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The Lords Prayer 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 pg. 1 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. pg. 2 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. pg. 3 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. NOTES: ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ pg. 4 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.
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