The Lord’s Prayer – Make This World Into Your World And Your Kingdom.
Fr Dexter Brereton, CSSp ThM STL
Ask and it will be given to you; search and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.
Today’s Gospel reading from Luke presents us with Luke’s version of the Lord’s prayer which holds a revered place in Christian tradition. Matthew’s version of the same prayer is far more famous and is the basis of the Our Father as it is recited by Christians today. Scholars opine however that Luke’s less developed form of the prayer may be much closer to the original as it came from Jesus.
In Luke, what Jesus offers in the Our Father is more a style, or an example of prayer, than an actual formula for prayer. In our bible meditation, we may allow ourselves to be moved by Jesus’ words. The opening petition, “Father, may your name be held holy” is identical to Matthew’s. This petition is in fact also identical to the second, which follows it, “Your Kingdom come”. God’s Kingdom or ‘reign’ is an eschatological or ‘end-time’ reality. It is the way God is ultimately experienced at the end or consummation of history. God’s Kingdom is, to put it simply, God’s plan for the world. In the words of Leonardo Boff, God wants a world where ‘all that is anti-divine, and anti-human has fled.’ It is this world utterly transformed and healed to the root. God’s name is ‘hallowed’ or held holy where there is no more oppression, no more famine, no more training for war, no more unjust killing or starvation or hatred. From the point of view of the modern reader, God’s world is a world without human trafficking or drug addiction or racial prejudice. It is a world where humanity lives in harmony with nature and the spectre of disastrous, irreversible climate change is no more.
The disciple in Luke is therefore invited, through his or her prayer-life, to enter into God’s plan for the world. In a sense, our personal concerns become relativized, they almost disappear against the much deeper concern of the coming of the reign or kingdom of God. We often go to God full of agendas and worries. Jesus’ advice in the Lord’s prayer invites us to lay aside our personal concerns for a while, as we approach God and pray for people and a whole world beyond our doorstep. To pray in such a way is to pray with great freedom and trust, since , in the words of a familiar hymn, we ‘seek first the Kingdom of heaven’ confident that ‘ the rest will fall in line’.
Today, as I pray the words ‘Your Kingdom come’, I pray this prayer in union with the people of Haiti, who today live under the cross of gang violence, kidnapping and social discord. I pray this prayer together with the people of Sri Lanka, who are angry since their economy has collapsed. I pray this prayer with the people of Ukraine who for some time now have had to face unjust, deadly aggression. I pray this prayer with all the Black citizens of the United States, already disadvantaged by high rates of poverty and ill-health, also having to bear the cross of racial hatred, racial profiling and extra-judicial killings. I pray also in solidarity with all my Black brothers and sisters here in T&T, many of whom do well in life but still have to face obstacles in our own forms of racial prejudice and hatred. I pray in solidarity with all Trinbagonians as we struggle to emerge from under the cross of the COVID-19 pandemic. I pray ‘Your Kingdom Come’ in solidarity with all those who in Trinidad & Tobago and elsewhere in the world, have to struggle mightily to feed their families in a difficult economic time.
Dear God, you alone are our Father, our Redeemer is your ancient name. May your name be held holy. We pray that your name be truly honoured in this world. Where your name is honoured dear God, there is peace and righteousness. Look upon your children, grant us your peace, your well-being and your forgiveness. Make this world, into your world, your kingdom.
Amen.
