Throughout the Gospels, we hear that Jesus often goes off to a quiet place and prays to his Father in heaven. In today’s Gospel, in response to one of the disciples asking Jesus to teach them how to pray, Christ reveals to them (and us) the heart of the Father with a prayer that perhaps he himself prays to his Father in heaven. It is the Lord’s Prayer (or the Our Father). The version of the Lord’s Prayer in the Gospel of Luke is much shorter than the one in the Gospel of Matthew. The latter is similar to the Lord’s Prayer that we pray at Mass and when we pray the Rosary.
In the Our Father Prayer, Jesus teaches us about the virtues of faith, hope, and love in a God who desires an intimate and personal relationship with each of us, his beloved sons and daughters. After all, our Catholic faith is not just theology and moral teachings, as important as those are. Our Catholic faith above all is a personal relationship, our relationship, with God who loves us because we are the “apple of his eyes.”.
“Father, hallowed be your name, your Kingdom come. . .” teaches us to have faith in God in all the circumstances of our lives - the joys and the sufferings. It is faith in “Abba”, God the Father, who is always close to us and never abandons us because knows us, formed us in our mother’s womb, dedicated us in Baptism, and appointed us to be his disciples in the world. It is faith in Christ’s promises to send us an Advocate - the Holy Spirit - and to be with us until the “end of the age” in the Eucharist - his Body and Blood given up for us on the Cross. It is faith in the coming of the kingdom of heaven that Jesus and John the Baptist proclaimed, saying: “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.” Jesus is Emmanuel - God with us - and his name means “God saves.”
“Give us each day our daily bread” teaches us to never lose hope because our hope is in God. Jesus is the reason for our hope (1 Peter 3:15). It is hope in God who cares for us because we are more important to him than the “birds in the sky” (Matthew 6:26). Hope compels us to share the Good News of Jesus Christ to others so that they, too, may have a reason for hope. It is hope that leads to peace, “the peace of God that surpasses all understanding [and] will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7). Hope frees us to be at peace and gives us the strength and courage to follow Jesus’ commandment to love God and love our neighbor.
“[Forgive] us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us” reminds us that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (John 3:16). It reminds us that “[it] was not [us] who chose [God], but {God] who chose [us] and appointed [us] to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever [we] ask the Father in [Jesus’] name he may give [us]. This I command you: love one another” (John 15:16-17). Finally, this line in the Lord’s Prayer reminds us to “[be] merciful, just as [also] your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36). The virtue of love gives us the strength to be compassionate and find it in our hearts to forgive others and Jesus forgives us on the Cross: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).
Finally, today is the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary. When we pray the first three Hail Mary beads, after the Creed and the Our Father prayer, of the Holy Rosary, we are asking Mother Mary to intercede for us to her Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to increase in us the virtues of faith, hope, and love.
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