Posted by The WORD in other words (2006) by Frater Flavie Villanueva SVD – Divine Word Seminary of Tagaytay
Wednesday 27th Week in Ordinary Time
Reading through today’s Gospel verses makes me wonder what prompted the disciple to ask Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray the way just as John taught his disciples.” Though most of them were fishermen, these apostles were also devout Jews who lived and prayed as faithful Jews ought to do. So, what moved them to seek further instructions on prayer?
(Perhaps, we too can ask ourselves do we seek to find new ways in making our prayer life and our relationship with our God more meaningful) What new experience of prayer did they see in Jesus? Or perhaps we could ask, how did Jesus pray? Jesus’ response to the disciple’s inquiry was spontaneous, “when you pray say…” The “Our Father” came to be.
Jesus’ spontaneous response flowed from his intimate relationship with his Abba. His prayer was an expression of his dear relationship with His Father. This relationship could be grasp more deeply by looking at our own dear relationship with our parents and best friends. We have some significant persons in our life who we cherish and share our concerns, our worries and anxieties, our joys and hope. These we do without inhibition and with an assured feeling that these special people in our lives will understand us and will move heaven and earth to help us with our needs. That is what the prayer “Our Father” is all about.
The first part of the prayer “Father hallowed be your name” is directed to God, we acclaim his sovereignty and we affirm His great significance in our existence. Then the second part “give us each day our daily bread…forgive us our sins, do not let us fall into temptation” relates to our human needs addressed to our God who is loving and compassionate than any human person we would ever know.
Realizing now that the “Our Father” was a prayer that Jesus himself uttered out of the depths of his heart as a result of his intimate relationship with His Abba, who is also our Father and God, let us pay more serious attention when we pray it everyday.
