Teach Us to Pray

 

Deacon Dave · Teach Us to Pray

Homily for the 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time, July 24, 2022. Gospel of St. Luke 11:1-13. Theme: Teach Us to Pray 

In the time of Jesus, it was expected that a religious teacher would give his disciples a simple prayer that summarized his approach to God. That’s why we heard in today’s Gospel that John the Baptist gave his followers a prayer and it’s why Jesus’ disciples wanted him to do the same thing. And so, we received the Lord’s Prayer directly from the lips of the Son of God himself. 

The two short lessons on prayer that finish out today’s Gospel are meant to encourage us in our praying. The first reminds us (and we need constant reminding about this!) that God is a good Father who in his far-seeing wisdom hears our prayers and will give us what is best for us. Every prayer we sincerely utter is answered but in the way that God knows to be best. The second teaching encourages us to persevere in prayer. It’s not that we will tire God out by our praying and ultimately get what we want! Quite often the importance of what we ask for is revealed to us in how faithful we remain to praying. If we give up after a few days of asking, it shows us that our need was really not as vital as we originally thought. 

The quintessential example of trustful perseverance in prayer is that of St.. Monica, the mother of the great St. Augustine of Hippo. Augustine grew into a handsome, brilliant, talented, rebellious and wealthy young man. During his teenage years and throughout his 20’s he belonged to a cult, lived with his girlfriend and gave free reign to hedonism in his life. During all this time - nearly 30 years - Monica persevered in prayer, begging God for his conversion often to the point of tears. Ultimately her petition was granted and she received so much more than she had hoped for: Augustine not only became a Catholic but a beloved pastor and a very learned bishop whose writings still influence Christianity today. 

But I want to focus on the Lord’s Prayer which we all know by heart and that we say so many times. Yet, even with all this familiarity, I wonder how often we pause to think about what we are really saying? This prayer is actually a collection of various petitions, so let’s take a look at each of these, one by one, so that we can learn to truly pray them from the heart and mean what we say. 

First we call God “our Father”, which means we acknowledge him as our Lifegiver, Provider and Protector. He yearns to gather all of humanity together as brothers and sisters and teaches us, through Jesus, how to live out this spiritual family relationship in love for one another. He is merciful and compassionate, promising to provide for our needs if we seek first his Kingdom in our lives and strive to do his will. 

“Who art in Heaven…” The Catechism teaches that “Heaven” is simply defined as “life with God”. So in this petition we are reminding ourselves that, as Jesus said, God is with us for he lives within us by grace. But he is also inviting us to live with him forever in the Heaven that we traditionally call his dwelling place. 

“Hallowed be thy name…” “Hallowed” means holy. In this first petition, we are asking that God’s name (which means His Self, His Person) be respected and reverenced by all. We are asking that we ourselves preserve this reverence for God in our own personal lives and uphold it by our own words and deeds. It is an echo of the 2nd commandment to not misuse the Lord’s name. 

“Thy kingdom come…” We are not talking here about God’s kingdom as a place such as Heaven. God’s Kingdom means his royal authority over every being. This second petition has a twofold meaning. First, we are praying that God will reign in every human heart. That all will praise and worship him as Lord of their lives. We are also praying for Christ to return in glory at the end of time when he will establish his Kingdom, banishing all evil, sin, sorrow and suffering from the human race forever. 

“Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…” The third petition asks God that our wills be conformed to his divine will. When Jesus was praying to the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane, he also used the words “thy will be done.” When we pray “thy will be done” we commit ourselves to following Jesus as sons and daughters of God the Father, willing to embrace his plan for our lives no matter what that might look like. We can make this petition boldly because we trust that God only has our ultimate good in mind. We want to do God’s will here on planet Earth just as the angels and saints fulfill it in Heaven. 

“Give us this day, our daily bread…” In this fourth petition, we express our trust in and dependency upon our heavenly Father and Provider. Because we are both body and soul, the phrase “our daily bread” refers to both the nourishment we need for our physical health and the spiritual food of the Word of God and the Eucharist to sustain our spiritual health. Too many people overfeed the body but starve the soul to death. 

“Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us…” This is the petition that has caused saints to call the Our Father a “dangerous prayer”. In it, we make a pact with God, so to speak. We agree to only be forgiven our sins to the extent that we ourselves forgive others. So each time we say the Lord’s Prayer we are in effect saying, “O God, forgive me only to the extent that I myself forgive those who have offended me.” We remember that Jesus made forgiveness a non-negotiable for us, his disciples, and that he said quite clearly that God will not forgive us if we do not forgive others. 

“Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil…” Pope Francis has spoken quite a bit about these words to remind us that God does not lead anyone into temptation and sin. He has even agreed to this petition being re-translated because of the confusion it often causes. Basically, what we are really asking here is that God will preserve us from taking a path that leads to sin. We are praying for the grace and strength to avoid whatever tends to lead us away from loving him and our neighbor. The Catechism teaches that the “evil” in this petition is not some abstract evil, but actually refers to a person who is known by many names: Satan, Lucifer, the Devil, the Evil One, the Murderer and the Liar. He is a fallen angel who, along with other fallen angels called demons, opposes God and who is the enemy of the human race (see CCC, 2851). 

Finally, we conclude our prayer with “Amen!” After praying all of these petitions, we end by affirming our belief in all that we have said. “Amen” is a Hebrew word that means “I believe it”. For our “Amen” to be genuine, to be real and from the heart, we must make sure that it's not just a form of speech, but that we truly mean what we say by living out the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer in our daily lives.