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.