PRAYER IS TALKING TO GOD

I would like to start our Great Lenten pilgrimage by reflecting each week on a sentence of the Lord’s Prayer, taught by Jesus Christ upon the request of the Apostles who said to Him, “Lord, teach us how to pray” (Mt. 6:9-13).  

The briefest explanation I would like to offer on this subject is not a tabula rasa, because many volumes have extensively discussed the Lord’s Prayer, from the early Church Fathers through contemporary Christian scholars. I would therefore like to highlight a few points, which have been part of my spiritual growth in understanding, and I have been practicing in my own life. 

Let us surrender ourselves to the Heavenly Wisdom and start with the first sentence: “Our Father who art in heaven.” By referring to God as Father, we should be aware that Jesus was not discussing the gender of God. And since Jesus referred to Him as Father, we respectfully honor the original word uttered from His sacred mouth. 

By calling God “Father,” and more authentically “Dad,” Jesus is teaching us a fundamental notion that we are in communion with someone with features of a person, who, par excellence, is Love. As humans, regardless of our age, do we not expect to be loved? Our heavenly Father is the One in whom we find unconditional and infinite love, care, understanding, forgiveness, patience, respect, etc. 

By addressing God as “Our Father,” without losing our individual and collective identity, we find ourselves tremendously blessed, because with all our ethnic, gender, and other differences, we discover our oneness in Him. As in every family, among the members, all kinds of differences are normal as a part of everyone’s identity, individuality, and unique position. But even so, it does not challenge belonging to the same family.  This is also true in this case once we acknowledge ourselves as the members of the universal family of the Heavenly Father, since we have been called brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, having confessed Him as Lord and Savior.  

For a moment, let us think about the impact of this phrase: How much our life could be transformed on our planet, if only we interact with each other as individuals and even as nations with the same heavenly Father? 

By praying “Our Father who art in heaven,” we acknowledge that He fills not only a house, a country, but even the earth, because the entire universe has been created by Him. And yet, we should never think that He is too far from us, but rather as Jeremiah 23:23 reveals, God is always near to all those who trust Him and call upon His name. 

With this understanding, let us always pray, in other words, let us talk to Him as we talk to our parents, with familiarity and without formality, always with love and respect. In our humility before our heavenly Father, may we enjoy His blessings here and in the Life hereafter.