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.”