Wednesday in the 27th Week of Ordinary Time, October 11, 2023

Luke 11, 1-4

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your Kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test.”

According to St. Matthew, Jesus taught his disciples to pray the prayer we call the Our Father, or, The Lord’s Prayer, during the course of his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6, 9-12).  Probably the Lord was asked more than once and in various places where he preached as to how to pray.  Significantly, his disciples would have wanted to know how he wanted them to pray since the Pharisees and St. John the Baptist taught their disciples distinct ways to pray (Luke 11, 1).  The prayer the Lord teaches in the two accounts has enough similarities to tell us it is the same prayer, but we might wonder why Luke’s account is shorter than Matthew’s.  This could be because the Lord gave a shorter version to the disciples on this occasion.  It could also be because this is the version that had come down to Luke from his sources.  It could also be because Luke wanted to highlight certain aspects of the prayer and so he shortened it himself, knowing that it was already recited in its fullness by the faithful at the time he was writing his Gospel.  

“Father, hallowed be your name, your Kingdom come.”  That is, “Father, make your name to be sanctified.”  Interestingly, both Matthew and Luke use the very unusual passive aorist imperative, confirming that this is the same prayer.  It is hard to translate this in a way that makes sense in English.  It would be revealing to know what the original Hebrew form of this prayer was, for Hebrew was the language of prayer for the Jews, even for those who spoke Greek.  In this first line of the prayer we beseech God to show forth his power and glory.  We might think of how Jesus cried out one day in Jerusalem, “Father, glorify your name!”  And then, “A voice therefore came from heaven: I have both glorified it and will glorify it again” (John 12, 28).  In the context, the Father is saying that he will glorify himself in the obedience of his Son in dying on the Cross, and that it will be glorified again when he raises his Son from the dead.  When Jesus is teaching his disciples to pray, as recorded in Luke, we ought to pray that the Father glorify his name through our obedience to his holy will and through our resurrection and salvation in heaven.  This also completes the meaning of, “Make your Kingdom to come.”

“Give us each day our daily bread.”  That is, “Give us the bread that is necessary for us.”  Or, Give us that which is necessary for us, in terms of what we need to live and to be saved.  We recall how Jesus told his Apostles, “My bread is to do the will of my Father” (John 4, 34).  As his servants, we rely on him to feed us so that we may continue to serve him.  We do not go to other masters and seek food from them lest they insist we serve them.

And forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us.”  There were no small debts in ancient Israel.  A person borrowed only when the alternative was going hungry, which meant that the one who borrowed had limited means to repay.  Usury being the norm, a debt could quickly become such that a debtor might be threatened with prison.  The forgiveness of debt gave new life to the borrower and his family.  Understanding that we cannot pay back the debt to God our sin incurs and that he still forgives us when we plead for mercy helps us to see how relatively small are the debts owed to us by others.  We should, in fact, rejoice to have the opportunity of forgiving someone’s debt to us. 

 “And do not subject us to the final test.”  The Lord Jesus, as he went off to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane, advised his Apostles, “Pray, lest ye be put to the test” (Luke 22, 40).  What sort of test?  Earlier, at the Last Supper, Jesus warned Peter, “Behold Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not: and you, being once converted, confirm your brethren” (Luke 22, 31-32).  This is the test of our faith that we undergo throughout our lives but which will especially come at the end of our lives, either through persecution or through fear of what is to come.  It is so necessary now that we pray that we may receive the strength to overcome all temptations against our faith in Jesus for we do not know when our final moment on earth shall come.

Luke’s record of the Our Father highlights for us it’s main thrust, that we pray for our salvation while we can.