Hi everyone. Welcome again to the Catholic
Bible study podcast where we really go through the gospels in
depth in a verse-by-verse way and we're trying to get it, the
literal sense of scripture. What does it mean on the most
fundamental level? We're currently moving through.
The Gospel of Luke. And today, we're up to Luke
chapter 11 verse Verses 1 to 4. So this is the Gospel.
Reading that you would hear at mass today.
Here's what it says. Once Jesus was in a certain
place praying, and when he had finished, one of his disciples
said, Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his
disciples. He said to them say this when
you pray father may your name be held.
Holy your kingdom come give us each day, our daily bread and
forgive us our sins. For we ourselves forgive each
one who is in debt to us and do not put us to the test.
Now, that's the end of the rating today.
You're probably thinking that sounds kind of familiar.
Sounds kind of like, the Our father, but it's a bit of a
different version, and that's basically rice.
What we have here is Luke's version of the Our Father, which
is shorter than Matthews version.
And the one that we pray in mass and there's Catholics regularly
is Matthew's versions. So, Luke is given us a shorter
version, which we will look at today.
Let's start by thinking about the context.
So, Jesus Is On The Way From Galilee to Judea.
So, he's Going up to Jerusalem. So getting towards the end of
his life and he's doing Ministry along the way verse 1.
Jesus was in a certain place praying, so we don't know where
exactly this occurs, but it appears that Jesus is praying
out loud as he often does. And his disciples are quite
impressed with what he's doing, perhaps they can hear some of
the words that he's praying when he had finished.
One of his disciples said, Lord, teach us to pray, just as John
taught his disciples. Now Rabbi is in that time would
commonly teach their disciples, the best way to pray.
So a rabbi would have a certain way that they thought their
disciple should pray and they would teach that to their
disciples from this passage. We learn that John, the Baptist
did exactly that John the Baptist taught his own
disciples, how to pray to Here, Jesus disciples who had become
accustomed to seeing Jesus. Pray, they want to know, what
Jesus advice is about prayer. They want to enter more deeply
into prayer themselves, and this is what Jesus says say this.
When you pray now, notice Jesus, Jesus words here, say this when
you pray he's actually giving them a certain formula to use in
this particular prayers. Often you might hear certain
Christians saying that Jesus does not like formulaic prayer.
Airs or repetitive prayers. That is not correct.
Because here we have in this verse, Jesus actually says, use
these words when you pray. So at least in some cases, Jesus
is okay with using specific words.
Now, of course, he does, say in Matthews version of this don't
Babble like the pagans do. So he hasn't got a problem with
repetitive prayers per se. It's more about the intention of
the prayer that he has a problem with sometimes.
So I think it's important that we say that upfront.
Jesus has not got a problem. Mm with repetitive prayer or
formulaic prayer. Provided the intention is
correct and now he's going to teach the Disciples of what's
called The Lord's Prayer or the, Our father now in context, Jesus
is basically giving the disciples what they want.
They've asked for how to pray and he's giving them a short
simple prayer which expresses all of the basic needs of the
Christian Life. As you go through the Our
Father, you'll notice that it starts by focusing on God, and
then it moves to focusing on the needs of the prior.
And that's actually how I apprec-- would be structured.
Really, we should always start with God, not with ourselves.
Now, this version in Luke, we have today, in Luke chapter 11,
it's shorter than Matthews version.
If you want to get the full version.
Matthew chapter 6, verses 9 to 3 is where the longer version of
the. Our father is that we recite
regularly. So Luke is giving us a
summarized version whereas who is giving us the full version.
So just keep in mind that Luke has left out some parts of what
we know. Is the full version of the, Our
Father, Luke's version has five petitions the first to relate to
God and the last three relate to those who are praying.
Now, before we get into certain phrases here, one thing that's
really important to say is the catechism of the Catholic
Church, which is basically, you could say dictionary or summary
of Catholic teachings, there's an entire section of the
catechism about the Our father and a breaks.
The Our Father down phrase by phrase, just like we doing this
podcast. Except the catechism actually
has quite an extended theological reflection on the
Our father. So, if you want to really dig
into the Our Father, I would say the best place to go is Towards
the end of the catechism, so it's in paragraphs 2759 to 2865.
So it's basically a hundred paragraphs of the catechism all
about the Our father. And we can't do that Justice
really. In this podcast, we're just
going to highlight a couple of things about the literal sense
of these words. So starting at verse 3, Jesus
begins The Prayer by saying father Even, this is quite
profound Jesus teaches that Christians should see God as
their father. That was a fairly radical
Concept in Jesus time. Now, sometimes in Jesus time,
they would refer to God as father in a collective sense.
But here, Jesus teaches that individuals can refer to God as
their father. And that was Radical, Jesus
followers can have an access to an unusually deep intimacy with
God, similar to the intimacy that Jesus has with God,
although obviously not the same. In the original Aramaic.
Jesus here probably used the word, Abba for father, and
that's quite a term of deep intimacy, and it makes sense.
That Jesus would encourage his disciples to pray to God this
way, because we know that other things.
Jesus teaches in Luke's gospel about God includes things like
this. Jesus says, God is merciful in
chapter 6, he says, God is giving in chapter 11 and he's
attentive to human needs in 12:30 and later in the gospel
Jesus. This emphasizes that God
forgives sins as well. So given everything that Jesus
says about God. It makes sense that he would
encourage his disciples to understand God, as their
generous father. So, he starts a prayer father,
may your name be held holy or more, literally Hallowed be thy
name is what this phrase is Hallowed be thy name.
Now, what does that mean? There's a few different ways of
understanding this phrase actually will to the Jewish mind
God's name was kind of a shorthand way of referring.
Going to God himself. And the Jewish Hope was that one
day? All nations would treat God's
name as holy. If you look at Ezekiel chapter
36, in the Old Testament, it expresses the Jewish hope that
all people would see, God is Holy.
So this phrase, Hallowed be thy name, it could be interpreted
either as a hope as in a prayer that Jesus of the God's name
would be treated as holy. So it's expressing a hope that
we have about God or it could just be a simple declaration.
A truth which is God, your name is Holy, that's always how I've
understood. It's just stating a fact.
God, your name is Holy as a way of introducing the prayer, but
some theologians think a better way of thinking about this is a
request. May your name be treated as holy
and obviously that would include Christians acting in a way that
glorifies God's name. Jesus goes on.
He says your Kingdom Come. This is referring to the kingdom
of God, which is what Jesus has come to reveal and it's a key
theme in In the gospel of Matthew, we know, from the
gospels that Jesus has come to invite all people to be part of
God's kingdom and expanding God's kingdom.
And the prayer here is your kingdom come.
So already. The kingdom is already present
in Jesus when he arrives Jesus here teaches that its members
must pray for its fullest realization.
We must pray to God. Your kingdom come that it would
come in its fullness. He goes on, give us each day our
daily bread or give us this day our daily bread.
Now, the Greek word here for daily is a really interesting
one. It's Epi use EOS and it's a very
hard word to translate, actually, it doesn't appear
anywhere else in ancient Greek literature.
Except in the prayer of the, Our father, if you use yours, we're
not entirely sure what it means to say.
Epic, use EOS bread, there's various proposals that Scholars
have suggested, maybe it means bread.
Today, maybe it means bread for tomorrow or the future some
Scholars. Think it means bread for
existence or bread that we need. And a very interesting proposal
is that it means something like super substantial bread in which
case it will be referring to some sort of Supernatural bread.
Given all those possible meanings and we can't be sure
what the right meaning here is, but basically when Jesus is give
us this day, our daily bread, it could refer either to physical
bread. So in that case in the Our
Father, the question is asking, God to keep meeting their daily,
physical needs, the trusting that God will do that as you did
for the daily manner needs of Israel in the wilderness.
Remember in Exodus chapter 16 every day, God will provide a
special bread from heaven, so that they could keep living.
Now, of course in later, Jewish and Christian history.
The manner in the wilderness was seen as having a spiritual
Component as well. Meaning that it's a special
bread from Heaven, a supernatural bread from heaven.
So given that maybe if you use your spread is a reference to
Supernatural bread of some kind, maybe the Eucharist some people
think here that Jesus when he says, give us this day our daily
bread, it actually refers to the Eucharist and that would make
sense, given the context of the prayer.
Because if you think about it, this prayer is really kind of
like the pilgrim, the Christian pilgrims prayer on their way to
the fullest revelation of the Kingdom.
And so, it's here, the disciple, he's asking for the bread that
they need for the Journey To The Kingdom.
It's an interesting way of looking at it, but we can't be
entirely. Sure verse 4.
Jesus says, forgive us our sins. Now notice that the Christian
has to ask for it often you'll see some Christians say that.
As soon as we accept Jesus into our life, forgiveness is
automatic for the rest of our life.
That's not the teaching of the New Testament and here is one
place where it's quite clear. That forgiveness is not.
Automatic we have to ask for it. If we want it we have to keep
asking for it. Jesus goes on, forgive us our
sins for we ourselves forgive each one who is in debt to us.
Now, the word debt is used here that was actually a Jewish
metaphor for sins, which calls to mind the image of a lender,
releasing someone from the debt, he owes.
So, in some Jewish circles, it was common to refer to sin as a
debt. And this is something Jesus
discussed in the mission mandate earlier in Luke.
Remember in Nazareth, when he stood up and gave his sermon.
He says, I've come To bring the Liberty to the captives.
And he talked talks about the Jubilee and the year of the
Lord's favor as part of that discussion.
There's all these overtones of being released from debt which
really means being released from the burden of sin.
So it would certainly fit with other things that Jesus
highlights in the Gospel of Luke.
Notice the equivalency here though, forgive us, our sins.
For we ourselves forgive each one who is in debt to us,
basically what that phrase means, if you think about it,
and that's actually clearer in Matthews version.
It It means forgive us our sins, to the extent that we forgive
others. And there's a lot, that could be
said about that. Jesus.
And God only forgive us to the extent that we forgive others,
and this is actually unpacked further in Matthews version of
this. And then Jesus finishes by
saying do not put us to the test or lead us not into temptation.
This is another phrase that could have a few different
meanings and there's a lot of different controversy about it.
Particularly in recent years, one way of translating, this
would be lead us not into the test or you could say Do not
subject us to the final test and record also mean lead us not
into temptation because the same Greek word, there can be
translated Temptation or test Lots of controversy about it
because it implies if temptation is the right word here, it
implies that God can allow people to be tempted.
Whereas later in the New Testament, the letter of James
says, God does not tempt anyone. So how do we reconcile those?
One reconciliation here would be to say that a better translation
of the word, he would be test, do not put us to the test.
God does test his people sometimes.
So in Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 2, it clearly says God
tests people. So when Jesus here says that
part of the Our Father should be do not put us to the test.
That is a legitimate request. Some people think that a better
translation is do not subject us to the final test, so maybe it's
a reference to the great period of suffering.
That the Jews expected to be associated with the coming of
the Messianic age. And indeed there was a great
period of suffering as a Messianic age was being born and
that was largely around the jewish-roman war in 70 AD.
So this could be a subtle reference to the trial that
Christians are going to go through in the Years leading up
to 70 AD and that would be a legitimate interpretation here.
If it's the singular, do not subject us to the test or the
trial, but again, it could be a more General meaning do not
subjected to any test. Its meaning is going to largely
depend on the last phrase of the Our father.
And that phrase is Deliver Us from Evil, and that phrase
itself can be translated Deliver Us from the evil or that evil
one. And there's a lot of discussion
about that but in Luke's version we don't have the phrase Deliver
Us from Evil. So we won't just discuss that
particular one, but it is in Matthews version.
So that's basically the end of Luke's version of the, Our
Father Matthews version is longer.
So if you want to hear a slower more in-depth analysis, or
exegesis of the longer version of the Our Father, then we cover
that on Thursday of week, 11 in ordinary time.
So you might like to go back and look through the podcast
archives for that. So, Thursday of week 11 in
ordinary time so we've looked at Luke's version and a lot of
Scholars feel that it's kind of like a New Covenant Exodus
prayer. So remember in the Old Testament
where the Jews come out of Egypt into the promised land.
There seems to be a lot of overtones to a stew, that
similar thing in the, Our Father, for example, they don't
want to be tested, like the Israelites are in the
wilderness. So lead us, not into the test
and also, there's a reference there as we said to bread bread
from Heaven, which, of course occurred in the wilderness as
well and honoring gate God's name is Holy, that's a big deal
in the book of Exodus when they come out of Egypt.
So there's a lot of interesting references here.
So some Scholars think that this is kind of like the You Covenant
equivalent of an exodus prayer. So it's focused on the disciples
needs in journeying from this life to the next life, the
promised land and that's quite a cool way of looking at it.
Jesus has more to say about prayer in the next section of
Luke, so we'll continue that in the coming days.
Let's now turn to the catechism to see what it has to say about
the Our Father. So, as I mentioned earlier,
there's a whole section of the catechism, which is devoted to
going through the, Our Father slowly, so that will be
paragraph 2759 to 2856, and we're not going to go through
all of those paragraphs, but I think it's well worth having a
look at when you can. So paragraph 2759 to 2856, will
now look at a few other places in the catechism which reference
Luke's version of the Our father.
So paragraph 5 to 0, In all of his life, Jesus presents himself
as our model, he is the perfect man who invites us to become his
disciples and follow him in humbling himself.
He has given us an example to imitate through his prayer, he
draws us to pray and by his poverty, he calls us to accept
freely the privation and persecutions that may come our
way. Power of 26 are one is about
Jesus or in prayers and here it actually quotes from Luke 11 so
paragraph 2601. He was praying in a certain
place and when he had ceased, one of his disciples said to
him, Lord teach us to pray in seeing the master at prayer.
The disciple of Christ also wants to Pray by contemplating
and hearing the Sun, the master of prayer.
The children learned to pray to the father So that's quite a
powerful paragraph to isn't it paragraph?
2759. This is a summary of the entire,
our father, Jesus was praying at a certain place.
And when he ceased one of his disciples said to him, Lord,
teach us to pray as John taught his disciples in response to
this request, the Lord entrusts to his disciples and to his
church the fundamental Christian prayer st.
Luke presents a brief text of five petitions, while Saint
Matthew gives a more developed version of seven petitions.
The liturgical tradition of the church has retained st.
Matthews text. So that covers a lot of things.
We said earlier about the different versions of the Our
Father paragraph 26 32, this is about prayers of petition.
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 This collaboration with the
mission of Christ and the Holy Spirit, which is now that of the
church is the object of the prayer and of the apostolic
community. So here the catechism teaches us
that the general structure of the Our Father going from
petitions about God, to petitions about us is a model
for how Christian prayer should look in general.
There's an interesting reference in paragraph 1 to 5 and this is
actually in the section about the sacrament of reconciliation,
and it's answering the question of what?
Why is there a sacrament of reconciliation after baptism?
Here's what it says. The Apostle John says, if we
say, we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not
in us. And the Lord himself taught us
to pray. Forgive us, our trespasses
linking, our forgiveness of one another's offenses, to the
Forgiveness of our sins that God will grant us.
So there we have it clearly spelled out in the catechism
that we need to keep asking for forgiveness regularly even after
we become a Christian and And to the extent that we forgive
others, that will be the extent to, which God will forgive us.
That is the clear teaching of the, Our Father.
Last paragraph is a paragraph 2845, and this is a summary of
God's forgiveness. There is no limit or measure to
this essentially Divine forgiveness, whether one speaks
of sins as in Luke or debts as in Matthew.
So there we have the catechism, recognizing that deaths can be
used as a metaphor for sins in some places in the New
Testament. Thanks once again for listening,
please share this episode around and will continue in Luke in the
coming days.