew 6:7-15
7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,[a]
but deliver us from the evil one.[b]’
14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Meditation
Before offering us a perfect model of prayer with the "Lord's Prayer" Jesus exhorts us to be thrifty in the words to be used. The relationship with God must be filial and therefore marked by simplicity of heart. The rant (gr. Battalogeo, chattering) can refer to the pagan habit of reciting a long list of divine names. In our prayer, we must be careful to understand what we say and to say only what springs from the depths of our hearts.
We will therefore avoid the repetition of formulas without paying attention, but this does not constitute a prohibition against insistent prayer, to which, for example, the parable of the importunate friend exhorts us (Lk 11:5-8). Jesus himself prays repeating the same words in the Gethsemane: "he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing." (Mt 26:44). Therefore, is not condemned the repetition of words, but the vain repetition. Prayer that lasts a long time is not condemned either. Jesus prays all night (Lk 6:2) and exhorts his disciples to pray always, without getting tired (Lk 18:1).
The Lord's Prayer includes all our real needs and all that is legitimate to ask. It was certainly part of the liturgy already at the time in which Matthew writes, but far from representing a simple formula, it is a model of brevity, simplicity, and completeness, which should inspire every other prayer. Of the six petitions, three are addressed to God, and three are about human needs. In fact, Jesus exhorts us to seek first of all the kingdom of God and his righteousness, because all other things will be given to us in addition (Mt 6:33).
The requests for human needs are all addressed in the plural, indicating that we must pray for one another, in a bond of communion.
The first words of the prayer reveal the intimate nature of God: He is the father, and we can call him Father because in Christ we have received the spirit of adoption as children. The Spirit himself intercedes in our prayer, with inexpressible groans (Rm 8:26), shouting "Abba, Father" (Gal 4:6).
The first act of prayer is an act of adoration: "hallowed be your name" (v. 9). All other requests must be subordinated to this and must have this as their sole purpose. Sanctifying (Gr. Hagiazo) the name of God can be understood as an act of respect and obedience. but it is also an invocation that God sanctify his own name, manifesting his power and his glory with the coming of his kingdom. In the supplication that follows (v. 10) it is asked that the kingdom, preached by Christ and his apostles, be fulfilled on earth, just as it is perfectly fulfilled in heaven.
"Thy will be done" expresses the need for every request to be submitted to the plans and glory of God. With this invocation we ask that in this world, made similar to hell by the will of the evil one, the will of God prevails, making it similar to Heaven.
Jesus invites us to ask the Father to give us daily bread (v. 11). Not that he sells it to us, or that he lends it to us, but that he gives it to us for his mercy. Our survival, material and spiritual, depends on the grace of God.
The Greek adjective epiousios is commonly translated as "daily", indicating the material nourishment essential for our sustenance. But the term could also be rendered with "future", assuming an eschatological connotation and coming to mean the bread of the day to come, the bread of the kingdom, much desired and now urgently awaited ("give us today"). With these words, we also ask for the bread that nourishes our spirit, the sacramental bread, and the grace of God, with which we receive Christ, the living bread which came down from heaven (Jn 6:51).
The request to forgive, literally "letting go", the debts (v. 12), or the sins contracted towards God, is related to forgiveness in the final judgment. We ask to be forgiven as we forgive our debtors, not behaving like the servant to whom much was forgiven by his master but who had no mercy on his fellow man (Mt 18:21-35).
Jesus urges us to ask not to be introduced into temptation (v. 13); this is the translated meaning of the Greek word eisphero, which means "to bring in". Taking into account what James says in his letter, where it is said that "God tempts no one to harm" (Jas 1:13) we arrive at the conclusion that he is not God the active agent of temptation, although Job's example demonstrates that he can test man by exposing him to the action of Satan. What is asked of the Father is to be preserved from temptations, which here can refer both to sins and to the more general tests of faith. In the dominant eschatological context of this passage, the meaning could also be that of asking God to spare the disciples from the trials and persecutions that precede the end of time.
The Greek term hò poneròs indicates evil, from which one asks to be freed; it is clearly masculine and indicates the evil one, through which sin and death entered the world.
By exhorting us to forgive in order to be forgiven (vv. 14-15), Jesus does not condition our justification to our works. The grace that has been granted to us by the blood of Christ and which finds expression in the sacramental sign of Baptism has purified us completely from sin, but here we are invited to ask God and grant our neighbor a remission of daily sins, such as a partial washing: "Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean" (Jn 13:10). With these words commenting on his prayer, Jesus attests that he came into the world not only to reconcile us with the Father but also to reconcile one another.
Prayer
O Lord Jesus Christ, teach us to pray; so that we can grow in holiness and wisdom in a continuous dialogue with our Father who is in Heaven. Amen.
- Rev. Dr. Luca Vona
