Sermon 59
SERMO 59
IN THE SAME WAY IN MT 6:9-13
On the Lord's Prayer
TO THE COMPETENT
Symbol of the rule of faith.
You have rendered what you believe, you have heard what you should pray. For you could not call upon Him in whom you did not believe, as the Apostle says: How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? Therefore, you first learned the Creed where the rule of your faith is concise and grand; concise in the number of words, weighty in the significance of the concepts. The prayer, however, which you received today to be kept and given back in eight days, as you heard when the Gospel was read, was handed down by the Lord Himself to His disciples and from them has come down to us, because their sound has gone out into all the earth.
The one Father of all.
Therefore do not cling to earthly things, you who have found the Father in heaven. For you will say: Our Father who art in heaven. You have begun to belong to a great lineage. Under this Father, brothers are rich and poor; under this Father, brothers are lord and servant; under this Father, brothers are emperor and soldier. All faithful Christians have different fathers on earth, some noble, others ignoble; but they invoke one Father, who is in heaven. If our Father is there, an inheritance is being prepared for us there. Such indeed is this Father, with whom we may possess what he grants. For he gives an inheritance, but it is not by dying that he leaves it to us; he does not depart so that we might succeed him, but he remains so that we might join him. Since we have heard from whom we should ask, let us also know what we should ask, lest by asking for wrong things we offend such a Father.
The first request.
What then did our Lord Jesus teach us to ask from the Father who is in heaven? Hallowed be your name. What benefit is it that we ask from God, that his name be hallowed, why cannot it be that his name is not holy? The name of God is always holy; why then do we pray that it be hallowed, except that we may be hallowed through him? Therefore, what is always holy, we pray that it be hallowed in us. The name of God will be hallowed in you when you are baptized. Why will you pray for this even when you have been baptized except that what you have received may remain in you?
Second petition.
The next petition follows: Thy kingdom come. Whether we ask or do not ask, the kingdom of God will come; why then do we ask except that it may come to us as well as to all the saints, so that God may also count us among His saints to whom His kingdom will come?
The third petition.
We say in the third petition: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." What does this mean? That just as the angels serve you in heaven, we too should serve you on earth. The holy angels obey him, they do not offend him; they carry out his commands by loving him. Therefore, we pray that we too may carry out God’s command with love. Again, these words are understood in another way: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Heaven within us is the soul, earth within us is the body. So what does it mean: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven?" Just as we have heard your commandments, so let our flesh consent to them, lest while the flesh and the spirit contend, we may be less able to fulfill the commandments of God. However, dearest ones, when the flesh lusts against the spirit, as if earth against heaven, let the spirit lust against it so that earth does not overthrow heaven. And if we cannot remove this contention, let us deny assent. These words are also understood thus: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Heaven signifies the faithful, who have put on the image of the heavenly man, which is, of Christ. The unfaithful, however, since they bear the image of the earthly man, are called earth. Therefore, when we say: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," we say this to our good Father: "As the faithful believed in you, so let the unfaithful believe." And so we learn to pray for our enemies.
The fourth petition.
Following in the prayer: Give us this day our daily bread. Whether we ask for what is necessary for the body from the Father, symbolizing in the bread whatever is necessary for us, or we understand that daily bread which you are to receive from the altar, we rightly ask that he give it to us today, that is, at this time. For it is necessary at this time when we are hungry; but when we are in the other life, hunger will cease, will we have a need to ask for bread? Or if it is that bread which I said we receive from the altar, we rightly pray that he gives it to us. For what are we praying for if not that we should not commit any evil whereby we might be separated from such bread? And the word of God which is preached daily is bread. For even if it is not the bread of the stomach, yet it is the bread of the mind. But when this life has passed, we will neither seek that bread which hunger seeks, nor will we have the sacrament of the altar to receive, because there we will be with Christ whose body we receive; nor will we need to speak these words to you that we say now, nor read the codex, when we shall see that which is the Word of God, by whom all things were made, by which the angels are fed, by which the angels are enlightened, by which the angels become wise, not seeking the words of circuitous speech but drinking the unique Word and from it filled, they belch praises and do not fail in praises. For blessed, as the psalm says, are those who dwell in your house; forever and ever they will praise you.
The Fifth Petition.
Therefore, in this life we also ask for what follows: Forgive us our debts. In baptism, all your debts, that is, sins, will be forgiven entirely. But because no one can live here without sin, and even if it is not a great sin whereby one is separated from that bread, no one can be without sins on this earth, and we cannot receive baptism more than once; yet in prayer we receive that which washes us daily so that our sins are forgiven daily, but only if we do what follows: as we also forgive our debtors. Therefore, my brothers, I advise you: you shall be children of God, not of any great man. Would your count even deign to adopt any of you? Divine grace has made all into children. Therefore, because you will say this daily even after baptism and more so after baptism (for you will not pray this prayer except after baptism, in eight days you will not return it but will pray it; after baptism you will pray it. For how can one say "Our Father" who has not yet been born?) Thus, because you will say this prayer daily, I advise you, my children in God's grace and my brothers under that Father, that when someone offends you and sins against you and comes and confesses and asks for your forgiveness, you should immediately forgive from your heart, so that you do not block the forgiveness coming to you from God. For if you do not forgive, neither will He forgive you. And God says this to you: Justly you ask forgiveness from me, who cannot sin, and although no sin can be found in me, nevertheless I forgive, and you do not want to forgive. Behold, I permit you, do not forgive. Act so that I do not find in you what I must avenge. You are allowed to avenge yourself on the man who offended you. But he asks for forgiveness. He was an enemy but by asking for forgiveness, he breaks the enmity. But you say, I do not want to, I want to avenge. Beware that you are not avenged upon. You want to avenge the sin, you who have sin. Beware that He does not avenge Himself on you in whom sin cannot be found. Therefore, we also ask for this in this life: because here sins can be forgiven, where sins can be committed. However, in that life, they are not forgiven because they are not possessed.
The sixth petition.
But then we ask, saying: lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. He is led into temptation who consents to the tempter. For in this life, it is useful to be tempted, but it is not expedient to be led into temptation. Therefore, when he who wishes to corrupt you with money so that you do something evil with the received money tempts you, you are tempted but proven. If you do not consent, you will be found pure. And I give you advice: despise avarice and do not let money corrupt you; against temptation, close the door and place the bolt, the love of God. And who can do this unless he assists who is asked by us? And men are tempted in various ways, they are tempted by rewards, they are tempted by threats, so that he who cannot seduce by corrupting may seduce by terrifying. But a man who is fixed in God and whom God hears saying: lead us not into temptation, conquers evil passions, conquers vain terrors. Therefore, it is also necessary for us in this life to ask not to be led into temptation (because here are temptations, so that we may be delivered from evil) because here is evil. And henceforth all these seven petitions are: three pertain to eternal life, four pertain to the present life. Hallowed be thy name: it will always be. Thy kingdom come: this kingdom will always be. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven: it will always be. Our daily bread give us today: it will not always be. Forgive us our debts: it will not always be. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: it will not always be, but where there is temptation and where there is evil, there it is necessary to ask. Prayer strengthens you so that you may not only learn to ask from God, the Father who is in heaven, what you desire but also learn what you ought to desire. Amen.