20.06.2024 – St. Patrick Catholic Church, Largo, FL

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Give us this day our daily bread

Sirach 48:1-14, Psalm 97, Matthew 6:7-15

Yesterday, in the gospel Jesus taught us that our pious acts of prayer, fasting and almsgiving should never be motivated by self-glory but by true devotion to God our father, who sees in secret. As a continuation, today, Jesus goes deeper into teaching us how we ought to pray and the things we should ask for in prayer.

We are God’s children, Jesus teaches us the perfect prayer that dares to call God, Our Father. This prayer teaches us how to ask God for the things we really need, the things that matter not only for the present but for eternity as well. We can now approach God our Father with confidence and boldness because the Lord Jesus has opened the way to heaven for us through his death and resurrection.

The Lord’s Prayer is reported in two gospels, Matthew and Luke. In Matthew, Jesus prefaced it by warning against using too many words, or babbling like the pagans did. It was pagan custom to bombard the gods with mere formulae to induce them to show favour. Christians must not pray in such a mechanical way. Our God cannot be persuaded or manipulated by endless petitions. Rather, Jesus teaches us to willingly accept whatever our heavenly Father wills.

I invite us to reflect deeply on two petitions of the Lord’s prayer – Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. Why did Jesus teach us to ask God our Father just for the daily bread and not a weekly, monthly or yearly bread? And why is God’s forgiveness of our own sins conditioned upon our own ability to forgive others? By praying only for our daily bread, we learn total dependence on God our Father, just like a child depends totally on the father. He who does not accept the Kingdom of God like as child will not enter into it at all says Jesus in one of his teachings. We cannot be independent of God. Daily bread signifies that our whole being and its sustenance depends on God’s providence. God’s knows that the human heart can sometimes be hardened and wicked; it can hold back and keep malice from injuries. God’s wants us to form our hearts after that of his, after all we are created in his image and likeness. So, if you want God the Father’s forgiveness, you must first forgive your brother who have offended you.

The Lord’s prayer teaches us that what is most important is God’s glory, fulfilling His plan [the Kingdom] and doing God’s will. We are to welcome our dependence on God and ask for our basic needs — the food we need for the day, forgiveness of our faults and strength to go on living. The Lord’s Prayer is powerful yet simple, and is in fact the iconic teaching on how we ought to pray.

When we ask God for help, he fortunately does not give us what we deserve. Instead, God responds with grace, mercy, and loving-kindness. He is good and forgiving towards us, and he expects us to treat our neighbor the same. God has poured his love into our hearts through the gift of the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Romans 5:5). And that love is like a refining fire – it purifies and burns away all prejudice, hatred, resentment, vengeance, and bitterness until there is nothing left but goodness and forgiveness towards those who cause us grief or harm. The Lord’s prayer is a teaching on our dependence on God and forgiveness.