PRAYER
A lot of things happened to me in the fourth grade that really impacted my views later in life. One of the most memorable involved prayer. One week Sister Julie Anne had the class say three Hail Marys each day for a Notre Dame victory. On that Saturday Notre Dame lost to Army (The Military University) 59-0! I was crushed.
Maturing in prayer is a journey. The sixth chapter of St. Matthew, part of the Sermon on the Mount, has some marvelous insights into prayer. This teaching about confidence in God is at the heart of what is our goal in the prayer of petition.
One of the great things about prayer, no matter how misdirected, is that it helps us grow in mindfulness of our dependence on God. The Scriptures assist us to gradually understand that this awareness of our dependence on God is a beautiful and liberating gift. It draws us into the truth that God has a better plan for us.
So much of our prayer is directed to our own wishes. One of the central messages of the Sermon on the Mount is God’s better plan. When we pray as the Sermon proclaims “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done” we truly are asking God’s help for us to participate in seeking God’s plan. We are asking that we open ourselves to let God be God and let no creature deceive us and draw us away from this gracious and loving God.
Jesus’ message on prayer starts out by telling us not to pray as the pagans pray. Their prayer is described as an effort to wear down with volume and perseverance. They search for the right phrase to gain the desired response from a somewhat indifferent deity.
Jesus’s’ invitation to pray is totally opposite. God already knows what we need. God’s generosity is a given. According to Jesus, what is needed is a human heart disposed to the big-heartedness of the Father.
The structure of the Lord’s Prayer is clear. The first part draws us into the domain of Our Father who is both holy and loving. There is a divine plan. The petitions of the first part of the prayer place all the attention on God: the loving Father, the holy name, God’s Kingdom and God’s will. We are pulled away from our small world of self-interest. In the second part, we come back to our needs and our dependence on God.
The initial address of “Our Father” is an expression in the original language of parental tenderness and endearment. Today it would be “Daddy” or “Pop” or some similar utterance. Likewise, an additional point of consequence is that Jesus is creating a new family of God in the community of his disciples. All members are invited into this divine relationship of intimacy and confidence.
The next three petitions, in truth, are one: the coming of the Kingdom, the central message of Jesus. The holiness of God’s name and God’s will are biblical statements accepting this new eruption into reality of Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom.
The Kingdom is God responding to the consequences of sin flowing from the tragedy in the Garden. The first eleven chapters of Genesis describe this destructive evolution of evil that permeates our world. From the call of Abraham to Jesus’ declaration of the Kingdom we have the counter-evolution of love in God’s plan. The many expressions of the bondage to sin and death and, most of all, alienation from God are now giving way to the saving presence of Jesus and his new family of faith. The Kingdom is, indeed, the seed that will become the great tree to shelter all the birds. (Mt13:31-32) We participate in this coming when we are walking with Jesus in a life of love and service to the Kingdom.
When we pray for God’s Kingdom, we are praying for deliverance from the consequences of sin. The magnitude of this petition is easy to miss. This prayer includes practically anything that is good: healing our child’s flu or elimination of sexual slavery, success in the driver’s test and the conversion of the gangs. God’s Kingdom will wipe away all sickness, every prejudice, any expressions of inhumanity, every dimension of poverty, divisions of every kind and the list goes on and on. All evil, particularly death, is vanquished by the coming of God’s Kingdom. The hidden Alleluia of Christ’s victory is always the wheat overcoming the weeds in our midst. (Mt 13:24-30)
When we pray “Thy Kingdom come” we are praying for all that we need and perhaps even some of what we want. All our varied petitions in the prayer of the faithful, in our rosary, all our novena intentions, and each the hidden desire in our heart are most likely included in God’s Kingdom. It is still good to pray for the individual items because it helps us become mindful of our need for God.
The second set of petitions reflect a pilgrim people similar to the Israelites wandering the dessert. The manna is the bread for human material needs. The bread as a symbol of the Eucharist is also part of our prayer. God forgives. However, we can block that flow of mercy if we do not forgive. The final petition is that the forces of evil will not prevail in our personal, communal and historical reality.
The Lord’s Prayer is the prayer of the family of God on the journey to the unity, harmony and freedom of the New Creation. It invites us to a consciousness of a total reliance on God. It helps us experience the sense of divine intimacy. It fills us with hope.
Teresa of Avila truly understood the twofold division of the Our Father: for God and for us. This allowed her to express her experience of God. It permeated all her teaching in both its profundity and simplicity. God is the Creator and we are creatures. God is a loving and merciful Creator. We are sinful but forgiven and loved creatures called into oneness with God. The story of our lives is the loving mercy of God.
In Teresa’s teaching on prayer, self-knowledge is a cornerstone. This fundamental insight helps us grow in clarity about our total dependence on God.
The rest of chapter six of Matthew is Jesus’ teaching on possessions. For Jesus, the desire to have our “treasures on earth” (Mt 6:19) flows from a distorted heart. This creates an illusion of security but in fact an enslaved heart is the result. “Set your hearts on his Kingdom first and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Mt 6:33)
The Sermon is about the call inward to the depths of the heart. This inner authenticity is a constant theme in the Sermon. We need to find our security in God and not in possessions. Growth in true prayer helps us discover God at the center. It lets us gradually move away from worry and anxiety. This is a process that demands a lifetime struggle to transform our values and priorities.
Teresa has a helpful insight about possessions. She says they either help us to draw closer to God or they do not. We need to mature in discerning the difference.
Our problem is this. The human heart is an idol making machine. We are so much more important in God’s eyes than the lilies of the field and the beautiful birds of the sky. (Mt 6:26-28) We do not need idols for our security. “What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him.” (I Cor 2:9)
God’s Kingdom, proclaimed by Jesus, is the fullest and most absolute expression of God’s loving plan. Jesus continues: “So do not worry; do not say, ‘What are we to eat? What are we to drink? How are we to be clothed?’ It is the pagans who set their hearts on all these things. Your heavenly Father knows you need them all.” (Mt 6: 31-32) Jesus is teaching us to make no small plans. Get in touch with the big plan where God truly knows what is best for us! We will find this hidden treasure (Mt 13:44) in the footsteps of Jesus.
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