MARY, QUEEN OF HEAVEN AND EARTH

Today week, Sunday 1st of July, our Parish, in Sliema, Malta, will be celebrating the Feast dedicated to Our Lady under the title of ‘Our Queen of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus’. What a wonderful title to give to your mother, you call your Mum, Queen.

It is  fully understandable; the fact that the spouse addresses such titles to his beloved bride, or wife ... but for the children to address their own mother, is proof enough not only of their love for their Mum, but admiration, total subjection, sign of appreciation, the great esteem they hold their dear Mum. 

But, such titles become messages of love and admiration only, if the children live up to that esteem, not throughout the year, but throughout their life. My Mum should not be my Mum on her feastday only, on her birthday only, on Mother’s Day or on other Anniversaries.

I would venture, yes, I would dare to say that Mum does not deserve the yearly feast. Because, we should celebrate her, honour her and love her every second of our life. We always try to keep the inage of the ‘beloved’ one constantly in our mind, be it by means of a photo, picture, or thru the mental eye; on rising on sleeping, we dream about her during the night, we think about her all through the day ... we are ready to make sacrifices for her.  That is love.

What applies to our Mum on earth, applies to our Mum in Heaven, to the Blessed Mary, ever Virgin, who accepted to become our Mum, gave us birth through great pains on Calvary. Yes, we should celebrate her feast every single moment of our life.

We all recall the advices, tips, suggestions given to us during our childhood, and adulthood, by our Mum ... and most of us still treasure those advices. But our celestial Mother, as recorded in the Holy Book, gave us only one advise, one suggestion. This was during the Marriage Feast at Cana of Galilee, when she said: “Do as He tells you.” That is how St.John recorded that advice.

But tell me, how many mums on earth ... especially during this day and age give that tip to their children: “Do as Jesus tells you.”  Blessed are those mums who still give that advice to their children. That is a sign of love towards their offsprings.

The Catholic Church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit (John 14,26) honours the Blessed Virgin Mary with love and filial devotion as the most beloved of mothers. Mary is truly our Mother, Mother of all nations, especially of those who believe in Her.

4. THE RECIPE FOR SALVATION: THE OUR FATHER

“LEAD  US  NOT  INTO  TEMPTATION”

We should not be scandalized at such a statement, for God can never lead us into temptation…it is unthinkable.

One is tempted to ask, but why has God tempted, rather, set such a trial to Job? Certainly not to trip him  or make him despair and turn against God Himself.

Yet, in the process of his trials, God wanted Job to realise the extent of God’s mercy and love.  God wanted to show, to make Job realise that the only security does not come from personal wealth (Job was very wealthy), and notwithstanding his wealth he still had to admit that everything comes and depends on God, as the supreme Being.

St James tells us: “… when we are under trial, let us not think that God is tempting us (to sin), for God can neither deceive nor be deceived. For deception, sin, comes from man’s passions only.”

In the Biblical sense, jargon, especially in the New Testament, ‘trial’ and ‘temptation’ are synonymous with the ‘persecution of the Christians’. St. Paul assures us that God does not let us suffer more than we can.  Besides, God does give us the necessary graces to overcome all trials.

This comes about with the help of the Holy Spirit, when He replaces our heart of stone with a heart of flesh. Overcoming temptations does not necessarily mean eradicating , annihilating them completely.

During the moment of martyrdom, those persons are tempted to choose between life and death. The martyred ‘saints’ have all opted for ‘life’  BUT through ‘death’.

Having said all this it is worth saying that this statement; ‘Lead us not into temptation’ from the original actually meant ‘do not leave us on our own during temptations’. This changes the whole scenario. I imagine a child being led into a doctor’s clinic, and automatically, the child cries out to his mum or dad: ‘Do not leave me on my own, stay with me’.

“DELIVER US FROM EVIL”

Incidentally this part is not found in St.Luke’s version, yet we have heard it coming out from Christ’s lips in His Last Prayer during the Last Supper.      “Father, I do not pray that they be removed from this world, but to deliver them from the evil one.”

According to the original form, in Greek, and also in Latin, the phrase reads: deliver us from “the evil one”, that is from Satan, and it is the preferred form nowadays. The evil one is the source of every evil, harm, sin…and here, as we can see, it’s a return to the old tug-of-war between ‘good and evil,  ‘light and darkness’.

We make this petition on our behalf and on behalf of the whole world, which is enslaved by pride, egoism, hatred, strife, power, money … . Yes, we have to pray to God to deliver us from the fruits of the ‘evil one’, just as God delivered the Israelites from Egypt, just as Christ delivered us from the power of death and Satan.

As we can see, the ‘OUR FATHER’ is no ordinary Prayer. We can just pray one short petition and offer it for the needs of all humanity. But we have to realise that whoever prays this Prayer must be very DARING. It is a challenging Prayer.

THE RECIPE FOR SALVATION: THE OUR FATHER

3.        

“Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Interesting to note that this statement is not found in St’Luke’s version, and we do not know for certain if it was in St.Matthew’s original, or if it was added by Matthew himself. In that case it was taken from Christ’s prayer in Gethsemani: “Father, not my will, but Thine, be done.”

This should be our heartfelt wish that God’s commandments be observed in the whole world amongst all nations. The same thought is found in the Letter to the Ephesians,1:3, 9 – 10…          ”…so that all will be gathered under one head, that is Christ, all living things on earth and all that is in Heaven.”

In other words this is the Plan of Salvation in Jesus Christ. For when we say: “Thy will be done” we would be praying that God the Father would renew the whole of creation through Jesus Christ.

“Give us this day our daily bread.”

Now, for what type of bread are we referring to here ?                                                     A quick look at world statistics will surely shake us up and, HOPEFULLY, bring us to our senses.                 *** Every year 14 million children die of starvation, *** 70 percent of the wealth is shared by only 20 percent of the world population,  *** 30 per cent of the world’s wealth has to be shared amongst 80 percent of the world population.

SO, that means that not everyone has  “his daily bread”. When we pray, “Give us thus day our daily bread”, we should be praying for social justice all round the world, for charity and love amongst all nations, so that the God-given fruits, wealth, products will be justly shared amongst all.

God had provided enough for all humanity. We all know about the millions of tons of wheat burnt every year to put up the price of what is left.

The Fathers of the Church apply this sentence to the Blessed Eucharist, for our frequent reception of the Sacred Bread, the Bread of Angels. It is also a reference to the frequent reading and study of the Holy Book, the daily sustenance from meditating the Word of God.

“Forgive us our debts (trespasses), as we forgive others.”

What a great, super psychologist Jesus Christ was, the greatest of the great ! Do we realise what the above statement means; that before we say it again, the next time we will be praying the ‘Our Father’ we have to sit down, take some time, make a thorough examination of our conscience to see who has injured us, offended us, hurt us (lately or in the years gone by)…AND … AND … before going on with the prayer we have to forgive that or those persons…otherwise we would be wasting our time, making fun of God and fooling ourselves.

Those who have the courage to do just that, would be helping much in creating a new world atmosphere of forgiveness, love and peace. All hatred, worries and fighting will end, our blood pressure will find its normal level, cardiologists will be run out of business; for there will be no more mental stresses, breakdowns and less heart failures.

But, if we are not ready to decide and start a new life of forgiving, SIN keeps reigning, and the devil keeps reigning supreme in the whole world. If you are a Christian worthy of the name , why on earth do you help Satan to reign ? Have you never realized that if you do not forgive means that you are part of the rank and file of Lucifer? It’s terrible and frightening, simply think about it … much more helping the prince of darkness to try and beat Jesus.

THEN, and only THEN, will God forgive us our trespasses, our debts … BUT not before. The greatest difficulty a Priest, a Confessor can encounter is, not when faced with sins of the flesh, of sex … but, when he has in front of him one who declares that he does not want to forgive those who have caused him harm, and declares his hate against them.

What, if I might ask, would happen to us all, to all humanity, if God had to seriously consider and evaluate our sins of hatred, all sins of omission and those committed … I believe we would expect another deluge. Where it not for the innumerable merits of His Passion, Death and Resurrection, our debts are so great that it would take a whole eternity for every single person to settle accounts.

“Yet love is patient, love is kind.”                              THANK YOU, FATHER.

2. RECIPE FOR SALVATION: OUR FATHER

The first three short phrases are addressed to God; ‘Hallowed be Thy Name’ … ‘Thy Kingdom come’ … ‘Thy will be done’. We are declaring these in the interest of God, and this is the central, most important point. The more we show genuine interest in God, the more our prayers will be answered.

We exist, we live for God, so these words, these wishes are not meant to or rather not expressed as a compliment to God, this is a declaration of our Christian commitment; for we exist solely to give glory to God, to help make His Kingdom come and to accept His Divine Will.

This should be our life programme, our terms of reference as Christians is to look after God’s interests…and then HE will look after our interests.

The second part of the Our Father, is spoken in the ‘plural’; give US, this day … OUR daily bread … , lead US…and not give ME this day, … MY daily bread …lead ME not … St.Cyprianus tells us that when we pray in the plural we will be praying for all the believers, so the whole of believers will be praying for us. A wonderful thought. In prayer we should never use the word ‘I’, but always ‘we’ and ‘us’.

“Hallowed be Thy Name”
The seven short prayers which make up the Our Father were taken from the Jewish Prayers, but more important than the source is the fact that Jesus put those same prayers in a different context. The new context was ‘The Kingdom of God’.

So, the Name of God, of God the Father is ‘hallowed’ in context of the Incarnation, the Redemption, and the Coming of His Kingdom.

“Thy Kingdom Come”
What, exactly did Jesus have in mind by ‘the Kingdom’ ? Was He referring to a place , a locality a terrestrial kingdom ? The original word ‘basileia’ means ‘authority’ or ‘to exercise authority’.

But we know that the world is up to its neck in sin, in the mud of hatred, lust and power; so the world IS the kingdom of the devil, as Saints Paul and John tell us. But this kingdom which has been usurped by the devil needs to be won back by Him who has no authority above Him.

That is why the first thing Jesus did was to forgive all sins and after repenting from all our misgivings we were no more looked upon as enemies but as friends.

Notwithstanding the world situation, drowning in evil, the true Christian should believe in the final victory, promised by Christ Himself. In the Last Days He will come to establish His Kingdom.

“Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

1. RECIPE FOR SALVATION:

WE ALL WANT TO GET TO KNOW GOD BETTER,                                                                but how should we go about it ?

We read in the Book of Job telling God: “I have heard about you, Lord, with my own ears (but after having experienced you, after the struggle) I have seen you with my own eyes.” (Job, 42: 5 – 6)

God is not ‘something’ But ‘someone’, whom we learn about once we meet Him and experience Him.

The degree, extent, amount we get to know God depends on how much we pray, because in prayer we meet Him personally, we speak to Him and He speaks to our heart.

But God does not speak to us in prayer only, but in all occasions, happenings during the day and during our lifetime… if we know how to read the signs of the times of our personal life, and those around us, familiar, political and social. But the keyword is PRAYER.

The grace by which we manage to lead a good life depends on how much and the way we pray. After death, the reason why some condemn themselves to eternal damnation, is because they would have failed to pray to Him, they had failed to show trust in Him, because they had failed to wish what He always wished. He was always ready to hear our prayers…but they were never uttered.

When we realise the great amount of help we all need; spiritual and material, all round the world, it is no wonder that Jesus Himself told us that it is not enough praying for twenty four hours a day.

For praying we need exterior and interior peace, quiet, stillness, otherwise how can we carry on a dialogue with God Himself surrounded by the hustle and bustle of life around us. During prayer we will be feeling, experiencing God face to face, our eyes will be seeing what God’s eyes will be beholding.

The disciples of Jesus once asked Him: “Lord, teach us how to pray.” We all know what was the Lord’s reply … we were presented  with the wonderful prayer: “Our Father.”

But, as St.Augustine tells us, the ‘Our Father’ is not ‘a prayer’, but ‘a model of other prayers’, in it we find all the prayers found in the Psalter, in the Book of Psalms.

We can give a few examples; “Praise the Lord all nations” means,  “Thy Kingdom come.”   When we say, “Have Mercy on us” that means, in the Our father, “Forgive us our trespasses.”

St.Augustine goes on to say that when we pray for something which is included in the Our Father, we will be asking it in the Lord’s Name…and He will certainly grant it to us.

But, conversely, if we ask for something not included in the Our Father, there is no guarantee of it being granted. We find this in Augustines Epistle no.130.         

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