Gen 18:20-32; Col 2:12-14; Lk 11:1-13
A man is praying. He says, “God?”
God says, “Yes?”
The man says, “Can I ask you a question?”
God says, “Go right ahead.”
The man asks, “What is a million years to you?”
“A million years is like a second.”
The man thinks this over and then asks, “What is a million dollars to you?”
God says, “A million dollars is like a penny.”
“Then can I have a penny?”
God says, “Sure, just a second.”
(The story is from an unknown author)
How do we pray to God? What are we asking God in our prayers? Does He answer all our prayers?
There are many forms of prayer and there are many ways of praying. A spiritual director or a religion teacher may suggest to us some techniques of praying. One style of praying may be helpful to us; another way might be suitable to our friends. But there is no single style that fits everyone. In praying, however, the most important thing is not the form or the style but the attitude that we bring in conversing with God.
A disciple asked Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples”. Watching the Lord pray, this disciple fell in love with prayer and decided to learn the proper way of praying. Perhaps there was something in the way Jesus prayed that attracted the disciple so deeply.
Jesus said in reply, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.” The Lord called God “Abba” – an endearing Aramaic word that a Jewish child would normally address his father. The closest equivalent that we have is “Daddy” (“Tatay” or “Papa” in Filipino). In biblical times, no Jew would ever dare to address God the way Jesus did. For the Jews, God is most sacred and absolutely transcendent. To call God “Abba” was simply considered blasphemous.
Jesus, however, had a different image of God – that of a loving Father, not a distant supreme being. The Lord wanted his followers to call God “Abba” because the kind of relationship that he liked them to have with God was like that of a parent-child affiliation. Disciples are God’s dearest children and they can approach him in the familiar confident way a child approaches a loving parent.
Calling God “Father” does not mean that God is masculine because he is beyond the categories of gender. Speaking of God as father is as meaningful as speaking of God as mother. In the Bible, one discovers that the love of God also is equated with that of the love of a mother to her children. This simply shows that every disciple’s relationship with God should be based on love and intimacy, not on power and coercion.
The Lord’s Prayer, therefore, is not simply a short formula of prayer. First of all, there is something in it that reminds us of our true relationship with God and with one another. God is our Father and we are all brothers and sisters. We approach God in prayer like little children seeking parental love and attention. When we pray, we don’t pray only for our personal needs but for others as well. Moreover, the Lord’s Prayer teaches us that there are only a few things that matter most in life – such as God’s kingdom, daily bread, forgiveness and deliverance from evil. A lot of what we ask for in prayer are not essential; sometimes even are harmful to us.
Responsible parents would never provide something that destroys their children’s life. We, as children of a loving Father in heaven, should come in prayer with a spirit of trust and expectancy, knowing that God will always do for us whatever is in our best interest. If God says “No” to our prayers, let us not think that he does not care or he does not love us. What Jimmy Carter said to Larry King on TV is true:
God always answers prayers. Sometimes it’s “yes” and sometimes the answer is “no,” and sometimes it’s “you just gotta be kidding.” But when prayers are not answered the way we want them, then we have an opportunity and an obligation to re-examine our own position. Maybe the things for which we are praying aren’t God’s will.
Fr. Rudy Horst has a brief and meaningful commentary on the Lord’s Prayer:
Do not say “Our” if you live isolated in your egoism;
Do not say “Father” if every day you do not behave like a son;
Do not say “Who art in Heaven” if you think only of earthly things;
Do not say “Hallowed be thy name” if you do not honor Him;
Do not say “Thy kingdom come” if you confuse him with material success;
Do not say “Your will be done” if you do not accept it when it is painful;
Do not say “Give us this day our daily bread” if you are not worried about people who are hungry, who are without means to live;
Do not say “Forgive us our trespasses” if you bear your brother a grudge.
Do not say “And lead us not into temptation” if you intend to keep sinning;
Do not say “Deliver us from evil” if you do not take position against evil;
Do not say “Amen” if you do not take the words of the Our Father seriously!
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