Apologetics Lecture Series Lecture Four - The Lord’s Prayer

Apologetics Course Lecture Four – The Lord’s Prayer

This series of lectures is not intended to be an all-encompassing, academic course on Apologetics. This study guide is not intended to be a textbook for comprehensive information; it should be used in conjunction with the lecture on a particular topic. We will review, somewhat in depth, the traditions and teachings of the Catholic Church over the course of our lectures. Our series is designed to light the fire of the Gospels within you and encourage further research and education into our faith and its rich history.

Dignity/San Diego 2019

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The Lord’s Prayer – An Overview

Whether we refer to it as the “Our Father,” the “Lord’s Prayer,” the “Pater Nostra,” or any other name given it, the prayer which we speak of today is, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) declares, the “most perfect of prayers” (CCC 2763) and as Tertullian wrote, “is truly the summary of the whole gospel.” What then is it which we should know about the Lord’s Prayer when we recite it during Mass or at other times? What is it we pray when we recite the words our Lord taught us?

The words of the Lord’s Prayer are found in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus teaches everyone how they are to pray; in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is off praying by himself and the disciples ask Jesus how it is they should pray. The version which we pray today is closest to the version which is found in the Gospel of Matthew.

Revolutionary for the time, Jesus encourages those who are with him to refer to God as “father.” In fact, in the Sermon on the Mount contained in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus refers to God as the “father” 17 times, the exact amount of times which God is referred to as “father” in the entire Old Testament. This is indeed a new and important lesson to be learned by us all.

The prayer, in itself, is a series of petitions – seven to be exact. The prayer has two parts, the first focused on God and the second focused on ourselves. In the same paragraph as above, CCC 2763, the Catechism says, “In it we ask, not only for all the things which we can rightly desire, but also in the sequence they should be desired.”

We will look at all seven of the petitions which this prayer gives to us and examine what each of them means. We will look at the biblical implications of the prayers and why it is the most perfect of prayers. But first, we look first at why there are seven petitions.

The Hebrew word for “covenant” is the same as it is for the number seven: “shvah”. Seven is a holy number in Judaism and the holy significance carries through to the New Testament times. There are far too many instances where seven appears in both the Old and New Testament, but we can focus on the fact that this prayer, given to us by our Lord, is holy and God-given because of the presence of seven petitions. When we recite the prayer, we recite our renewed covenant with our God and recite not our words, but His words back to him in a perfect act of covenantal bonding.

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The Lord’s Prayer – The Preface

The Lord’s Prayer begins with the preface: “Our Father, who art in heaven.” While we might overlook this phrase, it is, as we stated previously, a complete change in the relationship with God for the people of the time.

Jesus refers to God as the “father” during the Sermon on the Mount as many times as the Jews referred to God as the “father” in the entire Old Testament – 17 times. This was a complete change in the way the people related to God. This new revelation of God, through Jesus, teaches us we are all sons and daughters of God as he is our Father in heaven. God’s fatherhood is revealed to his people through the experience and humanity of Jesus.

As we pray this prayer, we are in communion with God and with his Son, Jesus. (CCC 2781) Our communion comes from our choosing to adopt our new relationship with God through this revelation. In the Gospel of Luke, the apostles ask Jesus to teach them how to pray. He teaches them this as the prayer they need to recite when they pray. Matthew expands on this a bit more by saying to everyone to pray quietly and intimately with God; to not babble like the pagans or overtly like those who wish to be seen in the temples. Jesus says, “Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask.” (Mark 6:8)

We also pray this prayer to “our” father; not Jesus’ father, not someone else’s father, but our father. We are all, by virtue of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, entered into the holy and royal family of God. As the Catechism states, “’Our’ father refers to God. The adjective, as used by us, does not express possession, but an entirely new relationship with God.” (CCC 2786) And, as such, when we pray “our” we pray for the entire church – the entire people as the body of Christ – and understand our communion with everyone.

The word “our” allows us to leave behind our “individualism” and understand the work of salvation – for ourselves and for others – is dependent on everyone, not just us as individuals. This is not to say we lose our individuality and uniqueness – after all, we are all created in the image of God (“God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” [Genesis 1:27]) We instead come to understand we no longer are alone in our work to bring about our salvation; we are all members of the same family which Jesus as our brother, who is the Son of God our Father.

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We also know when we pray “who art in heaven” we are not an earthly people. Our focus should not be on those things temporal, but heavenly. We, as Christians, are described as “in the flesh, but do not live according to the flesh. [We] spend our lives on earth but are citizens of heaven.” (CCC 2796)

The promise of that which is to come – the beatific vision of God in heaven – should bring us comfort and courage to recite the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer to join ourselves, along with the greater family of God found in the Church, to our Lord’s words.

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The Lord’s Prayer – Hallowed Be Thy Name

As we mentioned previously, the Lord’s Prayer is comprised of seven petitions. The first three petitions are focused on God. As the Catechism states, the Lord’s Prayer is the perfect prayer which teaches us for what we should pray and the order in which we should pray for these things. The first three petitions being focused on God helps to put our lives and our needs in perspective.

The first three petitions allow us to focus ourselves on the glory of God, who is our Father and our Creator. We unite our prayers to those of Jesus who glorified the Father in all things. The first three petitions are designed to draw us closer to God, so that, in the final four petitions, we understand that God’s name is holy (“hallowed be thy name”), we understand God is the King of our live (“thy kingdom come”), and it is ultimately God’s plan for us to which we need to adhere (“thy will be done”).

The first petition, “hallowed be thy name,” reminds us God’s name is holy. The word “hallowed” familiar to many through All Hallows Eve or Halloween, is an old English word which means holy. This petition should not be translated in such a way to suppose we make God’s name holy – or holier – by our praying. Instead, we acknowledge with these words, the holiness of God and, the holiness into which we have been adopted through the sacrament of baptism and confirmation, and the holiness in which we continue to partake through the other sacraments.

We do take on the name of God at the time of our baptism. In the very first acts of the Rite of Baptism, at the doors of the church, we ask the parents what name they give to their child and we mark the child as being a child of God and a new Christian, a brother or sister of Christ. This is in keeping with the prophecy of Ezekiel in the Old Testament,

“But I will show the holiness of my great name, desecrated among the nations, in whose midst you desecrated it. Then the nations shall know that I am the LORD—oracle of the Lord GOD—when through you I show my holiness before their very eyes. I will take you away from among the nations, gather you from all the lands, and bring you back to your own soil. I will sprinkle clean water over you to make you clean; from all your impurities and from all your idols I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you so that you walk in my statutes, observe my ordinances, and keep them.” (Ezekiel 36:23-27)

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Through the rite of baptism, and through the administration of all the sacraments, God reclaims us and makes His name holy through his adoption of us and, likewise, he makes His name holy through our adoption of Him as our Father.

The Lord’s Prayer – Thy Will Be Done

The second petition is “thy kingdom come.” This petition reminds us God is the King of our lives and the King of all creation. God’s kingdom is heaven and we pray in this petition for the coming of the kingdom to hasten to us. We already have a taste of this kingdom in the life and ministry of Jesus, but we await, ultimately, our arrival to the Kingdom of Heaven.

This might be hard for some to grasp or acknowledge. There are movements within the church which seek to change its patriarchal nature and take issue with the androcentric (male-centered) language which is found in the Bible. We find reference to “God” or “Creator” instead of “Lord” or “King.” These movements are well-intentioned and introduce good and needed dialogue within the structures of the church, but they do not change the relationship we have with God.

We acknowledge God as a spiritual being outside the boundaries of time and space. God is omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient – all-present, all-knowing, and all-seeing. He is unchanging, even when we place upon him the conditions of our temporal reality; we can relate to God on the basis of a different gender or a different name, but ultimately God is unchanging. God remains the “father” as Jesus called him over 150 times, in the Gospel of John, alone. God remains our King and we pray, as Jesus taught us, to the King, for his kingdom to come upon us.

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The Lord’s Prayer – Thy Kingdom Come

The third petition, “thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven,” is the last of the God- centric petitions found in the prayer. It closes the first three petitions and sets the tone for the last four petitions – God’s will is to be done.

When we pray, it is easy to believe our prayers are changing the mind of God. We are told to ask, and we shall receive, as if God had been unaware up to that moment of what we needed. The opposite is true. We ask for what it is we think we need, and, if it is within God’s plan, we receive it. Otherwise, we learn to accept God’s plan for us.

“Thy will be done” allows us to change to accept God’s plan for us; to ask for assistance and conversion to his plan. We don’t change God’s mind or plan for us; we ask for the ability to accept his plan and to accept his will in our lives. Garth Brooks famously sang: “Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers,” and how wonderful a meditation that is. We should thank God that the prayer of the human Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me” (Luke 42:22A) went unanswered. Our salvation and the remediation of our sins comes through God’s plan of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

We also join with Jesus in ultimate acceptance of God’s will when we hear him say, “still, not my will but yours be done.” (Luke 42:22B) This is our reminder in the third petition of the Lord’s Prayer: to accept God’s will for us and pray for acceptance and the conversion necessary to accept God’s will in our lives.

The second part of the petition, “on Earth as it is in Heaven,” is translated from the Greek “As in Heaven, so on Earth.” We ask and pray the things we do here on Earth are those things which are done in Heaven. So, what is it exactly which is done in Heaven which we want – or more correctly – which God wants to have happen here on Earth? Where is it in the Bible that we get a glimpse of what happens in Heaven? The Book of Revelation.

Throughout the Book of Revelation, John reveals those things which he sees as he is escorted by an angel of the Lord. He sees an altar, he sees the Lamb of God who sits on the throne, he sees the elders and the elect whose robes have been washed clean in the blood of the Lamb fall down and worship him. We hear the songs of praise and glory to the Lamb which are sung. Do we do something which sounds similar to that which happens in heaven? Yes, the Mass.

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Our participation in the Mass is having what happens in heaven happen here on Earth; quite literally, the liturgy of Heaven is found in the liturgy of the Mass. This petition brings to Earth the heavenly sacrifice, and we continue to pray for this to happen each and every time we celebrate and participate in the Mass.

For our Protestant brothers and sisters, this is shocking and what some of them would call blasphemous. The Book of Revelation is a look into the future, to the end times of the “antichrist” and the “rapture” and the “second coming.” None of those terms are found in the Book of Revelation, and only the term “antichrist” is found in any of the New Testament literature. So, how then does the Book of Revelation speak of any of these topics?

The Book of Revelation has, according to Catholic teaching, already come to pass. The imagery contained in the book addresses political and social upheaval of the times, but they have passed. The invention of “rapture theology” or “second coming theology” helps to paint a drastic, dystopian view of the world to come. And salvation will only come if someone believes as they are taught to believe in one of these churches.

We celebrate and participate in the heavenly banquet here, on Earth, every time we participate in the celebration of the Mass. Does this mean we ignore the other things which are told will happen in the “end days?” No. The Catholic view of salvation is best left for a separate lecture, but we do believe in the final judgment and God’s grace being what is needed for our salvation. We do not share in the “apocalyptic” views which our Protestant brothers and sister share.

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The Lord’s Prayer – Give Us This Day

The last four petitions of the Lord’s Prayer turn our attention towards ourselves; in the first three we acknowledge God is holy, is our King and we are truly happiest when we understand and resolve to allow God’s will to rule our lives, not our own.

The fourth petition in the Lord’s Prayer, “give us this day our daily bread,” begins a discourse between a father – God – and his children. The very language of the petitions, “give us,” “lead us,” “forgive us,” and “deliver us” are demands. The Greek clearly shows we are not just asking or suggesting to God he should grant us these petitions; the Greek indicates we are demanding these things, and rightly so.

In paragraph 2828 of the Catechism it states, “The trust of children who look to their Father for everything is beautiful.” (CCC 2828) As Matthew says in the same sermon, “[h]e makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” We are all children of the same Father, who is so pleased in us he gives us what it is we need.

Praying “give us” expresses not only our familial relationship with God, it codifies the covenantal relationship we have with our Creator. “We are his and he is ours, for our sake.” (CCC 2829) This sometimes-adversarial relationship is demonstrated in Psalm 78 as the psalmist describes the Jews searching for the Promised Land.

“They tested God in their hearts, demanding the food they craved. They spoke against God, and said, ‘Can God spread a table in the wilderness? True, when he struck the rock, water gushed forth, the wadies flooded. But can he also give bread, or provide meat to his people?’ The LORD heard and grew angry; fire blazed up against Jacob; anger flared up against Israel. For they did not believe in God, did not trust in his saving power. So, he commanded the clouds above; and opened the doors of heaven. God rained manna upon them for food; grain from heaven he gave them.” (Psalm 78:18-24)

God hears our demands and, as a Father would react to his children, he angers, but still provides for his children. He provides for us as he provided the manna in the desert. Each person who wandered in the desert was provided all they needed for the day. Those who collected more than what was necessary for the daily meal found their manna to be spoiled and they needed to collect more the next day. So it is with God, we must go to him daily and receive from him what it is we need. And, what we need, and he provides for us, is found in the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

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There is a curiosity in the language which we find in the Greek for this particular petition. A hapax legomenom is a linguistic term or word which is found without any other reference to that particular term. With much of the Greek and Hebrew in the Bible, we have previous examples of usage of words or phrases which help us to translate the term and understand its meaning. The hapax legomenom are cases where no other usage of the term is found.

The second half of this petition, “our daily bread,” is a hapax legomenom. The term used in the Greek, “epiousios,” is not found anywhere else in Greek literature. This was a troubling problem, especially to those who were tasked to translate the Greek into other languages. The first to do so was St. Jerome in the development of the Vulgate Bible (which we know from our course on the Bible was a translation from Hebrew and Greek into Latin).

Jerome translated the word as literally as he could. “Epi” is Greek for “over” or “super” and “ousios” is Greek for “substance” or “essence.” Jerome, in Latin, translated the word “epiousios” to be “supersubstantialiem” or super substantial. Early church fathers, before and after St Jerome’s translation, agreed that this was a reference to the Eucharistic meal. And the belief in the transubstantiation of the bread and wine to body and blood of Christ is found rooted in the use of the term “epiousios.”

We come to God on a daily basis – from the days of the escape from Egypt and the wandering in the desert – and receive from him what is required for the day. And what we need from Him is found in the Eucharist. “The Kingdom of God has been coming since the Last Supper and, in the Eucharist, it is in our midst.” (CCC 2816) For us to pray “thy kingdom come,” we must demand “our daily bread.”

St Augustine said, “The Eucharist is our daily bread. The power belonging to this divine food makes it a bond of union. Its effect is then understood as unity, so that, gathered into his Body and make members of him, we may become what we receive … This also is our daily bread: the readings you hear each day in church and the hymns you sing. All these are necessities for our pilgrimage.” (CCC 2837)

As the Jews who wondered the desert searching for the Promised Land relied on God to provide for what they needed daily, we must rely on God, on a daily basis, to provide for us what we need on a daily basis.

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The Lord’s Prayer – Forgive Us Our Trespasses

The next petition, “and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us,” is not what it seems at first glance. We recite this petition and, more than likely, express a desire to be forgiven and then a desire to forgive others. The key to understanding this petition is found in one small word: “as.”

Upon quick reading, it would seem we’re asking for our sins to be forgiven “at the same time” we forgive those who sin against us. This would be an incorrect reading of the petition. More correctly, the petition might read, “Forgive us our trespasses exactly the same way we forgive those who trespass against us.” This is quite different.

Our call as Christians is to exemplify the life of Jesus as He taught us. We can look in depth to various parables and teachings and debate their significance and meanings to figure out how we should exemplify Jesus, or we need look no further than to the beginning of his ministry. John the Baptist was the last of the Old Testament prophets and he preached a ministry of repentance then acceptance into the community of God. Jesus, the first and only prophet of the New Testament, taught inclusion into community to find conversion; this inclusion began with forgiveness.

Jesus’ ultimate act of forgiveness was taken on at the time of Calvary and is shown to us daily through the cross. We, as baptized Christians, must forgive as Jesus forgave, even if it means to personally suffer as He did on the cross. Forgiveness, after all, is for us. Whether we forgive someone or hold onto anger and resentment, the other person is not affected. When we forgive, we offer that person the goodness of our hearts and we release the negativity which is held in our hearts.

Through this example, we, too, can rely on the forgiveness of God for our transgressions. When we openly and completely forgive those who transgress against us, then we too are forgiven by God when we transgress against him. And not only should we do this, we must; we have no right whatsoever to retain forgiveness. We must forgive to be forgiven and we cannot expect to be forgiven while we retain anger and resentment towards others.

What helps us in our struggle toward forgiveness is the Eucharist – the ultimate sign of forgiving. While God does the major lifting in the process of mercy, forgiveness, and conversion, we have

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our part to play and praying the words of this petition brings us closer to doing as God has asked, when we understand what it is we ask.

The Lord’s Prayer – Lead Us Not

Our sixth petition, “lead us not into temptation,” has cause quite the controversy of late. Many bishops’ conferences across the world have taken up the task of revising this petition. As many of the faithful say, “why would God lead us into temptation?” I believe this can be solved with a simple edit. “Lead us, not into temptation …” The addition of a comma greatly enhances the understanding and reduces the confusion.

Also, we have lost something in our English translation. Remember our discussion of the Bible: The only text which is divinely inspired is the original Hebrew or the original Greek; English translations are often lacking or change the meaning of the original text because of difficulties in translation. The word in Greek used for “temptation” is “peirasmos” which is better translated as “test” or “trial.”

In our petition, we are essentially asking for God to lead us not into a test but, instead, to trust in our faith and our accepting our reliance on Him and for Him to lead us to the good which he has promised us. When we encounter the “bad” or “sin” (read: temptation, from the previous petition), we encounter something which is not of God, but of our own human nature or of evil.

St Paul, in 1 Corinthians, confirms for us the tests which we face are of our own human nature. He says,

“Therefore, whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall. No trial has come to you but what is human. God is faithful and will not let you be tried beyond your strength; but with the trial he will also provide a way out, so that you may be able to bear it.” (1 Cor 10:12-13)

God provides us a way to remove ourselves from the test and place ourselves more fully into his care and grace. This is exactly what we’ve asked in the previous five petitions: to be fully in communion with God and His grace so we might receive what we need – in the substance of the Eucharist – to avoid temptations and tests. We must freely and faithfully accept that God is in

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control of our lives and what God provides for us is exactly what we need to survive our day-to- day struggles.

The early Church father, Origen, said this about temptation,

“There is a certain usefulness to temptation. No one but God knows what our soul has received from him, not even we ourselves. But temptation reveals it in order to teach us to know ourselves, and in this way, we discover our evil inclinations and are obliged to give thanks for the goods that temptation has revealed to us.” (De Oratione)

The Lord’s Prayer – But Deliver Us

Our seventh and final petition, “But deliver us from evil,” is probably the simplest and most- direct petition found in our prayer. We ask to be delivered from the snares of the Devil; to be spared the temptations and tests which come from dealing with the evil in the world.

John the Evangelist, in the 17th Chapter of his Gospel, reveals to us the prayer which Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane before his arrest, trail, and crucifixion. Jesus prays to God our Father on our behalf saying,

“But now I am coming to you. I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely. I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth.” (John 17:13-17)

As Jesus says, we do not belong to the world, we belong to God and Heaven. We do not worry ourselves with the temporal things of this world, we acknowledge God and His providence. The truth of our relationship with God is found in the humanity and sacrifice of Christ; through this we are found to be of God and no one or thing can come against us.

As St Paul says in the letter to the Hebrews:

“We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his

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Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined he also called; and those he called he also justified; and those he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Hebrews 8:28-31)

The Lord’s Prayer – Embolism and Doxology

To complete our praying of the Lord’s Prayer, there are two additional prayers which have been added over the centuries: The Embolism and the Doxology. The earliest mention of either of these added prayers comes from the Eastern Churches (while still in communion with the Western Church). While the first instance of either has not been identified, we know the Church has, over the centuries, adopted and fashioned each to its practice.

The Embolism is said after the final petition and before the doxology. Dignity/SD has fallen out of practice reciting the embolism. It is a prayer designed to augment the prayers of the faithful, especially for the final petition – “deliver us from evil.” The wording is:

“Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil, graciously grant peace in our days, that, by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress, as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.”

The Doxology has come to be a closing to the prayer, though it is not included in either of the versions of the prayer found in the Gospels. Again, as history shows, its beginning was found in the early Eastern churches though its popularity did not take hold until the reign of Elizabeth I.

The Doxology had been formalized as the conclusion to the Lord’s Prayer by decree of Henry VIII while he was still in communion with Rome. All prayers of the church were decreed by Henry to be formalized and then taught so disparaging translations would not be an obstacle to the practice of the faith. Under subsequent rulers of England, and with the rest of the world at the time, the Doxology had lost its place at the end of the Lord’s Prayer. It was Elizabeth I, who at the time was finally stamping out Catholicism in England, who decreed the Doxology to be officially added to the Lord’s Prayer in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. The prayer has remained as it is currently recited ever since.

There is biblical sourcing and tradition behind the Doxology. Similar formulas for praising God are found in prayers in the Old Testament, and the Doxology we recite today includes prayers

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found in a number of places, but most specifically, 1 Chronicles 29:11-12 and Revelation 1:6, 4:11, and 5:13.

“For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever. Amen.”

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