OUR FATHER

Luke 11:1-13

A businessman who needed millions of dollars to clinch an important deal went to church to pray for the money. By chance he knelt next to a poor man who was praying for $100 to pay an urgent debt. The businessman heard this poor man say: “Lord I beg you please give me 100$ because I am in debt”. Then the businessman took out his wallet and pressed $100 into the poor man’s hand. Overjoyed, the poor man got up and left the church very happy. The businessman then closed his eyes and prayed saying: “And now, Lord, that I have all your undivided attention on me alone because I have freed you from this poor man was disturbing you to get only a hundred, listen to my prayer and grant my request”.

This example of two men at prayer, can teach us a lot about Christian prayer. It shows us that both rich and poor make time to pray, but sometimes in a very wrong way. This example also highlights the problem that today’s gospel seems to focus upon, that of the right disposition for Christian prayer. For both, the poor and the businessman we see that God is portrayed as the big boss. Is that the right understanding of God for Christian prayer? The request of the disciples to Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray” can be understood as a quest for the proper disposition for Christian prayer. The reply that Jesus gives them can be summarized in one sentence: the right disposition for Christian prayer is the disposition of a child before its father.

To the disciples’ request, Jesus gives a long response which is the prayer we call the “Our Father”. Jesus begins this response with the words, “When you pray, say: ‘Father’” and ends with the words, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father.” We see immediately that prayer, according to Jesus, is a father-child affair. In other words, it is a family affair based on a relationship of familiarity and love. Jesus uses the image of the father here in order to correct the dominant image of God as the boss or the king who is to be revered rather than loved. Christian prayer should be an expression of a relationship based on love, tenderness, and intimacy; not on power and authority.

To pray as Christians is to put ourselves in the situation where we see God as father and speak to Him as His children. When a child wants something from his father he will ask and ask until he gets it because he has faith and trust that Daddy will give.  Our God is not a Chief Judge or a Law Enforcement Officer before whom one must use the “right” words. Jesus is showing us another face of God, other than King, Lord, Judge and Creator as presented in the Old Testament. Our God is “Abba” (Daddy) before whom there are no correct formulas than the language of love.

This prayer of the Our Father has two parts. The first part is the praise of our Father with three petitions: Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, they will be done. The second part also with three petitions is directed to the concrete and basic needs of the believer: our bread, our debts and our deliverance. And Jesus explains one petition, that of forgiveness to show that this is central to Christ’s own teaching; that is the reason why He came: to reconcile us with one another and with the Father. Forgive us our sins as we also forgive. The measure of forgiveness is how we forgive.

Speaking of prayer as a father-child affair finally reminds us that prayer is an activity that flows out of a relationship; not out of needs. In the second reading Saint Paul reminds us that for us Christian believers, Christ is all-sufficient in our relationship with God because we were buried with him in baptism, and were raised with him through faith in the power of God. We do not learn how to pray better, we become better women and men of prayer when our relationship with God becomes more intimate like that of a father and a child; being able to talk to God like in a father-child conversation. If you want to improve your prayer, focus on improving your personal relationship with God. Make it like that of a father and a child.