Wednesday in the 27th Week of Ordinary Time, October 6, 2021

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.”

I will begin a live Bible Study over the internet starting this Monday (10-11-21, which is Columbus Day) at 8:00 PM eastern time, 7:00 PM central time.  This comes as a response to a request from some friends who are now located in South Dakota, and everyone is welcome.  As with the Bible Study at Blessed Sacrament in Alexandria, Virginia, where I am now assigned, this Bible Study will be held weekly for about an hour, including time for questions, which are encouraged.  This Bible Study will begin with a thorough look at the Gospel of St. Matthew, which will take some weeks.  I would be happy for suggestions as to topics or Biblical books people would like to see covered in the future.  The link for the Bible Study is http://meet.google.com/bji-vmbk-sqy

“Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.”  It is a sign of just how distinct the Lord Jesus was as a teacher with a considerable following that, up until his final journey to Jerusalem, he had not taught his disciples to pray in a particular way.  Various leaders among the Pharisees taught their disciples particular prayers to say, and we see here that John the Baptist also had done this.  Jesus seems to wait for the Apostles to ask him to teach them.  That is, they must pray to him to teach them.  That is not to say that the Apostles were not praying previously.  The Lord would have led them in the Psalms and in various other prayers and blessings.  For instance, they would have chanted the Psalms of the Ascent Psalms 120-134) on the road to Jerusalem for the great festivals.  It may be that the Lord waited for them to ask him to teach them to pray because he wanted them to grow in their understanding of their need for this.  The Lord does this with us too.  He knows what we need before we do and many times he gives it to us before we can ask, but he wants us to grow in our faith and love and our understanding of our utter dependence on him.  Our parents carry us when we are very young, but they do not walk for us forever.  They wait for us to gain the strength to walk and then start encouraging us to walk rather than listen to our demands to be carried.

“Father, hallowed be your name, your Kingdom come.”  St. Matthew sets his account of the Lord teaching his disciples to pray into the collection of teachings known as the Sermon on the Mount, as his concern is not so much chronology as grouping teachings and miracles together.  St. Luke places his account in its proper time.  It is the same prayer, but as we have it from each of the two Evangelists, it is translated from the original Hebrew or Aramaic in which the Lord taught it into Greek.  Remarkably, the translations differ only in a few details.  The prayer Jesus teaches begins with the invocation of God the Father and a prayer for the glorification of his name.  The Greek should be translated as “Let your name be sanctified.”  The verb is in the imperative, but it is also passive, so it cannot be translated as “Sanctify your name”.  That is, we who are praying do not call upon the Lord to sanctify his name, but to let it be sanctified.  Who could or would sanctify it if not God?  That is for us to do: Let your name be sanctified by us, that is, by our holiness, which is your gift.  

“Your kingdom come.”  That is, “Let your kingdom come”.  Again, the passive imperative.  The implication is that God’s kingdom is coming and we desire it.  We ask that its coming not be delayed.  With the earliest Christians, we cry out, “Amen, Come Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22, 20).  Essentially, this is the main subject of the prayer, as the other petitions beseech God to make us ready for the coming of the kingdom.  

“Give us each day our daily bread.”  The Greek: “Give us this day the bread necessary for us.”  This is different from the translation we have in the Greek version, in which the bread is called “super-substantial”, or bread sufficient for today and also for tomorrow.  This Bread strengthens us for the coming of the kingdom.

“Forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us.”  This too prepares us for the kingdom.  If we do not forgive others, we ourselves will not be forgiven.

“Do not subject us to the final test.”  The Greek: “Do not lead us to the testing”, “trial” or “temptation”:  as the Lord Jesus tells us of the years leading to the great judgment: “There will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if [the number of] those days had not been shortened, no human being would be saved” (Matthew 24, 21-22).  A ferocious persecution will arise against the Church in those days and many Christians, including bishops and priests, will flee from Christ.  None of us can be certain that our faith will survive this trial.  Sanctifying God’s name with our personal holiness, praying earnestly, receiving the Body of Christ, frequenting Confession, and forgiving those who have sinned against us will aid us in whatever trial that comes to us.