06 October 2021 LUKE 11: 1-4 (Wednesday of the 27th Week in Ordinary Time) ESSENCE OF LORD’S PRAYERÂ
Prayer was the most essential part of the Life of Jesus as it is narrated in the gospel Jesus withdrawing to wilderness (Luke 5:16), retiring to Mountains (Luke 6:12) or leaving the crowd (Luke 9:18) for prayer. The disciples surely knew how to make Jewish traditional prayers, but perhaps the disciples as followers of Jesus wanted to learn the distinctive way of prayer expressed in the message and ministry of their master. Thus, they ask Jesus to teach them to pray.
People generally look at Lord’s Prayer ‘Our Father’ as a spiritual formula of words to be recited repeatedly. But going deeper to the essence of the Lord’s Prayer we would understand that this prayer is all about relationships. My relationship with God as expressed in the use of the noun “Father” and relationship with humanity as expressed in the use of the pronoun “Our.” After all Christian spirituality is all about these two dimensions of relationship that is relationship with God and humanity.
Two dimensions of our relationship with God expressed in Lord’s Prayer. (1) “Thy Kingdom Come.” This Prayer is all about trusting in the loving care of the Heavenly Father. When God’s kingdom comes or when I do the will of God, I let go my kingdom of my self-will.
(2) “Forgive us our sins…” This is acknowledging our identity in relation to God as sinners before God. We admit that we are in need of God’s mercy. No relationship will last without forgiveness; between God and man also between man and man. Amen.