Brother Knights of the Eucharist. On July 24th the Gospel reading was from Luke, 11:1-13, his account of Jesus teaching his disciples how they should pray. Beginning with our last Council meeting I resolved to write a reflection on or about the Eucharist for each of the Council meetings for the next year. So why, you may wonder is this reflection focused on the Our Father?
Thanks to Bishop Barron, Fr. John Ricardo and others, I perceive a strong connection between the Eucharist and the Lord’s Prayer. I think the Church very deliberately placed it after the Consecration and before our reception of Holy Communion.
In the Mass we have just witnessed the transubstantiation of bread and wine to the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. Indeed, we have participated in the whole of the Paschal Mystery which is the passion, death, resurrection and ascension of our Lord Jesus right there on the altar. It was by this Mystery that mankind has been restored to a right relationship with God which was broken in the garden by Adam.
It is entirely reasonable, it is entirely just, that before we receive Jesus in Holy Communion we restore our personal relationship with God.
And so we pray;
“Our Father who art in heaven”. Think of it. Up until the time of Jesus who would have called God “Father”? The Israelites didn’t even speak the name of God and now we can call Him Abba, Father, Abba being the diminutive for Father. It’s like Daddy. Paul says in Romans 8:15 “…you have received a spirit of adoption through which we cry Abba, Father.” Alleluia
“Hallowed be Your Name”. We’re not confirming for God that His name is holy, or even announcing that it is. We are asking that we always keep His name holy, that we always value His name as so supreme that all else falls short. We are saying “You alone, Lord, are the center of my life.”
“May Your Kingdom come”. Origen of Alexandria in the second century says Jesus is the auto basilea, the Kingdom of God in person. The kingdom is God’s reign, God’s way of ordering things, or as Fr. Simon on Relevant Radio says, it is the majesty of God. When we pray, “Your kingdom come” we are saying “May we be drawn more and more into Jesus, Who is the kingdom in His person, the Auto Basilea.”
“Your will be done”. We pray, “restore us Lord to that right relationship, that intimacy that was lost in the garden, that conformity of our wills with your will Abba”.
“Give us this day our daily bread”. This is not Chompies bread we’re asking for, nor only that he supply us with our daily sustenance. Rather it is something much more. St. Jerome rends it in the Latin Vulgate as Panem Super Substantialem, Super Substantial Bread. See where we’re going here? We pray for the Eucharist, the bread that has been transubstantiated to the Body and Blood of Christ, the Bread of Life.
“Forgive us our sins”. We are drawn to Our Lord through his forgiveness. We are about to receive Jesus. We are about to consummate our relationship with the Bridegroom. Do we not want to come to Him washed clean?
“As we forgive those who have sinned against us”. First, we cannot receive the forgiveness of Christ unless we forgive. Unforgiveness is a barrier, a wall through which forgiveness cannot penetrate. It closes the heart to mercy. We are about to receive into ourselves the Supersubstantial Bread, the Majesty of God. Let us be fully open to all that God has to give us by asking forgiveness and forgiving all those who have hurt us, who have betrayed us.
“Do not lead us into temptation” or another translation, “Do not subject us to the final test”. As we draw closer to Christ, as we conform our hearts to His Most Sacred Heart, temptations will rise up against us. We’ll know resistance to His will. “Protect me Lord from my resistant self, from all those temptations that could lead me away from You.”
I pray brothers, that we all become truly the Knights of the Eucharist we have been called to be.