Our Father..We just have to ask....

The LORD bless you and keep you!



The LORD let his face shine upon

you, and be gracious to you!



The LORD look upon you kindly and

give you peace!

Have you ever heard someone ‘speaking in tongues’, one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit that St. Paul writes about in 1 Corninthians:14?  I haven’t either, but I imagine it to be somewhat like an experience I had at Mass a few weeks back.

We were at the point in the Mass just after the Consecration (when the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ) when we are prompted by the priest to ‘Pray in the words our Savior gave us’, and we pray the Lord’s Prayer.  Usually, the Prayer has a certain cadence to it, and all of the words come out clear as if in one unified voice; but on this day, it sounded like everyone was saying something entirely different!  No two recitations were the same.  The priest hesitated after the prayer and said, “Wow!  What just happened?  It’s OK if you want to recite the prayer with conviction to each of the words, but I couldn’t understand any of you!”  We all looked at one another as if to say, “He’s right!  What the heck was that?”  But we continued the Mass and it didn’t happen again.   

Most of us probably learned the Lord’s Prayer as a child, when the meaning of its words could not be fully grasped.  Now, when we hear “Our Father, who . . .” we immediately slip into autopilot, mouthing the familiar words, but with our minds too often wandering elsewhere.

Several years ago, I made the conscious decision to pray each of the prayers I say everyday as if it were the first time I heard or read the words, so as to make my prayers more meaningful not only to God, but to anyone around me who may be listening.  It has been great food for meditation.

For instance, pause now, and simply say those two words aloud: "Our Father."  They are just two little words, but oh, what an infinite amount of meaning they contain!  Enough meaning to fill an ocean! 

When Jesus taught His followers to begin their prayer to God by saying "Our Father," He chose not to say "My Father," or "Your Father," but "Our Father."  He was uniting Himself with His disciples as their human brother.  He was completely human, in solidarity with the human race.  One of us.

Going on to the second word, Jesus did not say "Our God," but "Our Father."  That form of address put His followers - including us - into an amazing relationship with almighty God.  We have been taught by the Son of God to address God as Father.  We are children of God!  Isn't that truly awesome?

By these two words - Our Father - Jesus shows us as His followers that we are part of His eternal family, which makes a whole new intimate relationship with God possible.

Because Jesus taught us to call God "Our Father," a beautiful door has opened for us leading straight to God.  What an awesome privilege to open it and walk through it!

It takes quite a bit of reflection to realize that despite the words we’re saying when we say the Lord’s Prayer, in our hearts often we are not really asking God to do anything.  “Ask” is the operative word here.  It’s important to recall that, in the New Testament, the word we translate “pray” almost always means “ask”.  Prayer is not just a pious act; it is a request.  When Jesus says, “this is how you are to pray”, the words might be better translated as “this is what you are to ask God for.”  Thus it makes particularly good sense to note that Matthew introduces the Lord’s Prayer by quoting Jesus on what not to ask for – food, clothing, shelter (Matthew 6:5-15).  God knows we need those things and has provided a world that, if we tend it right and help one another, meets those needs.  No, Jesus says, ask God to do what only God can do – bring about God’s kingdom – now, in our world – a kingdom characterized by forgiveness.

The good news is that God freely extends forgiveness to us, but we have to cooperate with that gift.   The Church’s mission is to extend that forgiveness to everyone and in every age – not the Church as organization so much as we, its individual members; the entire people of God.  It is precisely that mission that runs like a central theme throughout John’s gospel, from the Baptist’s description of Jesus as “the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” to Jesus’ final words to His disciples on Easter night “As the Father has sent Me so I also send you . . . whose sins you shall forgive are forgiven them . . .”  God’s life in us – in God’s church – is what enables us to do that.  That’s what we are to ask for.

God’s forgiveness is extended through us.  It’s just that simple.  We just have to ask . . .