28 February 2023 – Matthew 6:7-15
In today’s Gospel page, Jesus teaches us how to pray. It is not necessary to use many words to pray to God as if by doing so we could somehow convince Him of our way of thinking. God knows our needs before we manifest them. Why then do we need to pray? Prayer is essentially for ourselves, to become aware of our needs, our
fundamental helplessness and our total dependence on God.
With the OUR FATHER Jesus tells us the things we need to pray for in order to feel more united with the Father and do his will. It is a very challenging and, in a way, also a very daring prayer to call God the Father, as Jesus uses to do, and to enter into intimacy with him. This also means getting in tune with all our brothers and sisters to invoke the bread of each day. Saying “Our Father” thus reveals the new relationship with God that must characterise community life (Rom 8:15). The adjective ‘our’, in fact, emphasises the awareness that we all belong to the great human family of all races and religions. Meditating on this prayer, we can observe in its first part A VERTICAL DYNAMIC: the Name, the Kingdom, the Will. Through these terms we ask that our relationship with God be re-established. Sanctify the Name: by this NAME God made Himself known (Ex 3:11-15) and this name is sanctified when it is used with faith and not with magic; when it is used according to its true purpose, that is, not for oppression, but for the freedom of people and the building of the Kingdom. This Kingdom will come when the will of God who is expressed in his Law is fully done.
In its second part we can observe A HORIZONTAL DYNAMICS:
of society to ensure that all God’s children have equal dignity.
Bread, Forgiveness, Victory, Freedom. Through these terms, we call for a restoration of the relationship between people. The four requests show how we need to transform community structures and The bread of every day: in the Exodus, every day, the people received manna in the desert (Ex 16:35); now Jesus invites us to make a new Exodus, a new way of fraternal coexistence that guarantees bread for all (Jn 6:48-51). Forgiveness of debts: every 50 years, the Jubilee Year required forgiveness of debts; Jesus announces a new Jubilee Year, a year of grace from the Lord (Lk 4:19). Do not give in to temptation: in the Exodus, the people were tempted and fell (Dt 9:6-12); in the new Exodus, temptation will be overcome by the strength one receives from God (1 Cor 10:12-13). Deliverance from Evil: Evil is Satan, who turns away from God and is a source of scandal; Jesus tells us: “Courage, I have overcome the world!” (Jn 16:33).
Pope Francis: But it is so difficult to forgive others; it is difficult indeed, because we always carry within us a grudge for what they have done to us, for the wrong suffered. One cannot pray while keeping resentment for one’s enemies in one’s heart. Yes it is difficult, it is not easy, but Jesus has promised us the Holy Spirit. It is he who teaches us from within, from the heart, how to say ‘Father’ and how to say ‘ours’, and to say it by making peace with all our enemies.
For good workers…
Finally, we learn from these verses that only one thing counts: to do the Father’s will, and to understand it we need to question it, to talk to the Lord, to beg him to teach us how to live as sons. After all, that is the Father’s will: to learn to live as sons.
P JOBY KAVUNGAL RCJ