St. Isidore provides a succinct and
insightful commentary on the Our Father in his “Treatise on the Mass”:
“ ‘Our Father, who are in heaven.’ After his Resurrection, Christ said: ‘I ascend
to my Father and your Father.’ Sometimes
he called God his Father, and sometimes our Father. He called him his Father because, properly,
he is his Son, born of the substance of the Father before all ages, and
coeternal with him. He is our Father because
he created us in time, we are his adopted children, and we should possess a
heavenly inheritance from our heavenly Father, if we fulfill his works, for we
have pledged our faith to him. The word ‘heaven’ [coelo] is from the verb ‘to
conceal’ [celando], inasmuch as it hides divine secrets. Or, it is from the word ‘heights’
[celsitudo], inasmuch as it is high above the things of this world. Therefore, we say: Our Father, who are in
heaven, in order to show that we believe in a heavenly Father, and as children
of our Father, we desire to fulfill his commandments. And, in fulfilling his commandments, we ever
desire to tend to heaven.
“ ‘Holy be your name.’ That is, may we be worthy to hold his holy
name in our hearts. And, just as the
holy angels know and comprehend the holiness of his name, so may we, who are on
earth, merit to know his sanctity by his help.
May his name be sanctified on earth as it is in heaven. ‘May your kingdom come.’ That is, may we merit to know his kingdom
and power so that the devil may not reign over us because of our sins; but may
our Father’s kingdom come, as it is written in the Gospel: ‘The kingdom of God
is among you.’
“ ‘May your will be done on earth as it
is in heaven.’ That is, just as those in
heaven carry out his will, so may we who are on earth do it. The word ‘earth’ [terra] is from the verb ‘to
tread’ [terendo], for the earth is trod by our feet. ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’ The Greek word for ‘bread’ means ‘all’, in
our language. We pray that almighty God
might deign to grant us ‘all’ nourishment, spiritual and bodily, at all
times. ‘And forgive us our debts, as we
forgive our debtors.’ There is no
injustice in seeking payment for a debt owed to us, but if almighty God
requires us to pay back all our debts, no one will go free. We should forgive those who owe debts to us
so that the Almighty may forgive ours, for he said: ‘If you do not forgive each
of your brothers from your heart, neither will your heavenly Father forgive
your sins’ (Matthew 18, 35). In another
place, he said: ‘They will gather out of his kingdom all scandals’ (Matthew 13,
41). So, if a sacrifice is offered in
scandal, it is not received: the man offering is commanded to leave his gift
before the altar until he is reconciled with his brother, and then he may make
his offering with a pure heart (cf. Matthew 5, 23-24).
“ ‘And do not lead us into
temptation.’ That is, lest we enter into
temptation, in which the devil tempts us, and we consent to him. But may the Lord defend us lest we be led
into diabolic temptation. If he sends us
away, right away we will be led into the pit of the devil, and so we ask that
the Lord free us from evil – that is, from every attack of the devil.”
No comments:
Post a Comment