1.
There are three ‘you’ petitions and
three ‘we’ petitions in this Matthean version of our Lord’s Prayer. Among the
three ‘you’ petitions the central petition is “May your kingdom come” which
expresses hopes in the coming of God’s kingdom – all creatures will declare the
holiness of God!
2.
The three we petitions presupposes
eschatological expectation a. Sustenance for the day (heavenly banquet), b.
Forgiveness of sins (involves judgment) c. Divine protection in eschatological
testing (dangerous struggle with Satan).
3.
This prayer is considered the shortened
version of Eighteen Benediction of Jews which consists of 3 introductory
praises, 12 petitions for personal and communal needs and 3 concluding praises.
4.
The specific words which Jesus used are
not any more sacred than request we might make expressing the same kids of
desires to the Father; we should seek to learn to pray like Jesus not merely
what Jesus prayed.
5.
The pattern of meaningful prayer is to
begin by majority on the person and nature of God and His kingdom interests,
coming to the personal requests and needs only secondarily.
Our Father
: Should be prayed in fellowship with other believers (Communitarian)
Hallowed be thy name:
‘Hallowed’ means to sanctify - make holy; we should come before God with an
attitude of reverence for God’s perfection.
Your kingdom come thy
will be done: God’s kingdom is not completely
fulfilled on the earth – therefore the task of spreading of God’s kingdom
around the world is given to the Church and the kingdom servants.
On Earth as in Heaven:
There is no sin and rebellion in heaven; hindrances are present only on earth.
Give us today our daily
bread: During Jesus’ time most of the people lived ‘hand
to mouth existence! This phrase befits all the lowly and the marginalized.
Forgive us our debts:
One does not gain forgiveness by forgiving but a person evidences his or her
own forgiveness by forgiving others.
Lead us not into Temptation:
God does not give us temptation it the work of the Evil one. But here we pray
God to give us the strength to stand steadfast in our love for God and win the
temptations as did Jesus.
We pray this prayer
number of times without realizing that it is the compendium of all the types of
prayers like prayer of praise and thanksgiving, prayer of petition and prayer
of penance! Tertullian calls it as the summary of the Gospels. Let us pray this
simple and profound prayer realizing its worth.
Courtesy
Sacra Pagina
Series
Holman New
Testament Commentaries
Introduction to
New Testament – Raymond Brown
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