March 15, Tuesday. # 226

Scripture: Lectionary 226: Isaiah 55:10-11. Psalm 34:4-5.6-7.16-17.18-19.
Matthew 6:7-15:

Jesus gives us the prayer that we are most familiar with--the Lord's Prayer
or the Our Father. During this season of Lent this prayer is valuable in
helping us not only to pray but also to think of others, to forgive, to
praise God, to avoid temptation, and to be delivered from every evil. In
the Aramaic that Jesus spoke, he addresses God as his parent (Father) and
does so with great tenderness and intimacy. We are led into that same
intimacy by the fact that Jesus tells us God is our Father too. "Our
Father who art in heaven..."
The plural is used to show us we are the family of God, the Body of Christ,
and the faithful believers in Jesus who teaches us how to pray.

In our liturgical prayers we recite the Lord's prayer twice and in the
Eucharist we pray the Our Father before receiving the Lord in Communion.
This prayer is in many ways similar to the great prayer that Jesus used
when reciting the Shema'. "Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord
alone." Notice how this prayer is in the plural and how it invokes God
with praise. (Deuteronomy 6:4).

Jesus helps us to pray against being tempted. Yesterday's readings showed
us how Jesus overcomes Satan with the word of God that he had learned from
his mother. He cites several passages from Deuteronomy. We pray that we
not be led into temptation and that we be delivered from all and every form
of evil. We join with Jesus himself in not only vanquishing the Devil but
also overcoming sin and evil. Our wills are united to the will of Jesus,
the beloved Son of God who came to do the Father's will.

The Our Father is a communitarian prayer and yet it is quite personal. We
never lose our identity in praying it with others, but confirm ourselves as
the baptized who know what the prayer means and how to pray it with others
and when alone. Perhaps, this day we may have the chance to go to
Communion and realize that this action is also appropriate for thanking God
for having given us our daily Bread. We may take the poet's advice and
pray the Lord's prayer at "morn, at noon, and at twilight dim." Amen.