6. The Our Father

The great discourse on the mountain, which occupies chapters 5, 6 and 7 of the Gospel according to Matthew is an editorial work with which the evangelist collected the teachings of Jesus in the form of ‘loguia’, organizing them in such a way as to propose a basic formation for the Christian community. The great portal that opens this discourse are the beatitudes, the congratulations that the Lord gives to those who listen to him, announcing that God is on his side. This is the reason that makes them ‘Blessed,’ because it offers the possibility of being happy.

The discourse is organized with different particular tones. First of all, we find two sayings in which Jesus affirms to the disciples that they are 'the salt of the earth and the light of the world.' It is not an invitation to be, it is a statement, "you are." The fact that Jesus is wisdom gives flavor to the disciples, precisely because Jesus is the light, he enlightens the disciples, he lights them up so that the disciples become, in turn, luminous.

This action of giving flavor and giving light, Matthew considers it like the fulfillment of the law. Not the replacement, but the realization. He says it clearly: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish it, but to give it full compliance.” This is the theological principle of the Christian scribes of the school of Matthew. In dialogue and often in controversy with the Jewish synagogue, this school of scribes does not oppose the law and the prophets, that is, to the Old Testament. They understand it perfectly and affirm that Jesus is not overcoming of the old law but the fulfillment.

Thus, the evangelist collected a series of antitheses, which is what they are called technically. There are five formulas in which what the ancients said is contrasted with what Jesus says now. It is not about a change in the law, but about a deepening, a realization, a fulfillment. Jesus brings God's proposal to completion.

Jesus knows the original intention of the legislator who is God; and his presence allows you to really achieve what the Lord wants. It's not about changing the rules it is about communicating to people the possibility of living what God asks. The novelty is not in the legislation but in the person of Jesus. The fact that he exists, the fact that he communicates his love to humanity it is the new element that determines the change.

In the center of the discourse, in the middle of chapter 6, which is the central one, between 5 and 7, we find the “Our Father.” The heart of the mountain discourse is man's filial relationship with God. Discovering this dignity, living this relationship allows novelty. The fundamental center of Jesus' discourse is the announcement of the fatherhood of God and the teaching of the Lord's Prayer is the heart of this catechesis.

In chapter 6, therefore, in verse 7, we find this ‘loguion’, this saying, precisely from Jesus, who teaches to pray: "In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. The comparison is with the pagans, with those of other religions.

It's an important discourse and it was very heartfelt for Israel that differentiated itself from all other peoples and from the Christian community, a small group in the middle of a world that had other mentalities and other religions. The Christian community developed in a Greek-Roman environment that had a structure and a religious mindset. It was not an atheistic world; it was a religious world but different compared to the central message of Israel and the fullness of the revelation of Jesus.

The mentality of the pagans is that of those who believe that God hears them through words. It is an instinctive mentality and it ends up being our mentality as well, that is, thinking that with words we can convince the Lord. And multiplying the words, saying many prayers, is a fairly common vice common to many religious people. Jesus has a strong expression when he says: "Do not babble like the pagans… Do not be like them.” A distinction is made, a difference that lies in the quality of the relationship. You have a Father who knows you and knows what you need and want, He Himself, your own good.

The basic idea is the revelation of God, it is not man's prayer that is the determining moral aspect, but the being of God, the object of Jesus' preaching. God is Father; God knows you: God knows your needs; God wants your good. All these things are wanted because He might know and still be not interested or wanting something else.

Jesus reveals that God is a good, loving and caring Father who cares for his creatures, knows, can and wants to do so good to them. Therefore, there is no need to convince Him. So, “This is how you are to pray.” And then follows the teaching of the Lord's Prayer. It is a formula, but it is above all a model that we have learned and we repeat regularly but the “Our Father,” more than a prayer, is a model of prayer, a teaching on the style of Christian prayer.

It is also present in Luke who, however, proposes a slightly shorter text. Here we have another indication of the apostolic tradition who were commissioned to write the Gospel. Matthew presents a more complete text, with 7 invocations, particularly attentive to numbers, Mathew wanted to complete the prayer by taking it to the fullness of 7 and organizing these seven petitions in three plus three, with a central one.

They are formulas that may perhaps have been transmitted separately. They are expressions of prayer, attitudes of prayer, formulation of wishes. Synthetic elements that tell the style of the relationship with God. First, the invocation: "Our Father in heaven." NO my father ... it is a community reference. It is not an individualistic sentence. Even when I say it alone and speak to him calling Him 'Our Father'. Therefore, I pray alone but always pray with my brothers and sisters, recognizing that the person of God with whom I enter into relationship is not only for me, rather, he is our Father and is not on the earthly level, but rather on the heavenly level.

The image of the Father recalls a dimension of common experience, but it is not the common experience of the parents which allows me to understand how God is; it is precisely the revelation of God, the Father who is in heaven that makes us understand how parents should be on earth. And it is dangerous to say, for example, to a child "God loves you as much as your father." You could you talking to someone who has a bad father experience, this is also possible and that boy could answer you ‘If God loves me as much as my father, I am ruined,’ or ‘I reject God as I have rejected my father.’ So, it is not human experience that makes us understand God, but rather the revelation of God that helps us to become people, to become what we should be. God is the Father par excellence, He is the model, He is the revelation of Jesus, He specifies his way of being.

In front of this Father in whom we trust, our prayers are first oriented to Him. The first three invocations are characterized by realities that concern God. "Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done." There are three basic desires that do not concern us but God. This is called looking first the kingdom of God, hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God. I want Your name to be sanctified. I am not giving an order to God, ordering him to sanctify his name. I am expressing the desire that God's name be recognized as holy.

In biblical language, the "name" is the person as known, loved and esteemed. Therefore, the name of God, therefore, is the way God is known. Sanctify the name means showing the holy quality of God. Holy is the way of being of God that is different from everything created. God is other, different, different from what we know. His behavior is holy. To sanctify the name means to truly reveal who God is, what God is like. If we used a simple expression, almost childish, we could use the expression 'make a good impression.' It is what parents sometimes recommend to children, "I beg you not to make us look bad" because if a child misbehaves, in a rude way, the one who sees him thinks it is his parents’ fault: "Haven't they taught him?" "Look how they raised this child!" The child makes daddy look bad because it seems that the father did not raise him well.

How many times, instead, the parents taught children very well, but the children do not want to learn. We, as children of God, seriously run the risk of making a bad impression about our heavenly Father because they see us and despise Him. If those who are saved, if God's children behave in this way, what father do they have? What has he taught you? Obviously, with this class of sons and daughters He can do nothing. Therefore, He is not appreciated.

The first wish in our prayer is: "Hallowed be your name." We want to show who You are in the right way. We want You to look good. Second, we want your kingdom to come, it is not that the kingdom of God will come if we ask for it. If we don't ask for it, won't it come? It's our wish. Jesus teaches the disciples to desire the kingdom, that is to say, let God be the one who reigns, the one who commands, the one who guides. When I say: 'let your kingdom come' I am expressing a basic wish of mine. I want You to reign in me, in our lives, in the whole world.

"Your will be done." It is not resignation. It is not a passive acceptance: ‘Do what you want’, rather, it is the desire that God's project be fulfilled. Perhaps it will help us to understand better if we add a contraposition: 'Your will be done, not that of the others.' We want God's plan to come true, not other forces, other human opinions, determine our history. 'Your will': We want your project to be carried out as you have thought it in heaven, so that it be carried out on earth.

This formula marks the passage of the reality of God: His name, His kingdom, His will, to human earthly realities. And indeed, the second part of the Our Father, includes our things, starting with our bread. It is a positive request.

"Give us today our daily bread." It is the synthesis of everything we need. It is the formula of prayer in which we ask the Father to give us what we need, today, for what we need today. Tomorrow we will think about tomorrow and, above all, we ask for our bread, we do not ask that it rain bread from heaven, but that He give us the ability to make bread. "Give us our bread": it is the commitment to collaborate, not to wait for everything to rain from heaven. We ask God for the grace to make it grow, and we go to work to make bread.

The other three petitions, the last in the series, show the negative side of our story. Sin, temptation, evil. "Forgive us our depts., as we forgive our deptors." The concept of sin is expressed in the image of debt. There is something that we owe, that is missing, and there is a request for a pardon. It is the request of God's mercy to fill our voids, that He remedy our defects and give us the ability to do the same with others.

It is not that our forgiveness determines God's, we are not the measure of love: ‘Forgive us to the extent that we forgive’ but continue to forgive and we, by virtue of your forgiveness, we promise to do the same. "Do not subject us to the final test." A new version translates: "Do not abandon us to temptation."

This helps to better understand the meaning of the old way: ‘Do not subject us to the final test.' On a linguistic level, this formula is also correct, only it must be interpreted a bit. God does not push us to evil. If He test us, it is for our verification and our improvement. 'To incur temptation' means to give up at the time of the test. ‘Do not subject us,’ that is to say, do not abandon us. Don't let us go on like this.

Here we note that the sentences are always plural. For your part, forgive us, do not abandon us, but free us from evil. It is the child's prayer that asks the father to take him by the hand at this moment when he walks through a dangerous place. In the moment of trial, of difficulty, do not abandon us, but on the contrary, free us from what is bad. Or it could also be masculine, It can also be translated: "Deliver us from the evil one," from the wicked, deliver us from all that is evil. Be our liberator.

It is the prayer of Jesus. Modifications of these formulas are found within the habitual preaching of Jesus and in his prayer. Jesus prays to the Father because he is a son. In Jesus, we become sons and daughters. Thanks to him we receive God as Father and we learn to pray, that is, we learn to relate to Him with the full confidence of being his sons and daughters.