Looking back at the weekly messages of Father Paul Counce, first published in The Carpenter, our weekly Parish Bulletin
Published: July 28, 2019
Last week in this space here I suggested some ways to improve prayer, especially by making it “less selfish.” This Sunday’s Gospel passage (Lk 11:1-13), continues to expand our understanding of prayer. In its first part, verses 1 to 4, Jesus gives us words to adopt – the “Lord’s Prayer” – and then in the rest of the reading offers His own prayer-style, continuous and insistent.
For Jesus taught us to pray not only by words but by example. Jesus was a man of constant prayer. Luke’s Gospel remembers Him doing it often (see chapter 5, verse 16), and especially just before important events. For example, He prayed before selecting His Twelve Apostles (6:12-13), before asking for St. Peter’s “confession” of his faith in Him as the Messiah (9:18-20), before His “transfiguration” (9:28-29) and, lastly, before the beginning of His sacred Passion (22: 40-45). Clearly, Jesus’ prayer showed itself externally in special ways, and certainly affected His preaching and other ministry.
Small wonder that Jesus’ disciples desired to pray as He did. They could see that He was different from the other rabbis and religious masters of His era, including St. John the Baptist, His immediate forerunner. Thus the prayer – words and style! – the disciples learned became characteristic of them too.
There’s not enough room in this issue of The Carpenter to delve too deeply into the complete text of Jesus’ prayer, but we can hit highlights. Christ’s first unusual insight – and command! – is to call God “Father.” For people of His time – and indeed in every age – the standard relationship with one’s human father was one of intimacy and trust. Yet this was not how one’s relationship with God was commonly expressed. God was understood as superior divinity and supreme judge of the world, almighty in His power and commanding in His demeanor. There is no real historical evidence that the Jews in Jesus’ day used to call God “abba,” the intimate family form of the Aramaïc word “ab,” the common word used for earthly fathers.
The fact that Jesus used to turn to God in prayer and call Him “abba,” then, seems to have been a real novelty. It shows the new kind of relationship that He, and therefore His disciples, have with God: a relationship of closeness, familiarity and trusting love. It has become a Christian custom, if you will, to call God “Father,” and from a doctrinal standpoint one of the keys to a proper understanding of the person of the Creator within the Holy Trinity.
The rest of verse 2 proclaims respect for God and His sovereign rule; then the prayer goes on to reference human needs like sustenance and forgiveness and strength amidst temptation (verses 3 and 4). I suggest continuing on – by yourself now, since I’ve run out of room here! – to discover the spiritual richness of this prayer. For many years I’ve recommended – often as a penance in confession! – praying the Lord’s Prayer as slowly as possible, savoring every word and phrase, and expanding them into other synonyms and descriptive words, in order to explore its meaning “in depth.” Summertime provides us some extra time to do it, and this weekend’s Gospel gives us the right direction to go in!
Yours most prayerfully,
Very Rev Paul D. Counce
