When
teaching men to pray, Christ said,
Pray then like this: Our Father who art in
heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it
is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil (Mt 6.9–13, cf. Lk 11.2–4).
This is
the usual translation of the prayer used in the Orthodox Church. It begins with
a petition to God as “our Father.” There was no such prayer before this
teaching of Christ. The Old Testament people did not address God as “Abba:
Father” (Rom 8.15, Gal 4.6). This name of “Father” for God is given by Christ,
the divine Son of God. Men can dare, “with boldness and without condemnation”
to call upon the “heavenly God” with the name of “Father” only when they are
made worthy to do so by Christ (cf. Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom). In the
early church the prayer “Our Father” was taught only to the baptized members of
the church.
The
statement that the Father is “in heaven,” or literally “in the heavens,” means
that He is everywhere and over all things. The heavens are over all and
encompass all. Wherever man goes on the earth or in the air, or even in space,
the heavens are around him and over him. To say that the Father is “in the
heavens” means that He is not tied down or limited to any one location—as were
the gods of the heathens. The heavenly God is the “God of gods” (Deut 10.17, 2
Chron 2.5), the “Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all”
(Eph 4.5), the one in whom “we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17.28).
To say that God is “in heaven” is not to place Him somewhere; it is rather to
say that He transcends all things and yet is present to all.
“Hallowed
be Thy name” means that God’s name is holy and should be treated with respect
and devotion. In the old covenant it was the custom of the Jews never to say
the sacred name of God: Yahweh, the I AM (cf. Ex 3.13–15). This was to guard
against defilement of the divine name, and to safeguard against transgressing
the commandment: “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; for
the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain” (Ex 20.7).
In the
New Testament, God gives Jesus the “name which is above every name” (Phil 2.9)
and in making the name of the Father holy, Christians do so in the name of His
Son.
“Thy
Kingdom come” in the Lord’s Prayer is first of all the prayer for the end of
the ages. Christians want the world to end so that God’s Kingdom would fill all
creation with divine glory and life. “Come Lord Jesus; Marantha!” is the prayer
of the faithful, the last prayer of the Scriptures (Rev 22.20, cf. 1 Cor
16.22). It is the calling for the final appearance of the Lord.
In the
spiritual tradition of the Church, the prayer “Thy Kingdom come” has also been
understood as an invocation of the Holy Spirit to dwell in God’s people. In his
commentary on the Lord’s Prayer, Saint Gregory of Nyssa says that there was
another reading for this petition which said “Thy Holy Spirit come upon us and
cleanse us.” Thus he says, following the scriptures, that the presence of the
Holy Spirit in man is the presence of Christ and the Kingdom of God.
For the Kingdom of God is . . .
righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom 14.17).
. . . it is God who establishes us with you in
Christ . . . He has put His seal upon us and given us
His Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee (2 Cor 1.22).
In Him . . . you were sealed with the promised Holy
Spirit which is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of
it to the praise of His glory.
. . . do not grieve the Holy Spirit in whom you
were sealed for the day of redemption (Eph 1.13–14,
4.30).
The seal
of the Holy Spirit on men’s hearts is the pledge and guarantee of the Kingdom
of God still to come in all power and glory. In the prayer “Thy Kingdom come,”
believers in Jesus ask that the Kingdom of God “not coming in external signs of
observation” for the faithless to behold, might dwell powerfully and secretly
within the faithful (cf. Lk 17.20–21).
“Thy will
be done on earth as it is in heaven” is the center of the Lord’s Prayer, the
central desire of Christians. The whole purpose of prayer, the very purpose of
man’s life, is to do the will of God. This is what Jesus prayed and did (cf. Mt
26.42). And this is what His followers must pray and do. There is but one
purpose of prayer, say the spiritual teachers, to keep God’s commandments so as
not to sin, thus leading to deification and divine sonship with Christ.
The only thing that God demands of us mortals
is that we do not sin. But this . . . is merely keeping inviolate the image and
rank we possess by nature. Clothed thus in the radiant garment of the Spirit,
we abide in God and He in us; through grace we become gods and sons of God and
are illumined by the light of His knowledge . . . (Saint Simeon the New Theologian, 10th c.,
Practical and Theological Precepts).
To pray
“Thy will be done” according to the spiritual teachers, is a daring and
dangerous act. This is so, first of all, because when one makes this prayer, he
must be ready, like Christ, to follow where it leads. God will answer this
prayer, and make known His will. The person who prays must be ready to obey,
whatever the consequences. When asked why many Christians are frustrated and
irritated, grouchy and mean, and sometimes even somewhat “unbalanced,” one
spiritual teacher responded that the reason is clear. They pray “Thy will be done,”
and continue daily to do so, while at the same time they resist God’s will in
their lives and so are always ill at ease. Then they begin to justify their
attitudes and actions, to explain and to rationalize their behavior, before
their own consciences and others. A person in such as state can never be at
peace, for “it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the Living God”
(Heb 10.31).
The
second reason why it is said that the prayer “Thy will be done”—and prayer
generally—is daring and dangerous is because the devil ferociously attacks the
person who prays. Indeed one of the greatest proofs of demonic temptation, and
the reality and power of the devil, is to be fervent in prayer. For the devil
wants nothing so much as for man to fail to accomplish the will of God which is
the purpose of all prayer.
If you strive after prayer, prepare yourself
for diabolical suggestions and bear patiently their onslaughts; for they will
attack you like wild beasts . . . Try as much as possible to be humble and
courageous . . . He who endures will be granted great joy
(Saint Nilus of Sinai, 5th c., Texts on Prayer).
The
prayer for our “daily bread” is normally understood to signify generally all of
our bodily needs and whatever we require to sustain our lives in this world. In
the spiritual tradition however, this petition, because it literally says our
“essential” or “super-essential” bread, is often understood in the spiritual
sense to mean the nourishment of our souls by the Word of God, Jesus Christ who
is the “Bread of Life;” the “Bread of God which has come down from heaven and
given life to the world” (Jn 6.33–36); the bread which “a man may eat of it and
not die,” but “live forever” (Jn 6.50–51). Thus the prayer for “daily bread”
becomes the petition for daily spiritual nourishment through abiding communion
with Christ so that one might live perpetually with God.
The
prayer “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”
has been especially emphasized by the Lord.
For if you forgive men their trespasses, your
heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their
trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses (Mt 6.14–15).
This is
the point of Christ’s parable about the unforgiving servant (Mt 18.23–35). All
men need the forgiveness of God and must pray for it. All men are indebted to
God for everything, and fail to offer the thanksgiving and praise and
righteousness that are due. The only way that God will overlook and forgive the
sins and debts of His servants is if they themselves forgive their brothers,
not merely in words and formal gestures, but genuinely and truly “from their
hearts” (cf. Mt 18.35). In the prayer taught by Christ this is clearly
acknowledged.
“Lead us
not into temptation” should not be understood as if God puts His people to the
test or brings them in to the occasion of evil.
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am
tempted by God;” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no
one; but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin; and sin when it is
full-grown brings forth death (Jas 1.13–15).
“Lead us
not into temptation” means that we ask God not to allow us to be found in situations
in which we will be overcome by sin. It is a prayer that we be kept from those
people and places where wickedness reigns and where we in our weakness will
certainly succumb. It is a prayer that we will be liberated from the deceit and
vanity of our minds and hearts, from the carnal lusts that dwell in our bodies.
It is a prayer that God Himself would be man’s shelter and refuge (cf. Ps 91).
“Deliver
us from evil” says literally “rescue us from the evil one,” that is, the devil.
The meaning is clear. There are but two ways for man: God and life or the devil
and death. Deliverance from the devil means salvation and redemption from every
falsehood, foolishness, deceit, wickedness and iniquity that leads to
destruction and death.
Thus, as
Metropolitan Anthony of Sorouzh has explained, the Lord’s Prayer shows the
whole meaning of the life of man (cf. Anthony Bloom, Living Prayer). Delivered
from evil, man is saved from temptation, in so doing he is merciful to all and
receives the forgiveness of his own sins. Being forgiven his sins, by his mercy
to others, he has all that he needs for life—his “daily bread”; and being
nourished by God, he accomplishes His will. Having accomplished His will, God’s
Kingdom is present, His name is sanctified and He becomes the Father of the one
who shows himself to be in truth the child of God who can say, “Our Father.”
Source: https://oca.org/orthodoxy/the-orthodox-faith/spirituality/prayer-fasting-and-almsgiving/the-lords-prayer
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