Hi everyone, welcome back to the Daily gospel exegesis podcast.
Thanks again for tuning. In today.
We've got a really interesting passage that you've all heard a
number of times. And so we'll start by reading
the passage. And then perhaps look at some
features that you may not have considered about this text.
So we're looking at Matthew chapter 6 verses 7 to 15.
Jesus said to his disciples in your prayers, do not Babble as
the pagans do for. They think that by using many
words, they will make themselves heard.
Do not be like them, your father knows what you need before you
ask him. So you should pray like this.
Our Father in Heaven, may your name be held.
Holy your kingdom, come your will be done on Earth as in
heaven. Give us today, our daily bread
and forgive us our debts. As we have forgiven, those who
are in debt to us, and do not put us to the test, but save us
from the evil one. Yes, if you forgive others,
their filings, your heavenly father will forgive you yours,
but if you do not forgive others, your father will not
forgive your failings either. Okay, so that's our passage that
we're going to take a look at today.
And obviously, most of this passage is quite familiar
because it's the Our Father prayer.
So where does this passage come from, or Matthew chapter 6 is
right in the middle of The Sermon on the Mount And The
Sermon on the Mount is an extended sermon that Jesus gives
basically the whole point of it is to contrast false
righteousness with true righteousness.
And Jesus has just finished contrasting, how the Hypocrites
pray, which is to be seen by others.
And he just told them how he wants his disciples to pray,
which is in private, where only God can see them.
So he's just said that and now he's about to explain what he
wants, the content of the Christians prayer to be.
So he said he needs to do it in private, not to show others how
holy you are and when you pray you should say these things.
So first seven at the start here, Jesus said to his
disciples now that's not in the original, it's in the lectionary
to make things a bit clearer to us but in the original it just
continues from where we were at before that.
So Jesus is not talking to his disciples per se here.
He's talking to a large crowd so everyone can hear what he's
saying. He starts in your prayers do not
Babble or other translations have it as Heap up empty
phrases. As the pagans do.
So this is the key thing. He doesn't just say, Do not
Babble. He says, do not Babble as the
pagans do. So we need to think about what
we need to know what the pagans did in their prayers.
So a pagan is someone who worships a different God and in
this culture, the pagans were basically people who worshipped
Roman gods in the Roman Empire and the pagans had a habit of
putting all sorts of magic phrases and formulas together in
their prayers when they pray to these Roman gods.
So they hoped the saying these certain formulas and special
prayers that their gods would hear them.
They their Hope was that maybe the gods would hear them if they
use the right words. Jesus goes on for, they think,
that by using their many words, they will make themselves heard.
So that's what we were just saying.
About the way, pagans use their prayers.
Now, it's important to say upfront, Jesus because this is
often used against sort of Catholic prayers, that are
pre-prepared. Jesus.
Here is not condemning use using wrote prayers or even repeating.
Prayers is not condemning either of those things, he is
condemning the way the pagans go about prayer though, which Which
is what? Let's go on and find out in what
sense is the Pagan prayer wrong. Verse 8.
Jesus says, do not be like them, your father knows what you need
before you ask him. So this is the key point.
So, the Pagan prayers, they thought that by saying these
long prayers, it increase the chances of the Gods hearing
them. Jesus here says that God knows
what you need even before you say the prayer.
So it's not like if you say certain words, then God will
hear you. He says, Jesus says, you don't
want to approach prayer that way because God being your father
already knows what you need. So the key Message to his
disciples just to reinforce it is basically this don't pray
long prayers with the intention of hoping that God will hear you
by doing so rather God God knows what you need already.
So instead your prayers should be like this and now he goes on
to describe what he's? What their prayer should look
like. So again, just to emphasize what
Jesus is just said, does not rule out saying particular
prayers, with a certain intention, and Jesus is not
ruling out praying repeatedly, in order to make prayers more
effective. So that's actually a general
principle of the Christian Life in other places in the Bible, it
teaches that you should repeat prayers and the some prayers are
more effective than others. So you can look at some 136 and
Daniel chapter 3, both cover repetitive prayers.
So some prayers are more effective than others.
That's certainly true. But Jesus is saying that
Christians should never make their prayers long and wordy,
just because they think that by doing, so it will make God more
likely to hear. So, for Christian is praying,
that way where they think that by saying certain things, or by
making long prayers, then that's what, we'll make.
That's what will make God. Hear them, then that's wrong.
Jesus is condemning that that's the wrong attitude to God and to
prayer. Now we're about to start the,
Our Father Here verse 9, Jesus says, so you should pray like
this. So Jesus is about to give us the
Our father. So in context, why does Jesus
give them the Our Father? Well, he's giving them a short
simple prayer, which expresses all of the basic needs of the
Christian Life as we'll see. And that's in contrast to the
wordy long prayers at the pagans used.
So notice what's the context here?
Jesus is just said he is the wrong way to pray, using long
words, Wordy prayers, like the pagans instead your Christian
prayers should look something like this.
So as we will see that our father starts by focusing on
God, and then moving on to focusing on our needs.
So we always start with God first, and that's certainly true
for us today. When we pray start by focusing
on God, and then move to our needs.
Now as I provide a bit of an exegesis here of the Our Father,
we need to as Catholics, we should know that the catechism
actually provides a very thorough breakdown of the Our
Father already. So the last part of the
catechism actually goes through verse by verse of the Our father
and gives all the sort of Catholic applications of every
phrase of it. So that's in paragraphs, 275 922
a 6 5 of the catechism. So there's an entire hundred
paragraph. Of the catechism dedicated to
the Our father. So anything I say, cannot
overrule what the catechism says.
Your first point of reference, when you're want to know what,
the Our father means should be going to the catechism and
looking through it verse by verse that way.
So in this analysis what I'm going to do is I just want to
highlight a couple of things on the literal sense of the text in
terms of what the very words mean that might not be
immediately obvious. So, Jesus starts the Our Father
by saying this Our Father in heaven.
So, already here, there's something quite profound.
Jesus Is Telling Christians that they should see God as Father,
which was quite a radical concept to Jews.
So Jews at the time. Well, in the Old Testament, God
is occasionally referred to as father, but it's not very often.
So most Jews were not comfortable with saying, God is
father, because that just seems a little too intimate.
But here Jesus says, that Jesus followers have access to an
unusually deep intimacy with God, they can call God their
father. And that's actually even more
remarkable because he says Our Father in heaven.
So the father of Christians, the powerful father is in heaven.
And that's, you know, there's a lot of implications of that in
the original Aramaic. Jesus probably would have used
the word, Abba, our Bure in heaven, which is a very intimate
word. Meaning my personal father, he
goes on, May your name be held. Holy, that's what our
translation has, but other translations, Have Hallowed be
thy name. So hallerin-and, holy basically
the same word to the Jewish mind.
God's name was a way of referring to God himself.
So when it says, may your name be held?
Holy or Hallowed, be thy name. It basically means, may, you be
holy something along those lines.
So the Jewish Hope, was that all nations would eventually?
Treat God's? Name is Holy and we can see that
in Ezekiel chapter 36 verse 22 to 27.
There's this Jewish expectation that one day, all the nations
will magnify It's name. So, what is this phrase mean,
may your name be holy? It could mean one of two things.
It could be seen as a hope as in May your name be treated as holy
because God's name is already holy, but maybe it's a hope that
people will treat it that way, or it could just be a
straightforward Declaration of Truth as in your name is, Holy
how load is your name? So it depends on how we
understand the word. Be there, Hallowed Be Verse 10,
your kingdom come. And if you've been listening to
this podcast for a while, you know that, that refers to the
kingdom of God, which is what Jesus has come to reveal and
explained the Jews. All people are invited today to
be a part of expanding God's Kingdom.
So Jesus goes on Via will be done.
Now, that's a continuation of the previous thought, so it's
your kingdom. Come, your will be done.
So the idea is God's kingdom will come, when God's will is
done on Earth, they're connected.
And it goes on even further on Earth as it is in heaven.
So notice what this phrase says your kingdom come your will be
done on Earth as it is in heaven.
So God's will is already being done in heaven and it's done all
the time. Whatever God wants in heaven is
done. And so whenever God's will is
done on Earth then the kingdom expands to Earth as well.
That's a really cool thought, isn't it?
The kingdom of God already exists in heaven, when God's
will is done? And when we choose to make go,
Will happen on Earth then the kingdom of God expands to Earth
as well. Verse 11, give us this day our
daily bread. Now the Greek word here for our
daily bread is Epi you serious? Epi use yours and it's very hard
to translate. It's not really clear what ever
you see us means because it doesn't appear anywhere else in
any other grief documents from this time.
It's not anywhere in the Bible. It's not anywhere in any other
documents were found either. So, but Scholars reckon, they
can break down the basics of the word they've come up with five.
General proposals. It means one of these five
things, but we're not really sure what it means.
So, it could mean bread for today.
It could mean bread for tomorrow.
It could mean bread for existence or bread that we need
or even super substantial bread. So there's something special
about this bread. It's like the word is trying to
convey. It's the most basic kind of
bread that we need our bread. The bread that we need the bread
that we need for our very existence is sort of implied by
the word. So what is that?
Bread could be one of two things.
It's not really clear what Jesus means here, your could refer to
just physical bread as in part of the prayer here.
The question is asking God to keep meeting their daily.
Physical needs, as God did for Israel in the wilderness where
he Supplied them with just enough manner that they needed
for every day. He didn't give them excess.
It was just what they needed, and that's in Exodus chapter 16
so it could be physical bread, but it could also be Jesus is
referring to Supernatural bread of some kind and some Catholic
Scholars have said, it's the Eucharist.
What Jesus is implying here is his predicting that the
Christians are going to need daily nourishment in the form of
the Eucharist. So, it could be it's not
entirely clear. Verse 12, he says forgive us our
debts, and Luke has this as sins because his Gentile audience
wouldn't understand what it meant by debt.
So debt was a Jewish metaphor for sins?
So when it says, forgive us our debts, it yet basically means
forgive us for our sins and it calls to mind this image of a
lender releasing someone from the debt.
He owes when we sin, we owe a debt to God.
But when he forgives us, he releases that death.
Notice what this says here, forgive us our debts.
This is part of the petitions of the Our Father.
You forgiveness was automatic every time we did something
wrong. You've got just said, I'll
forgive that straight away. Then why is it included in the,
Our Father? It seems like to get
forgiveness. Even after we've accepted Jesus,
if we commit a sin, we need to ask for it.
We need to ask for God's forgiveness, it's not automatic.
So we can see some Catholic theology starting to come
through here. Jesus goes on as we have also
forgiven, our debtors. So the full phrase there just to
repeat it is forgive us, our debts, as we also have forgiven,
our debtors, so it presupposes, that we've forgiven our debtors.
So the phrase basically means forgive us, our sins, to the
extent that we forgive others. now, that's obviously a lot
could be said about that, but that seems to be what's said
here Verse 13. Now we get to the really hard
phrase. That's generated a lot of
discussion, particularly in recent times. do not put us to
the test verse 13, or another translation of that is lead us
not into temptation or another translation is do not subject us
to the final test So it's really difficult to work out what the
phrase means do not put us to the test or lead us not into
temptation. Lots of controversy about this.
You probably would have heard that the pope change the wording
of this slightly in Italian, so it Italian masses.
Now, take a word away, the word temptation, because they think
that implies something wrong about God.
So yeah, if the translation did read lead us not into
temptation, they could be problematic because that would
imply that God could allow us to be tempted.
And the letter of James specifically says, God does not
tempt anyone. So a teaching of the New
Testament is that God doesn't tempt anyone so that doesn't
seem to be the right translation.
But on the other hand, God does test his people sometimes.
Absolutely God tests, his people Deuteronomy 8, verse 2 is an
example where God tests people. And then in the wilderness, when
Jesus is said to be tested in the wilderness for 40 days, So
it's probably true that God doesn't tempt anyone to sin that
doesn't sound right, but he does lead people into tests of
various kinds, so the meaning of this phrase is going to depend
on the meaning of the next phrase.
So The next thing Jesus says is, but and that means rather, so do
not put us to the test, but Deliver Us from Evil.
So it means do not put us to the test instead Deliver Us from
Evil. Also, modifies the previous
phrase. Now again, it's difficult to
translate this because some translations have it as Deliver
Us from Evil. And others say it's save us from
the evil one. So if we put together those two
phrases, there's a few possible meanings here.
So in our lectionary, we here do not put us to the test, but
Deliver Us from Evil. Here's three possible meanings
of Jesus teaching here. At could be saying to God.
Do not allow us to fall in to The Temptations of Satan Deliver
Us from his influence. It could mean do not lead us
into temptation, keep us from all evil.
Or it could mean do not allow us to fall into trials in
difficulties, protect us from all trouble.
So it's going to depend on what that would evil means is that a
general sense of evil? Or is it evil is in the evil
one? Because the meaning does change
depending on that we might never get a proper answer on this one
so the church doesn't have an official teaching on what the
correct translation of the. Our father is we just say the
one that we're most cut accustomed to in church history,
during the mass Pope Benedict. Interprets that phrase this way.
This is what Pope Benedict says. I know I Ed trials when you
decide to send me these trials, please remember that?
My strength goes only so far, don't overestimate my capacity
and be close to me with your protecting hand when it becomes
too much for me. So that's quite a nice
interpretation of the passage and obviously Pope Benedict's
takes it to mean trials, in a general sense and evil in a
general sense. So that's the phrase and Jesus.
Finishes the prayer, that's the end of the prayer and now he
addresses the crowd directly. So we've finished the Our father
and now Jesus turns to the crowd and makes a further point.
He says, yes, if you forgive men, their failings, your
heavenly father will forgive you notice, forgiveness is
conditional. If you forgive men, their
failings, your heavenly father will forgive you, and then he
goes on if you do not forgive others, your father will not
forgive your fail. Either we don't often hear this
part of it. We don't like to talk about it,
but Christians must keep this in mind.
If we don't forgive others, then God will not forgive us either.
So how exactly that works on a Heavenly or spiritual?
Level is a bit of a mystery, but it does at least tell us that
our actions in this life, can gain merits before God, what we
do matters in the eyes of God and that he will look, okay, he
will Overlook our offenses. If we strive to do the same to
others, that's clearly what Jesus is teaching.
Now when Jesus says this is reiterating something, he said
earlier in the Our Father, remember earlier in the Our
father, he said, forgive us our debts as we forgive those who,
as we have forgiven, the debts of others.
So it's the same teaching. So why his Jesus at the end of
the prayer emphasize? This particular part of the Our
father and not another part. Probably.
Because maybe this is the part that the Jews struggle with, at
this time, maybe some of the Jewish audience.
Believe that God would forgive any sin automatically?
Because they're Jews because they are his chosen people.
So, Jesus is really stressing here.
God will not forgive you, unless you forgive others.
So that's the exegesis of the Our Father.
Where does the catechism cover this?
Well, the first thing I want to say is again, the entire last
part of the catechism paragraph 2759 to 2856 is an entire
section on the Our father. So that's the first spot to look
but it also appears in some other really clear places in the
catechism. So I'll read out some verses
that are not within sorry, some paragraphs from the catechism
that are from elsewhere. Paragraph 2608 in, Jesus teaches
us how to pray says, from The Sermon on the Mount on words.
Jesus insists on conversion of heart reconciliation, with one's
brother. Before presenting, an offering
on the altar love of enemies and prayer for the persecutors
prayer to the father in secret, not heaping up, empty phrases
prayer for forgiveness, from the depths of the heart, purity of
heart and seeking the kingdom before or else.
This filial conversion is directed entirely.
To the father. Paragraph 2668 in how we can
pray to Jesus says the invocation of the Holy Name of
Jesus is the simplest way of praying.
Always when the Holy Name is repeated Often by a humbly
attentive heart. The prayer is not lost by
heaping up, empty phrases but holds faster, the word and
brings forth fruit with patience.
It's an artist via the teaching of the catechism is clearly that
certain prayers even if they repetitive do not count as
heaping up empty phrases. Paragraph. 443 has a brief
discussion of the fact that we can call God our Father.
And then in paragraph 27, 36 picks up a thermal a similar
theme. It says, are we asking God for
what is good for us. Our father knows what we need
before we asked him, but he awaits our petition because the
Dignity of his children, lies in their freedom.
We must pray them with his Spirit of freedom, to be able to
truly know what he wants. Paragraph to 68 which is in the
discussion about the attributes of God particularly his
omnipotence. It says of all the Divine
attributes only God's omnipotence is named in the
Creed to confess. This power has great bearing on
our lives. We believe his - is universal
for God who created everything also rules everything and can do
everything. God's power is loving for.
He is our father So the reference there to our father is
connected with omnipotence in the catechism.
Paragraph 26 32 is in the section about the prayer of
petition. It says Christian petition is
centered on the desire and search for the kingdom to come
in keeping with the teaching of Christ.
There is a hierarchy in these petitions.
We pray first for the kingdom, then for what is necessary to
welcome it and cooperate with it's coming by prayer.
Every baptized person works for the coming of the Kingdom.
And then lastly, paragraph 2659 has a discussion about the word
today and it links it to our daily bread in the, Our father,
as well. So all of those are really
interesting paragraphs in the catechism, there's a lot that
could be said about the Our Father.
We've just touched on some basics of what the text looks
like. Thanks again for listening.
If you think some people would benefit from hearing this
exegesis of the Our Father, I'd love it if you could share it
with them and remember you can send in your questions at any
time. Time.
And the links for all of that are in the show notes will see
you again tomorrow.