Homilies

February 12, 2008
Tuesday of the First Week of Lent
Is 55:10-11; Mt 6:7-15
Fr. Marcellus Earl, OCSO 

One of the most important activities my dear brothers and sisters, that  we can engage in during Lent,  and indeed throughout the year, is prayer. So it is fitting that at the very beginning of Lent we see Jesus giving instruction about prayer to his disciples who had asked him to teach them how to pray even as John the Baptist had taught his disciples to pray.

The first thing Jesus teaches them is not to rattle on like the pagans who think that they will be heard for the multitude of their words. This is a negative teaching but it is very important. Jesus does not want us to place great importance on the prayer formula as if certain prayers would have certain qualities that would make them infallibly effective. This smacks of magic. Have you not heard certain prayers vaunted as if they had some special efficacy of their own? Carry out this novena in the right order, don't skip a day, and bingo! you get what you want. It's like putting the right coin in the slot machine and you hit the jackpot every time. So Jesus says don't imitate those pagans who rely on words and not on the grace of God and the dispositions of the heart in order to get their desires fulfilled.

Next Jesus informs them that God knows their needs before they ask. How true. Are we sick? God knows whether we need a healing or whether it would be to our greater advantage to grow worse and die. Have we lost our jobs? The Lord knows exactly what job we need and what he must do to help us find it. Are we looking to get married? He has the right partner picked out for us, or he may be planning a priestly or religious vocation for us. We could multiply the examples but you have the idea, I'm sure.

Now we are aware that God knows our needs, but perhaps we ourselves are not aware of them or think we have needs that in fact would be harmful if we should have them fulfilled. So in the instruction that follows in the Lord's Prayer, Jesus does two things. First of all he centers our attention on God. The three intentions are; hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done. These are magnificent. Our first duty as creatures is to give glory to our creator. When we pray we should be sure to spend time praising and thanking God for his love and mercy, for all the marvelous things he has done and continues to do for us. To develop this practice is to put the ax to the roots of self-love, because it makes us more and more God-centered.

The second intention is to pray for the coming of the kingdom. In doing this we are praying for all peoples that they might enter the kingdom and come to know, love, and serve God as they ought. It is a great means of practicing the second commandment of loving our neighbor as ourselves. It is a prayer for the conversion of sinners, for the relief of the souls in purgatory, and for the sanctification of the faithful.

The third intention is a summary of the whole Our Father, and indeed of all genuine prayer: thy will be done. Think of it. When we sincerely make this prayer we are setting aside our own will to embrace God's will. In effect we are saying, "Dear Lord, pay no attention to my little hopes and desires. I want to sacrifice them all in favor of your will. You know what is best for me and for all my loved ones, and indeed for all peoples. I want to let go of everything and have but one desire: that your will be done."

The final petitions enlighten us regarding the things that God knows we have need of: our daily bread, forgiveness for others and ourselves, to be preserved in trials and delivered from evil.

In the Our Father Jesus has given us not just a formula to be recited, but a spirit to be imbibed and a way to live. During this Lent may we try with God's help to assimilate that spirit so that we might rise with Christ at Easter and be recognized by the Father as his beloved sons and daughters.