Our Father

I think it is interesting to note, as it is not widely appreciated, that the prayer which Jesus taught us to pray each day, is part of his teaching that is included in the Sermon on the Mount. Over these last four weeks, the gospel readings have been from this momentous section of Matthew’s Gospel, in which Jesus unfolds for us a panorama of images that act like a landscape for the Christian life. We are being instructed how to live in the light of these realities, and as we look back over these gospels, we should be mindful of what we are being asked.

The beatitudes themselves have their own context. It is the kingdom of heaven. When we try to define that term, do we assume that Jesus is us calling us to consider a quasi-utopian reality which for many people is simply beyond their grasp. Think of the thousands who are struggling with the circumstances of their lives, be it the cost of living crisis, or the lack of food and shelter. The devastation of war and conflict, or natural disaster, and simply find it inconceivable to imagine how such situations can ever be overcome. Yet at the heart of the ‘Our Father’ we make a petition, that the kingdom for which we long, be made visible and sustainable here on earth, within in the confines of all those difficult and horrible circumstances and conditions. It seems so incongruous but that is what the prayer evokes, and it is what makes the prayer and the whole of the Sermon on the Mount so radical. The idea of turning the other cheek, of going the extra mile and of loving enemies are no longer fanciful expectations, but concrete expressions of the true identity which the Christian faith is about.

From its very beginnings the hallmark of the Christian community was the way in which it sought to offer comfort to those who mourned. Compassion for those in strife, such that it hungered for what was right, notwithstanding the persecutions it suffered. Doing so, because the community and each member of it, knew it was the pathway by which the kingdom was to be made present. It is what Jesus still calls upon us to undertake, each day, evidenced by acts of kindness and generosity, through forgiveness and blessedness. it is sustained for us by the bread of life which feeds us. So when we pray the prayer, we recognise the centrality of the Father’s love, in which we are all blessed.

Let us make this love the driving force of our desire to build the kingdom in all its fulness, beauty and glory.