Understanding the 'Our Father' - Dr. Scott Hahn - Deep in History

[Music] it's a joy to share with you especially in this particular time slot because we come to the close of a series of presentations but not to the end of the day we really come to the threshold of a holy encounter that we are intended to share together and prepare ourselves for and that is Eucharistic Adoration and so I deliberately chose for my topic prayer in the Eucharist as preparation for adoring Jesus in the Blessed Most Blessed Sacrament and I thought the easiest way to go about it would be just to take the the prayer that we are most familiar with the our Father the Lord's Prayer and to look at it carefully to examine it in each one of the seven petitions and show how Jesus gave us the most perfect of prayers and why it's always prayed by the Catholic Church after the consecration and right before communion but always there at the climax of the mass before I go any further though I would like to begin our time together in a word of Prayer in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Almighty God you are the creator of the universe and the governor of galaxies and solar systems you amaze us with wisdom that is beyond all telling with power beyond anything that we have experienced and yet you have stooped down to us to reveal the face of our own Father in heaven and we thank you for the gift of Jesus Christ for it is through Christ your eternal son and by the spirit of his sonship that we have come to know and believe and experience what it means to be more than just your creatures more than your servants or your employees to be your sons and daughters beloved children and so in the name of Jesus we pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit to rain down upon us again to illuminate our minds with the light of truth to and Kindle our fires to in Kindle our hearts with the fire of your love to help us and to hear us as we pray our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil amen in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen all right this prayer has been called many things the our Father the Paternoster the Lord's Prayer the model prayer it is certainly the most famous of all prayers and it was delivered in the most famous of all sermons the first sermon that Matthew records of our Lord we call it the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew five six and seven if you ever take some time and look carefully at this first public sermon of our Lord's public ministry you see how it is that the Our Father comes at the center it is the heart it is the centerpiece of this sermon if you back up and read the first four chapters of Matthew that lead us to the sermon amount you'll notice that God is referred to as the Lord and the savior but only when you get to the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew five six and seven do you actually hear Jesus referring to God as father our Father your father in fact in this first of his public sermons he addresses God as father he calls upon God his father he teaches us to recognize God as father he uses the word 17 times in just three chapters which is more than you will find God referred to as father in the entire Hebrew Bible and that's just his first sermon this is something that we often take for granted people have told me oh you know we pray that prayer too much I don't think we do I think we ponder it too little and this prayer that Jesus gave at the heart of the Sermon on the Mount Luke shows us that he actually gave it in response to a request that came from the disciples Luke tells us in fact that it was Jesus praying all night long in this private vigil when the disciples came to him in the morning they realized that he had been up all night praying and so did they ask teach us to pray teach us to pray me John the Baptist taught his disciples the Pharisees teach their disciples teach us to pray and in response to that what does Jesus say pray like this now you might be tempted to assume that Jesus is just sort of like improvising I mean there on the spur of the moment he's he's just pulled an all-nighter and they're asking him to teach them to pray you know well okay as best as I can you know here's an ad-hoc prayer but no I want to propose to you that this prayer is not something that Jesus just came up with by improvising there on the spur of the moment in fact the very request of the disciples asking Jesus to teach us to pray I suspect that that request was itself the answer that God gave to Jesus all night of Prayer because we'll never be true disciples of Christ until we become like Christ we'll never be like Jesus until we learn how to pray like Jesus did so the very desire to pray is itself a result of Christ's prayer and in this case Jesus gave them truly what is the most perfect of prayers why do we call it that the Catechism in paragraph 27 63 states the following the Lord's Prayer is the most perfect of prayers for in it we ask not only for all the things that we can rightly desire but also in the sequence that they should be desired this prayer teaches us not only to ask for things but also in what order we should desire them so we all know that the Lord's Prayer is divided into seven petitions and I suspect that seven is more than just an accident here you know seven we know to be a sacred number it's not a lucky number it is a sacred and a symbolic number but what does it symbolize well Jews understood because in the Hebrew language the verb to swear a covenant literally was Shiva and if you look it up in a lexicon bah in Hebrew means to swear a covenant or to seven oneself it's built upon the noun the number seven only you transform it into a verb and so to swear a covenant is much more than a contract because when you make a covenant with a stranger you've just sealed the bonds of sacred kinship you now refer to that covenant partner as brother like when Abraham and Abimelech swore a covenant in order to avert conflict you refer to another person that you've just entered into a covenant with a spouse but I mean covenant is a sacred kinship bond that is based upon the deep meaning of this sacred number seven so the seven petitions how are they arranged they're divided into two parts the first three we might describe as God word why because we're praying for thy name to be hallowed for thy kingdom to come and for thy will to be done thy name thy kingdom thy will and then the last for the second half this is where we speak about us give us forgive us lead us and deliver us notice the sequence it's sort of like backwards because how do we typically pray when we find ourselves in trouble and how do we start by kind of crying out with our weakness you know why help me but this prayer kind of tells us you know to avoid that sort of pattern why because the human tail should wag the divine dog when we focus on the greatness of God our Father that puts all of our problems in perspective when we focus upon the strength of God we're going to recognize that our weaknesses are no match for his strength that he is capable of doing what a father does for his children and so this petition that we're gonna look at first hallowed be thy name comes after a prologue so let's just begin with the language of the prologue our Father who art in heaven before we even get the petition number one what has Christ has just done he has just launched a evolution in the history of world religion by teaching his disciples to do what not even the most devout rabbis did in ancient Judaism to address God as father father in ancient Judaism was a metaphor a figure of speech something that we can compare God to but ultimately God is not really a father well that changed when God sent His only begotten son when the father sent the son and together they gave us the spirit the holy spirit of sonship is what transform her understanding of God notice that it is our Father who art in heaven not our Lord our lawgiver our judge the master of the universe though God is all of those things the one thing that Christ has shown us that is truly truly a revolution in world religion is God's fatherhood it is the ultimate revelation of God and it is the ultimate solution to the ultimate crises that we face in our world today before he became Pope Benedict Cardinal Ratzinger wrote and I quote the crisis of fatherhood which we are living through today constitutes the heart of the human crisis that is threatening us let me say it again the crisis of fatherhood which we were living through today constitutes the heart of the human crisis that is threatening us here is a man who is never given over to exaggeration he got it spot on this is the crisis this is the problem but here is the solution why because if God is our Father then we are his family we're not just creatures we're not just servants we're not just laborers or employees he's more than a master a creator and a judge his mastery his judgments his laws are all expressions of his divine fatherhood and as our Father we know deep down that he loves us more than we're loving ourselves he understands this better than we'll ever understand ourselves and so what he legislates is not arbitrary but it's designed to perfect and fulfill us we can trust him more than we trust ourselves and we can recognize in the face of a divine father our own true identity as a divine family and notice it isn't just our father it's our Father we don't begin the prayer father or my father this opening helps us to uproot the last vestiges of the kind of individualism that is not only seeped into the secular culture but in a lot of the the spirituality that calls itself Christian you know it's me and Jesus it's you and Jesus it's just the personal relationship between Jesus and each and every one of us as individuals now a personal relationship is what we have but it's a lot we have a lot more than a personal relationship I can have a personal relationship you know with the garage mechanic who does my works on my car but this is a covenant bond of interpersonal communion that is truly a family time so it's our Father so if God is our Father than we are his family and every time we pray this prayer we ought to pray it as a member of gods family whether we're alone or whether together we should see ourselves as his sons and daughters praying as brothers and sisters but then let's look at the second half our Father who art in heaven if God is her father then we're his family but if he is in heaven what does this opening line remind us of if God is her father and he is in heaven we're not home yet no matter how comfortable we might feel no matter how much we might long you know to buy that home to get that job to settle down to get that salary to get that retirement package if God is her father and he is in heaven then we're not home until we get to heaven and everything else along the way is a pilgrimage we're in exile we are aliens we're passing through we're able to settle down wherever God calls us to but we should never confuse it with our one true our Father who art in heaven also reminds us of this that God is not separated from us by light years what separates us from God is sin because sin is what snuffs out the sense of divine sonship sin is what obliterates the sense of God's fatherhood in fact John Paul put this made this point very strongly he put it at the very climax of his book crossing the threshold of hope he described how for most people sin does not cause us to deny God's existence he said what sin does to us is it distorts God by transforming God the Father into a master by transforming our own sense of identity as God's sons and daughters into mere slaves the master/slave relationship is what takes over as a result of our sin and so it is our sin that really causes us to be separated from God and it's this opening line of this prayer that seeks to obliterate that sin that separates us in fact I would go so far as to say that if we really understood what it means to know God as father if we ever came to understand God's fatherhood the way Jesus the eternal son did we can almost anticipate every one of the seven petitions we could practically deduce them from the highest truth that is God is a true father and before I look at the first three petitions I just want to reflect for a moment upon this one more step and that is God is eternal but the creation is not that's why it doesn't capture the highest truth of God to refer to him as our Creator our Lord our master because it makes God's identity dependent upon creatures upon finite beings but in fact God's existence is utterly independent of creatures so if God is not from all eternity a creator because creation is an eternal what is God from all eternity and that's what Jesus alone has revealed by teaching us say our Father because from all eternity what is God he's an eternal father it's more than a noun it's also a verb because what is God doing from all eternity he's not creating finite creatures he is eternally fathering the son that's why we speak of the son not as being younger than the father or smaller than the father but God from God light from light true God from True God precisely because he is eternally begotten not temporally made what's the difference between being created or being generated well I've fathered six kids we actually have now three grandkids - it's kind of exciting but those kids don't look like me not a single one of them I think they all count that a blessing but you know if I ever got so dissatisfied that I just tried it you know I'm gonna have a sixth child and it's going to be a statue in the backyard that I'm gonna craft out of bronze and it's gonna look just like me would that be child number seven no why because it's made not forgotten it doesn't have human nature it has metallic nature so what makes Jesus eternal is the fact that he is begotten not made from all eternity God is eternally fathering the son and that's why the son is co eternal so fatherhood means more than lording and over these younger or weaker and smaller beings what it means the father is them take your life and to make it a gift of love from all eternity then the act of fatherhood is the dynamism of eternal love and so the Sun must image the father is dynamic loved by imaging him as dynamically as the father father him so from all eternity the Sun is imaging the father's love not only by accepting the gift of life and love but by returning that life as a gift of love from the father to the son but from the son back to the father and what do we call that life that gift that love not what but who it's the Holy Spirit and so the Holy Spirit is the bond of this interpersonal love sure it's a mystery that we never can really wrap our minds entirely around but I can't think of a better use of our time here on earth than to contemplate this mystery of God's fatherhood and how it alone captures the truth of who God eternally is because the Trinity is the only God that exists and the only thing that God is eternally is the Holy Trinity this is the breakthrough that Jesus brought about when he taught us to say our Father who art in heaven now let's look at the first three petitions hallowed be thy name that's an interesting petition because it involves an old English word hallowed we don't hear it very often I mean okay at the end of this month we're gonna hear it All Hallows Eve Halloween but most kids don't even know what it refers to we should as Catholics we know it refers to All Saints because hallowed is the same as holy and so we're praying may thy name be holy but that's a curious way to formulate the first petition because isn't God's name already holy to begin with do we actually think that we can make God's name any holier than it already is no of course not then why is it we start the prayer with this petition hallowed be thy name the Catechism is very clear the petition does not have a causative meaning we don't cause God's name to become holier so what does it mean what it means is this is that because God is her father we bear his name because that's what children do all six of my kids have hon at the end and they know it's not an accident and so if God is her father and he then we are his family but what is it that caused us to be made children of God for when I was naturally born I was the son of Fred and Molly Lujan not the holy God of the universe so when I was naturally generated from Fred and Molly Lou I had human nature but not until I am super naturally regenerated through the waters of baptism do I enter into the family of God and become partaker of the divine nature and why because I was baptized in the name of the Creator the lawgiver and the judge no wait the Lord and the master of the you know we're baptized in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit this alone captures who God eternally is as the Trinity as this divine communion of persons or as John Paul putted a divine family and so we are members of gods family precisely because we bear his name we're not gonna make it any holier than it already is but the power of God's name is precisely what is gonna make us holier than we presently are that's the meaning of this petition we're basically saying Lord do for us what we can't do for ourselves you know what can I do for myself I can make myself a good neighbor I can make myself a good citizen but there's one thing I can't do and that is make myself a saint as Chesterton once said be becoming a saint isn't hard it's just humanly impossible I can't even make myself a child of God on my own power by my own name but God has given me the power and his own name precisely through the waters of Baptism and so the Catechism states in paragraph 28 39 that when we pray that his name be hallowed we are begging God to make us saints pure and simple and why are we here on planet earth for one reason to become Saints why did God make the world why does he govern it the way that he does it's obviously not to make it more comfy and cozy for us on this side of eternity the whole world the way God has designed it and governs it is one big Saint making machine and that's the only way you can look at the world and say you know what it's working just fine because God is sending us so many situations where we have no way out except for God and that's the key to call upon the name of the Lord why for our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth and so when we pray hallowed be thy name we're saying God make us Saints it's not just make me a saint it's make us Saints together as your sons and daughters brothers and sisters we stand together we pray together I love that line that Mother Angelica once used she was interviewing a fella who had two PhDs and she just said it doesn't matter how many letters you have at the end of your name the only thing that matters is in whether you end up with two letters in front of your name s T and it's true you know I've got a doctorate what does that mean diddly-squat from an eternal perspective you know if I end up you know with this prestigious title and a professorship and prestige and money and fame and all of that but I don't get to heaven then every single second of my life on earth was a total waste whereas if I don't finish a doctorate I never graduate from college in fact I drop out of high school I can barely keep down a job I'm struggling in every area of my life but I make it home to heaven then every single second of my life was worth it because we're here to get out of here we're pilgrims if God is our Father then we are his family if he is in heaven then we are on our way home and we still have a ways to go no wonder our Lord starts off with this petition because this is the one thing that matters more than everything else hallowed be thy name make us Saints and everything else will just follow just fine hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come wait before I get any further I wanted to say something because you know Brant Petrie you know he always gets me going you know with all of that Old Testament background not that you know I needed him to help me I had that problem a long time ago but brad has an article in our journal letter in spirit where he looks at the Lord's Prayer as an eschatological prayer of the new Exodus he pointed out to me that only really in Ezekiel 36 do you have the language that Jesus uses jot this down ezekiel 36 verse 23 why because that's where the lord announces I will hallow my name and then Ezekiel 24 and 5 goes on to explain how it is that God is going to hallow his name among all the nations he's gonna hallow his name he's gonna make it holy by sprinkling clean water upon his people see I wonder what that could refer to because when that clean water is sprinkled upon us not only does the uproot idolatry from our hearts but he gives us his own name and then it goes on to describe he'll he'll take out the hardest stone you know put in a heart of flesh this is what it means to be a saint to have a heart for God to have God's own heart so it's hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy kingdom come is a gentle reminder that if God is her father then we are his family but he is not just a father he is a king that makes us a royal family that makes us more than just sons and daughters it makes us princes and princesses dukes and duchesses it gives us a royal vocation but notice it's a kingdom not a democracy not a republic why because we didn't know like God we just hope he elects us that's the way it is in a kingdom that's also the way it isn't a family you didn't get the vote for your parents did you I didn't even cast a ballot for my siblings if I had a chance you know it might have turned out differently but in a family as in a kingdom God exerts his supremacy in a way that we must accept and submit to and so thy kingdom come as a reminder that the order of creation has been set up by the king of the universe and we should know this and deep down I think we do when it comes to the material part of the world physical matter we understand that the laws of God are fixed you know they're inexorable you know if we heard next week about how you know Congress decided to debate the law of gravity and then by the end of the week they they voted unanimous to repeal it you know and the president decided to sign it into law they all got together at the White House and the Rose Garden climbed to the top of the roof to jump off to celebrate the repeal of the law of gravity don't clap I knew you're gonna do that you know we need them pray for them God is using them in our lives like a chisel against the granite the marble what would they do would they break the law of gravity I don't think so they demonstrate it gravity would you know break whatever bones hit the ground first why because this is a kingdom and the king has set up laws in the physical order that are fixed and unalterable well guess what the same thing is true for the moral order the same thing is true for spiritual reality for the life of the soul just like the life of the body there are laws that have been established by the king of the universe and we pray for those laws to be observed to be kept and preserved and we remind ourselves that from the very beginning marriage was not a man-made institution it was divine and so no matter how people tinker with laws and redefine marriage or anything else we know that it's like jumping off the roof to break the law of gravity we're not going to break the law of God we're going to violate it and that violation is going to break us to pieces until we repent thy kingdom come is a reminder that we must submit not only as sons and daughters but as royal subjects and only then are we going to be lifted up and exalted and empowered as his sons and daughters as princes and princesses to do what we could never do on our own but there's another dimension to this petition that I want to reflect upon thy kingdom come most people assume this is a sort of futuristic request we can't wait till your kingdom comes and there are certainly a lot of truth in that but I want to propose to you that there is a reason why we all pray this family prayer together every week at 1 at the same time no matter where we are when do we always pray the Our Father in the mass and when on the mass after the consecration and right before Holy Communion and why it isn't accidental it is very deliberate and significant why because the kingdom is not just futuristic it is also Eucharistic we should have known that as Catholics because deep down we know that wherever the king is there's the kingdom but wherever the Eucharist is there is the king so what do we pray at the end of the our Father drawing from 1st chronicles 29 for the kingdom and the power and the glory are yours but only at the end of time oh wait that's not what we pray what do we pray the kingdom of the power the glory are yours now and forever whoa that's right and why because the lord of lords the King of glory is present veiled under the appearance of bread and wine but faith grasps what our physical vision cannot see and that is not Jesus battered corpse bleeding on the cross but the resurrected ascended enthroned lord of lords and the king of kings and he comes to us by stooping down to us in our weakness and hiding his glory but that glory is present even though we can't see it and actually if we're lucky enough to be alive at the end of time we may be in for a shock because he's not going to have any more glory at the end of history than he has right now in the Eucharist the only difference will be that we will have caught up to that glory and possess it ourselves until then we can't behold that glory without burning up and shriveling it's just too much for us to take in and so Christ keeps us from seeing what we could not assimilate and then feeds us and so it is that when we pray thy kingdom come guess what that petition has just been fulfilled and oh yeah by the way how do we begin and end the mass by making the sign of the Cross and by reciting what formula in the name of the Creator the femur and the Sanctifier No the Father Son and Holy Spirit that's because in the mass God is using his name to make a Saints and God is giving us the king to usher in a Eucharistic kingdom to establish his reign in our lives more than anything else we can do on earth and so we pray hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done thy will be done now this is one of those tricky petitions that we have to reflect upon for an extra moment or two because you know a lot of people wonder does it really make a difference if we pray or not because I mean God is God and he already knows the future he knows whether I'm gonna be healed or not he knows whether they're gonna keep a job or lose it I mean why bother praying if God already knows the future I'm in prayer is not gonna change God's mind well if you're praying to change God's mind do the rest of us a favor stop praying I don't mean to be too blunt here but let's just ask ourselves a question whose standard is more reliable my mind or God's mind my will or God's will do we pray to change God's will no this petition is a gentle reminder of the truth that matters most we pray in order for God to change our will we pray for God the change our will by conforming it to his by making our mind to think his thoughts after him and why because we recognize that not only does he know us better than we know ourselves He loves us more than we love ourselves but he allows things to happen to us not in spite of his love but because of it this petition is really captured nicely by center res who said in the story of a soul she boasted she wrote God gives me whatever I want because I want whatever he gives that's the heart of a child that's the trust of a beloved daughter who knows that she oughta trust God's will more than her own and she unites her will to God's will and wills what he wills because he's willing it and he is more reliable that doesn't mean we can't open up our hearts and share you know the deepest concerns if anything it really frees us to pray like our Lord did in the Garden of Gethsemane what does he do you know he implores his father Abba Father take this cup from me nevertheless what not my will but thine be done so we can pray you know whatever is on our hearts and we should in fact what is the only book of the Bible that consists entirely of prayers what is the longest book of the Bible and the only book that the prayer that the church prays 24/7 the Psalms not a New Testament book but an Old Testament book there are 150 Psalms I love teaching this graduate course that I've taught on the book of songs and in the process of teaching it over and over again I was kind of surprised to discover that approximately 42 percent of the 150 Psalms or what scholars describe or characterize as Psalms of lament or most scholars prefer to call it Psalms of complaint why because that's what the psalmist do they complain to God now you might be sitting there thinking well I don't I would never think of complaining to God I doubt that for one thing but I think the real problem is that we confuse complaining with murmuring murmuring is what Israel did in the wilderness for 40 years they weren't complaining to God they were complaining about God the psalmist turns that around and he offers these prayers have complained directly to the Lord God before the face of the Almighty because these are the prayers of a child who trusts his father let's face it you don't complain to someone unless you trust them and unless you think they're going to be able and willing to do something about it and so the church prays the Psalms 24/7 why because this is where David a man after God's own heart discovered the heart of God and showed it to the world God wants us to discover ourselves as his children by going to him as we can approach a father and I got to tell you I've got six kids from 26 down to ten and throughout their lives and especially in their teen years they felt that filial freedom as children to complain to their father sometimes it got a little out of hand but early on they discovered I wasn't afraid of their complaints in fact I welcomed them especially when they expressed a trust in me that I cared that I was able to do something and that I would do it as soon as I can but again deep down we have to recognize that the reason why we pray is not to change God's will but for God to change our will only then do we discover how prayer can change everything except God's will but what prayer does by uniting us to God's will is to empower us to affect change in every area of our lives in every relationship in our home in the neighborhood at work wherever we are when we unite our wills to God's will we unite our weakness to God's power and he's able to do more through our prayers than he can through our actions you know I've said this before and I've heard many others say it's who you know Oh all we can do is just pray for her you know as though if we could actually do certain actions that they would be much more powerful than our you know I would say the most we can ever do for people is to pray for them if we really are praying to unite our hearts to God's heart and for him to release his power in our weakness and believe me God wants to do that more than we want him to that's why he put these petitions on our lips and in our hearts and asks us to pray them as a family hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done and then what on earth as it is in heaven look at the Greek and you will see that it's actually literally as in heaven so on earth I was in heaven so on earth and if you look carefully at the structure of the Lord's Prayer in the original form that we find it in Matthew 6 you're going to find that this phrase doesn't simply apply to the last petition number three in fact the church's catechism makes it very clear that this particular phrase is sort of the hinge on which the whole prayer turns from the three petitions to the four write thy name thy kingdom and I will then give us deliver us lead us and deliver us so it is that this this part is phrase as in heaven so on earth pertains to all three of the first petitions hallowed be thy name may thy name be holy as in heaven so on earth thy kingdom come as in heaven so on earth thy will be done as in heaven so on earth but that sort of raises the question what is it like for God's will to be done in heaven well we don't really have to guess a lot because God gave us a book of the Bible in fact it's the very last book of the Bible and it reveals to us what it's like for God's will to be done in heaven and it's the book of Revelation and I remember reading that and rereading and trying to get my mind around it and just given up I even translated the entire book from the Greek into English and I still couldn't get it not until I actually went to my very first mass as a Protestant observer and that's where I heard things that at first I didn't recognize until the people began to chant all around me Lamb of God who takes away this and then Lamb of God who takes then Lamb of God oh and then the priest elevated this host and said a four time behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world the people were on their knees but I was at the edge of my pew thinking Lamb of God laughs four times in less than a minute and I knew where I was in the back of the Bible because that's where Jesus is called many things Lord of lords King of Kings Alpha and Omega but the one thing that he's called there more than all the other things and the one thing that he's called there and nowhere else is Lamb of God Lamb of God 28 times in 22 chapters and the technical term is used for him as the Passover lamb and I never understood why nobody had even claimed to explain why but I'm turning to the back of the Bible looking down and seeing Lamb of God Lamb of God Lamb of God and suddenly I see the holy holy holy Lord you could take it God of power in my revelation 4 verse 8 the holy holy holy the agnew stay the Lamb of God the Amen the Alleluia the Hosanna the glory of the Benedictus you won't find anywhere in the entire apocalypse the term Antichrist you won't find anywhere the term rapture you won't even front find the phrase the second coming what do you find on every page of the apocalypse the liturgy of the angels and saints in heaven describe precisely in terms of what we share on earth as it is in heaven and where do we go in order to do God's will like that in the mass the Amen the Alleluia the Gloria the Lamb of God the holy holy holy and what else does John describing these visions of heaven he describes candles seven of them the menorah that stood by the altar in the Jerusalem Temple only it's in the heavenly Jerusalem not a man-made temple but the divine temple and what is Jesus wearing a long white robe it's a liturgical vestment and there are twenty-four presbyteries priests and as you continue reading you see the altar with seven chalices that contain wine when they're poured out John describes how it's become blood any of the sound familiar God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven more perfectly in the mass than anything else we do no wonder the Catechism States and I quote in paragraph twenty seven seventy in the Eucharistic liturgy the Lord's Prayer reveals its full meaning and power in the Eucharistic liturgy the Lord's Prayer reveals its full meaning and power and no wonder because God's will is being done on earth as it is in heaven we don't have to die in order to go to heaven all we've got to do is attend Mass and heaven is where we are the angels and saints are who are with their songs their prayers their sacrifice are one of the same as ours and what power and gray we release whenever we go and we know it whenever we unite our will to our Father in heaven and the angels and the Saints and the martyrs and the mother of God we've just gotten through the first three we still have four more to go let's look at the next one and see if it can relate in any way to the mass or the Eucharist and what does it give us this day our daily bread once again we see something tired of the Eucharist but let's look first of all at the term give us because the Greek tense is imperative it really is a demand give us whoa who do you think we are here demanding of the Lord God of the universe our daily bread well if God is her father and we are his family then this is what we can reasonably expect and request and even demand give us forgive us lead us deliver us all of these are in the imperative tense these are the demands that little beloved children can rightly make of an Almighty God who is also a loving father but notice that it is give us not give me give me give me give me you know like the way some children sometimes approach the parents this prayer uproots the last vestiges of our individualism especially here but also notice that it's give us this day our daily bread not steak and lobster right because I mean God makes us his sons and daughters he calls us to be Saints and he doesn't want spoiled brats so he gives us what we need not what we want and there's a huge difference and so what we're basically saying here is that we are your children you are our Father give us not what we want but what we need give us this day our daily bread not this year supply not my retirement plan but give us this day our daily bread because as children who trust God more than we trust ourselves we can be content in a very reasonable way with what we need for today but look at this again give us this day our daily bread this day daily isn't that a little redundant I mean Jesus just economize give us this day our bread or give us our daily bread well why does Jesus you know stretch it out give us this day our daily bread because he was a Jew and he was talking to Jews and where do Jews go in their minds and memories whenever they hear about God giving his family each day their daily bread in the desert for 40 years what did God do he was a father waiting on his family hand and foot he was giving them the manna but how much did he give him lots but how much were you supposed to take just enough for the day and if you took enough for the next three days by the next morning the rest would have spoiled except on day 6 there was a little miracle there because on day 6 you could take twice as much as you needed because there wouldn't be any on the Sabbath and would you wake up on the morning of the Sabbath and have the manna spoil like the other days no for some divine reason it didn't spoil see you learn how to rest and trust in God your father give us this day our daily bread is a reminder of the manna that God gave to Israel in the wilderness but it's also a reminder of the true manna what does Jesus speak of in John 6 after multiplying the loaves feeding the 5,000 and filling twelve baskets full he talks to them all about how he is the true manna the bread from heaven like we read about in Psalm 78 that God gave them each day it's the bread of the angels only now it is the Eucharist so when we pray give us this day our daily bread when does God do it well throughout our meals but especially in one sacrificial communion meal the Eucharist and I'm not just making that up in fact if you look carefully if you look closely at the word Jesus you give us this day our daily bread the Greek is abuse it gives translators fits because it doesn't occur anywhere else earlier in ancient Greek literature and so it's sort of like okay what do you mean by this give us this day our at the you seeis our daily bread well daily is a proper translation but the more carefully you analyze this Greek word that doesn't occur anywhere else earlier or it's a hotbox ligament on that's what scholars call it it doesn't occur anywhere else when you look at it more carefully you realize it's a compound term epi you see us epi is a prefix that can mean over it could be translated super the word osseous is easily translated precisely as essence or substance like homo who see us only epi osseous if you want a really literal translation look to Jerome what did st. Jerome translate this in the Latin for the Vulgate give us this day our super substantiality read he's not reading much into that he's just translating it quite literally epi you see us quite literally is super substantial now what kind of bread you supposed Jesus might have been talking about or thinking of I mean Wonder Bread right it builds bodies and twelve ways at least I heard that as a kid no this is the bread of life this is the bread of heaven this is the Holy Eucharist because wherever the king is there is the kingdom and wherever the Eucharist is there is the king and he has come to feed his royal family to give us this day our daily bread the Catechism puts it so well in paragraph 28 sixteen quote the kingdom of God has been coming ever since the Last Supper but in the Holy Eucharist it is in our midst the kingdom of God has been coming since the Last Supper and in the Eucharist it is in our midst the kingdom has come the daily bread has been won and we are fed with a bread that goes beyond anything we can know from this earth anything we can receive from our earthly fathers so give us this day our daily bread has a deeper meaning that is also preparing us to welcome Jesus in the Holy Eucharist and to celebrate the bread of heaven the bread which is given for the life of the world now we come to petition number five it's my least favorite it's forgive us our trespasses against us what's so funny you're gonna tell me you like this petition I don't think anybody really cares for it I mean if if I had had the Delete key back then I think I would have pressed it and just you know let's shorten it make it easier to memorize forgive us our trespasses you know and if you insist upon adding that last part okay forgive us our trespasses and we will do our best to forgive those who trespass against us or just change that one little word just a little bit forgive us our trespasses and we'll forgive those who trespass against us but it's not a conjunction and it's an ass and that's a scary thing because Jesus seemed to be fond of using that term where else does they use it be merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful Luke 636 a new commandment I give to you that you should love one another as I have loved you man he has just raised the bar what are we really asking for here when we're asking God to forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against let's look carefully at this phrase forgive us who are we talking about when we pray forgive us we're basically saying forgive us Catholics right no would we include non Catholics you know as Saint Thomas said all people are children of God at least potentially some have actualized that potential but all are potentially God's children so when we pray forgive us our trespasses who is left out of that no one that's right okay so if the God of the universe if the Almighty and all holy Lord of lords is not only willing to forgive us but actually dying on the cross to make it possible just who do we think we are to withhold that same forgiveness from people who have heard us well God has his standards but I've got mine you know that's stupid that is self-destructive and the consequences could be eternally catastrophic we can't afford to have higher and holier standards than the Almighty and all holy God and if he was not only willing but dying to forgive us and we are sincere and praying forgive us not just me but forgive all of us and nobody's excluded in that term us then who is left over for us to withhold forgiveness from well you don't understand it what my wife has done you don't understand what the boss just did to me and my coworkers well I don't you're probably right but God does better than you do and he's not only forgiven you he's forgiven them and he died to do so and so he is challenging us to grow up as his children because he doesn't just want us to be sons and daughters he wants us to be what Saints and not spoiled brats not selfish immature children so he really meant it when he said pray forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us but I think there's a deeper lesson that is to be learned and an even more important lesson because the more I pray this prayer the more I ponder this petition the more I keep coming back to the same discovery that God wants me to hate my sin more than other people's sins and to be honest I don't have any problem hating sin especially when other people committed against me I have the holiest hatred you can imagine for those my problem is my since this petition is a gentle but firm reminder that we can't afford to hate the sins of others more than we hate our own and no wonder because the sins that other people commit can't take me out of heaven and lead me to hell only my sins can do that so I have got to hate my sins more than your sins especially especially the sins that I commit the most and enjoy the most because they're the ones that can do the most damage for all eternity so when we're praying for God to forgive us we're really asking God to heal us by taking sin out at its source which is this pride self-centered self regard where we trust ourselves too much and God too little and I want to propose to you that you need to really reflect upon this if you have trouble forgiving your parents if you have trouble forgiving a priest for what he said or did because God has used my parents to bring me life and love food clothing and shelter and believe me I kept careful track of all their faults and I know better than anybody my mother's failings but God reminds me nobody on the planet is going to do as much for you as they did for you if you can't love and forgive them then nobody else is safe around you forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us because when we withhold forgiveness we short-circuit the electricity of God's mercy and by the way how does this relate to the mass we call it the Holy Sacrifice of the mass and what does the sacrifice of the Eucharist do it is a sacrifice for sin granted it is not intended to be received by those who are in mortal sin and they know it but they haven't confessed it but what is the ordinary sacrifice that God has us offer to obliterate our venial sins and all of these disordered attachments ooh these worldly pleasures that could keep us from eternity it is the Eucharistic sacrifice so where does God scrub us clean where does God weed our garden where does God up root the sins that we commit the most and enjoy the most because he knows they'll do the most damage through the Eucharist as st. Thomas Aquinas reminds the church continually we can only receive the Eucharist beneficially if we have the disposition to holy love it's one thing to receive the Eucharist sacramentally but as st. Thomas says we only feed spiritually upon him if we receive Christ in the Eucharist with the disposition to love as we've been loved and so it is that in the Mass through the Eucharist especially in our Holy Communion God is forgiving us of our trespasses and empowering us to do what we could never do on our own and that is forgive others as we have been forgiven and then the next one follows lead us not into temptation why does it follow from the previous petition well I would say because most of my temptations arise because of my refusal to forgive those who have trespassed against me my temptations to sadness and depression my temptations to anger you know I remember Clyde narramore writing a book on Christian counseling saying you know a lot of people are out there giving you keys to happiness keys to success he said I want to give you a key to feeling miserable just really think a lot about what you think other people oh you just dwell on that for a while and in no time you will be miserable why because we never get what we think others Oh us but when we look at what we o'c odd and how little of that we gave and how he turned around and forgave us or as one writer has put it Christ paid a debt he didn't owe because we owed a debt we couldn't pay if Almighty God has used his eternal wealth to forgive us then we had better forgive others and we will find in the process we will have been delivered from almost all over temptations but this petition goes a little further lead us not into temptation you know when we hear this we might be thinking why do we even pray like that because I mean God is not in the business of alluring us hey you know look at this forbidden fruit God doesn't entice or seduce or tempt and the book of James makes it very clear in 113 let no one when he is tempted say I am tempted by God for he tempts no one in the sense of enticing seducing or alluring but what God does do is wrapped up in the word / Osmos that's the term Jesus employs lead us not into / Osmos which could be more precisely translated the test or trial lead us not into the test lead us not into the trial now why would God every even think of testing us as his sons and daughters well I know why I test others because I'm a professor and it's a part of my contract just last week we had midterms I tested all of my students to find out what they had learned from me and what they hadn't turned out pretty good but I didn't know until I tested them but that can't be why God tests us because it isn't as though God is up there wondering what we've learned God knows it better than we do so why does he test us why does he allow us to undergo trial not to find out what we don't know I'm sorry not to find out what he doesn't know but precisely to show us what we don't know when we face tests when we face trials we discover I'm not as strong as I thought I was I discover that my weaknesses are greater than I realized but in the process of God showing my weaknesses why does he show me my weaknesses in order for me to discover his power and for me to desire it much more than I have up until now but as James says you have not because you ask not why wouldn't we ask because we don't think we need it why don't we think we need it because we're basically content thinking that hey I've got the power I've got the means I can do it on my own well that is the first step to temptation and Paul reminds us of this in first Corinthians it's one of my favorite texts first Corinthians 10:12 therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall we have a famous saying that's derived from that pride goeth before a fall but Paul continues no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man and the word he uses per Osmos no trial no test no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man it's kind of like a a sober reminder you know because sometimes we face problems were like nobody has known the troubles I've seen you know you know we're not that unique you know God sends us problems but problems like everybody else has no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man but they didn't stop there he goes on to say God is faithful and will not let you be tempted beyond your strength but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it what comfort what reassurance that is then no matter what trials we face God will always provide the way of escape no matter what temptations come our way he'll show us the way out but what is Paul talking about you know just this Monday I was driving out the st. Vincent's in Latrobe got about 11 miles of Turnpike you can kind of really you know take it up to 65 70 75 I was going up to 80 81 82 and then as I was tempted to give in to like 85 about a mile and a half ahead on the hill guess what I saw two red bubbles and I saw him before he saw me God provided the way of escape for that temptation but I don't think that's what Paul is talking about here no but what is he referring to well most English translations just leave it at that by the end of verse 13 there's a paragraph break and in fact in my English translation there's not only a paragraph break between verse 13 and verse 14 there's a subheading suggesting that he's changing horses he's introduced new subject in verse 14 but what the temptation will also provide the way of escape and you be able to endure it stop get a drink come back start reading there's a new subject except for one thing he begins the next verse 14 with the word therefore therefore my beloved now that's not how you introduce a new subject that's how you draw a conclusion from the previous subject and Paul's a very logical thinker whenever he uses the word therefore you need to ask what it's there for because he is drawing a conclusion logically based upon what he said but listen to the conclusion that he draws about the way of escape that the Lord will provide therefore my beloved I'm speaking as the sensible man judge for yourselves what I say the cup of blessing which we bless is it not a participant in the blood of Christ the bread which we break is it not a participation in the body of Christ well yes yes Paul that's the Eucharist you're talking about here but you just kind of zigged when we thought you were gonna zag you just kind of changed horses midstream you were talking about God providing the way of escape in order for us to endure all of our trials and then suddenly introduced a whole new topic the cup of blessing which we bless is it not a participation a communion in the Greek Koinonia in the blood of Christ the bread which we break is it not a participation a communion in the body of Christ is Paul really introducing a new subject or is Paul unveiling the way of escape that God provides all of us so that we can successfully endure whatever trials we undergo why because the body and blood of the resurrected Lord of lords is the same body that underwent crucifixion and the scourging and the spinning and all of the abuse out of love for us he was dying for the very people who were killing him and our lady was not only forgiving them but giving consent to becoming the mother of the murders of her only beloved son that isn't a it's just humanly impossible that is what we receive through the holy spirit in all seven sacraments but especially in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the altar for in the Eucharist the cup of blessing which we bless is it not a community in the blood of Christ Christ's body and blood strengthens us in our weakness it shows us light in darkness it shows us in the where is no human escape there is a divine way and that's why this petition is answered in the mass after the consecration and right before Holy Communion because God is not only leading us out of temptation but he's also delivering us from evil deliverer is a strong word why because it represents a victory a conquest but we're not saying God we can do it ourselves we're basically saying to God we are in over our heads we face a foe that we cannot conquer we're no match for the devil but he's no match for our Father and it's important to notice that this petition deliver us from evil is not just generic evil there's actually a definite article in front of the term for evil literally it is deliver us from the evil one why because Christ is reminding us that if God as her father and he is in heaven that we're not home yet and we face the world the flesh oh yeah and the devil I know a lot of you know my colleagues in the profession of theology you know think it's really sophisticated not to believe in the devil anymore just like the devil wants them to do but whether they believe it or not our Lord Jesus not only believed that but taught us to recognize that we are facing a foe that we can't overcome on our own but we don't ever need to be on our own we aren't just creatures left to our own devices we are children who have a father who is in heaven and he sent his son in the form of the Holy Eucharist to strengthen us in our weakness to deliver us from evil notice the petition does not say deliver us from suffering from illness from unemployment there's a place and a time to pray like that but the petition that Jesus put upon our lips is deliver us from evil why because sickness and suffering illness and unemployment these are often the chisels God uses against our heart hearts made of marble to make a Saints the only real enemy we have is sin and we trace it back to its source we trace it back to the world the flesh and also the devil and we're reminded of what Jesus said greater is He that is within us than he that is within the world Almighty God and His Holy Spirit he is within us we're no match for the devil but the devil is no match for the Almighty God in His Holy Spirit and where do we find God conquering evil where do we find God delivering his people from the Dominion of darkness and the power of the devil turn to the back of the Bible and you'll see it all in the book revelation that's where the devil is thrown out of heaven that's where the demons you know are are cashed out that's where the wicked crawl into the caves and cry out rocks fall on us and deliver us from the lamb have you ever seen a killer lamb and it's almost like Monty Python what are they talking about the killer lamb well the fact is God's judgments that the book revelation reveals are released against the powers of darkness but each and every single time God's judgments are revealed and released against the devil it is always an only indirect response to our prayers to our songs to the sacrifice to the holy holy holy the Lamb of God the Amen the Alleluia the Gloria so where does God release his power to deliver us from evil more than anything else that we do on earth in the mass when we sing the same songs that the angels in the and the martyrs sing when we join our prayers to the mother of God and to the Archangel Saint Michael in Revelation 12 then and only then do we experience the true deliverance that is not human but divine that's what I would propose to you that we have not prayed this prayer too much though we may have pondered it too little this is one of those prayers that is deeper than the ocean it is inexhaustible it is the most perfect the prayers especially when we pray it in the most perfect and blessed of sacraments in the name of the Father and of the son of the Holy Spirit our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil [Music]

Channel: The Coming Home Network International

Views: 319,262

Rating: 4.8079891 out of 5

Keywords: Prayer, Lord's Prayer, Our Father, Pater Noster, Covenant, Jesus, God the Father, Sermon on the Mount, Holy Spirit, Christianity, Catholic, Dr. Scott Hahn, Gospel, Deep in History, Coming Home Network, Creation, Liturgy, Mass, Crisis of Fatherhood

Id: E9UHyePeBxs

Length: 70min 27sec (4227 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 28 2018