Be Sincere and Persevere

Seventeenth Sunday of Year. Fr John Patrick Kenrick preaches on the Our Father.

One of his disciples asks Jesus ‘Lord, teach us to pray’, but what exactly is he asking? For the chosen people, the idea of communication with the God of Israel had been established many centuries before. It originally consisted both in ritual acts such as sacrifice and in established prayers, such as the psalms recited in the temple. It was clear to the Jewish people that there was not only a public dimension to prayer but also a private one. The use of the Shema prayer (about the need to love the One God) as an individual practice goes back to the origins of Judaism. It is (along with the blessing after a meal) one of the oldest prayers, recited each morning and evening by devout Jews.

So the disciple is not asking Jesus to teach him what his own father would have taught him from childhood or what he learned by example from his fellow Jews in the synagogue. In this gospel the disciple calls Jesus ‘Lord’ but elsewhere in the gospels he is sometimes referred to as Rabbi or Master. At the time of Jesus, the role of the rabbi was only just developing. Rabbis were then ordinary people, usually with a particular trade, who were also accepted as having authority to interpret Torah and to judge claims by the poor. They shared the view of the Pharisees that it was important to pursue a holy way of life including daily prayer. The gospel tells us that both Jesus and John the Baptist were considered to be authorities on prayer and the disciple’s question comes after seeing Jesus praying. There was something in the way that Jesus himself prayed that moved the disciple to make this request.

St Luke’s account of the Lord’s prayer puts the emphasis on two things – on intimacy and perseverance. On intimacy because God is our loving Father with whom we can speak on intimate terms and on perseverance because if we truly desire something we don’t make a few feeble requests – we persist in asking for it.

For the Son of God, intimacy with the Father is the norm, but the first reading from the book of Genesis tells us not to underestimate the ability of the creature to be on intimate terms with the Creator. Abraham is completely at ease with God. He is engaging in what Jews call the prayer of protest. Protest is against what seems unjust. Abraham trusts God to be just and merciful and so he knows that he is on solid ground when bargaining with the Almighty.

St Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer is briefer than St Matthew’s and it contains nothing surprising to the Jewish mind. In fact it summarizes basic principles of Jewish prayer – that prayer must be a sincere communication with God which first acknowledges His greatness and mystery and secondly asks of God everything which is necessary for a faithful believer. In every religion there are formal elements of prayer and liturgy that can easily obscure these basic principles and so the focus of the Lord’s prayer is on the basics.

First, the name of the one true God is to be praised – for that is how creatures serve the Creator and the prayer of praise will in fact continue throughout eternity. Asking that God’s kingdom come is really saying the same as ‘Thy will be done’. It is the perfect petition – one guaranteed a positive outcome. Asking for our daily bread is an acknowledgement that we pray not only with our mind but with our body which has its own needs. Our present relationship with God is marred by human sin and so we not only ask for forgiveness but recognize Christ’s warning that in order to be forgiven we must also be willing to forgive each other.

Much of what the New Testament says about prayer is a continuation of the Jewish tradition. But in the Our Father Jesus is not only summarizing the basics; he is also drawing us into His own prayer. Christians know that prayer is directed through Jesus Christ and that it is only made possible by the Holy Spirit. As St Paul tells us in the second reading, through Christ we are raised to new life. That life means being part of the eternal communication of love and joy between Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Readings: Genesis 18:20-32 | Colossians 2:12-14 | Luke 11:1-13

Image: the Our Father in Latin, Arabic and Armenian on the wall of the Carmelite Convent on the Mount of Olives, photographed by brionv (CC BY-SA 2.0)