OUR FATHER

OUR FATHER

“After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.” (Matt. 6:9-13).

The apostles asked Jesus for a prayer. He had told them to pray briefly and secretly, but they were not satisfied with any prayers recommended by the lukewarm, academic priests of the Temple. They wanted a prayer of their own which would be like a countersign among the fraternity of Christ. Jesus on the Mount taught for the first time the Paternoster, the only prayer which He ever taught. It is one of the simplest prayers in the world, the most profound which goes up from human homes to God, a prayer neither literary nor theological—neither bold nor submissive—the most beautiful of all prayers. But though the Lord's Prayer is simple, it is not always understood. The century-old, mechanical reiteration of tongues and lips, the formal ritual repetition, have made it almost a string of syllables from which the original meaning has been lost. Reading it over word for word today like a new text, which we read for the first time, it loses its ritual predictability, and freshens into its first meaning.

"Our Father"; for we have sprung from Thee and love Thee as sons; from Thee we shall receive no wrong.

"Which art in heaven"—in that which is opposed to the earth, in the opposite sphere from matter, in spirit and in that small but eternal part of the spirit which is our soul.

"Hallowed be Thy name"; let us not only adore Thee with words but be worthy of Thee, drawing nearer to Thee with greater love, because Thou art no longer the avenger, the Lord of Battles, but the Father who teaches the joyfulness of peace.

"Thy Kingdom come"—the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God, of the spirit of love, that of the Gospel.

"Thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven"—may Thy law of goodness and of perfection rule both spirit and matter, both the visible and invisible universe.

"Give us this day our daily bread"; because our material body, necessary support of the spirit, needs every day a little material food to maintain it. We do not ask of Thee riches, dangerous burden, but only that small amount which permits us to live, to become more worthy of the promised life. Man does not live by bread alone, and yet without a morsel of bread the soul, living in the body, could not nourish itself on other things more precious than bread.

"Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." Pardon us because we pardon others. Thou art our eternal and in­finite creditor. We can never pay our debt to Thee, but re­member that because of our weakness, it is more of an effort for us to forgive one single debt of a single one of our debtors than it is for Thee to sweep away the record of all that we owe Thee.

"Lead us not into temptation." We are weak, still snared in fleshliness in this world which at times seems so beautiful and calls us to all the delights of faithlessness. Help us that our struggling transformation may not be too difficult, and that our entry into the Kingdom may not be too long delayed.

"Deliver us from evil"—Thou Who art in Heaven, Who art spirit, Who has power over evil, over stubborn and hostile mat­ter which surrounds us everywhere, and from which it is hard to free ourselves, Thou enemy of Satan, negation of matter, help us! Our true greatness lies in this victory over evil, over evil which springs up constantly because it will not be truly conquered until all have conquered it. But this decisive vic­tory will be less distant if Thou help us with Thy alliance.

With this appeal for aid, the Lord's Prayer ends. In it are none of the tiresome flatteries of Oriental prayers, rituals of admiration and inflation which seem invented by a dog, adoring his master with his dog's soul, because his master permits him to exist and to eat? There are none of the difficult, complaining supplications of the Psalmist who asks God for every variety of aid, more often temporal than spirit­ual, laments if the harvest has not been good, if his fellow-citizens do not respect him, and calls down wounds and arrows on the enemies whom he cannot conquer himself. In the Lord's Prayer the only word of praise is the word "Father"; and that praise is a pledge, a testimony of love. From the Father we ask only for a little bread, and we ask in addition the same pardon that we give our enemies; and at the last a valid protection in our fight with evil, the enemy of all, the great wall which hinders our entry into the Kingdom.

He who says "Our Father" is not proud but neither is he humbled; he speaks to his Father with the intimate quiet ac­cent of confidence almost as from one equal to another. He is sure of his love and he knows that his Father needs no long speeches to know his desires. "Your Father," says Jesus, "knows what things ye have need of before ye ask Him." (Matt. 6:8) Thus the most beautiful of all the prayers is a daily calling to mind of all that we need if we are to become like God.