The Face of Mercy / Daniel Conway

The Lord’s Prayer brings us closer to Holy Trinity

“To whom do I pray? Almighty God? Too far away. I cannot feel that he is near. Even Jesus did not refer to God as ‘the Almighty God.’ To whom do I pray? The cosmic God? That is fashionable these days, praying to the cosmic God. But that is nothing but a polytheistic idea of who God is, typified by a lite culture. To whom do we pray? No, not a cosmic God, but a … Father.”
(Pope Francis, Our Father: Reflections on the Lord’s Prayer, p. 11)

“Closeness” is one of the consistent themes of Pope Francis’ teaching. God is close to us, the pope insists. God calls us to come closer, to open our hearts and allow the Blessed Trinity of love to enter our lives and remain with us throughout our life’s journey.

The Lord’s Prayer is the prayer that Jesus taught us. It is not simply a prayer to be recited quickly by rote. It is an expression of reverence and of love, Pope Francis says. It should become the language of our soul’s most heartfelt desire.

“When we pray the Our Father,” the pope said in his weekly general audience at the Vatican on March 14, “we connect with the Father through the Holy Spirit who gives people this connection and feeling of being children of God.” This makes the Lord’s Prayer a work of the Blessed Trinity. Using the words of Jesus, we connect with the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit.

But Jesus didn’t tell us to call God “my Father.” God is “our Father.” We are the children of God, members of one family, and the Father we address is the Father of all humanity—regardless of race, nationality, religious belief, gender, economic or social status.

Praying the Lord’s Prayer, and calling God “our Father” throughout the day, helps us deepen and sustain our relationship with God and our bonds with all our sisters and brothers.

“Jesus did not give us this prayer simply as a formula for addressing God,” Pope Francis writes in his new book, Our Father: Reflections on the Lord’s Prayer, based on conversations with Father Marco Pozza, a theologian and prison chaplain in Padua, Italy. “With this prayer he is inviting us to turn to the Father so that we can discover who we are and live as his true children and as brothers and sisters together” (Our Father: Reflections on the Lord’s Prayer, p. 14).

Another consistent theme of Pope Francis is God’s abundant mercy which is made available to everyone regardless of what sins we have committed. This, of course, is integral to the Lord’s Prayer.

Pope Francis teaches that the Our Father opens our hearts to forgiving others as God has forgiven us. “Forgiving people who have offended us is not easy,” the pope says. As a result, we must ask the Lord to share with us the gift of divine mercy. Human strength or will is not powerful enough. We need the grace of the Holy Spirit to be merciful to others as God is merciful to us.

“Jesus shows us what it means to be loved by the Father and reveals to us that the Father wants to pour forth upon us the same love that he has for his Son from all eternity” (p. 14).

Far from being a routine prayer recited quickly and superficially, the Lord’s Prayer is (or should be) an intimate expression of love.

“It’s so beautiful to pray like Jesus prayed,” Pope Francis said at his March 14 general audience. Calling God “our Father” like Jesus did brings us closer to both of them and to the Holy Spirit. We pray with Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit in order to be united with our Father, God.

“So I hope that in saying the Our Father, every one of us will feel ever more loved, forgiven, bathed in the dew of the Holy Spirit, and will thus be able in turn to love and forgive every other brother, every other sister.” Pope Francis believes that praying the Our Father in a loving and deeply personal way “will give us an idea of what heaven is like” (p. 15).

What better way to celebrate joyfully this Easter season than to come closer to our God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—through the Lord’s Prayer!
 

(Daniel Conway is a member of The Criterion’s editorial committee.) †