The gospel for Tuesday of the first week of Lent is taken from Matthew 6, 7, 15. Jesus said to his disciples in praying, do not babble like the pagans who think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. This is how you are to pray. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. If you forgive men their transgressions, your Heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions. Jesus has the Pharisees and scribes in mind when he says, don’t babble on like pagans.
In a way, they work under pagans. But here’s what he’s beautifully describing the thing you need to pray for. The words that I will give you to pray are absolutely essential issues that you need to embrace. First of all, you need to recognize my Father in heaven. He is holy. He and he’s here to help us to establish the kingdom of God.
And it will be done. It’ll be one earth and heaven. A new heaven, a new earth. And then he simply says, ask God. Realize that God longs to feed you, to forgive you and to protect you from evil. It’s such a beautiful, succinct way of focusing on what the kingdom is all about.
Receiving the love of a Father incarnate in a human being, longing for us to achieve the goal. Please pause and reflect upon these images. And then I will close with a prayer. Foreign closing prayer. Father’s simplicity, the economy of words in this beautiful prayer is so like you to make it all, in a way, simple, to know that you will take care of us, feed us, nurture us, protect us, forgive us. It’s the essence of what you do for us, but most especially what we need to do for ourselves and for others.
If we live this prayer, we will live already in the kingdom. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.
