"Teach Us To Pray"

Why do we pray?

Brother Roger, founder of the Taize Community in France, wrote,

Heaven does not profit from our prayers, nor do we build up a bank account balance in Heaven when we pray. Nevertheless, the saints in Heaven do pray. The angels pray. This is why the Archangel Gabriel stands at the Altar of Incense in the Zion Temple (Lu 1:19) and why Michael the Archangel stands at the right hand of the Altar of Incense by ancient Jewish and Christian tradition (4 Baruch and the Revelation of St. John the Divine). For incense signifies prayer:

The Most Holy Theotokos, our Most Holy Mother, prays. She prays for us. And she exhorts us to pray .... just as she does. All a mystery.

Her Son, our Lord, taught us to pray. Let us pause here. Are we to believe that the large band of devout men, who left their jobs and families to follow a spiritual Master in the traditions of the Jewish faith, did not know how to pray? From the Shemah, which they learned by rote in their earliest youth, to the Kaddish (prayed by Jews since the Babylonian Captivity), these men prayed regularly. Indeed, Jesus affirmed that they prayed the Amidah (literally "standing prayer"), which was offered morning, noon, and evening (our Divine Office descends from the Amidah:

Nevertheless, for all of this, they petition Jesus,

Teach us to pray! Remarkable!

The Lord's answer to this extraordinary petition is no less remarkable:

This translation follows longtime tradition. But the Greek original actually says:

That is,

Jesus repeats this same formula in the following chapter:

The analogy of human fatherhood to Divine Fatherhood, of course, goes to the essence of Christianity: God is our personal and individual Father .... "whereby we cry out Abba (Daddy)!" St. Paul writes (Rom 8:15, Gal 4:6). Each of us is a particular son or daughter by adoption. Jesus, the Only-begotten of the Father, the First-born of Creation, is our Eldest Brother. It falls upon each of us to live up to our family resemblance, to reject what is unworthy of our birthright — "goat life" — and to fulfill our destiny by resembling our Exemplar, Jesus, the visible Image of the invisible God, in every way that we can. This is the faith in a nutshell.

The casual outsider might say, "Wait a minute! Isn't Christianity about being kind to one another and behaving ourselves? I mean, if I do that, haven't I done everything?" Certainly, this might be the utility of Christianity in the view of civil authority. At least, it once was. Benjamin Franklin, who rejected the idea of a God Who could hear our prayers, wrote,

But the absence of wickedness, which is goodness, is a by-product of Christianity, an outcome of theosis. The main thing is our love of the Father and His Only-begotten Son and, which follows, our yearning to be One with them. Virtue flows from this alone .... and only could, at least, in any sustained way. It is not possible to behave yourself all the way through life, day by day, by an act of your own will. It is amazing what happens when your heart is so full of love that it bursts. Suddenly, all the lesser, unworthy things go away. For the demons are banished in the brilliant light of that most hated state of being (by Hell's standard), which is love.

Here is what Jesus taught us: "God is your Father" (Mt 6:9). "God alone is good" (Mt 19:17). We are His sons and daughters. Our royal legacy is to live up to our birthright and noble title:

The formula "your Father" referring to God occurs seventeen times in the Gospel of Matthew (not including the Lord's Prayer). In Mark's Gospel we find it twice including this reminder of family resemblance and responsibility:

The phrase "your Father" appears three times in Luke's Gospel including this reminder of our birthright and legacy:

It occurs three times in the Gospel of St. John including this passage:

Now, let us ask now the question: how many times does the formula "Our Father" appear in the Gospels? The answer is, it does not appear at all. Not once. By contrast, it does appear in Jewish prayers of the first century and previous centuries. Here is an excerpt from the universally prayed Amidah:

We might say, there in a nutshell is the Jewish faith. Indeed, the sentiments we find in the Lord's Prayer were prayed by all Jews before Jesus' birth. As one example, the following is from the Kaddish

"Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom Come. Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven."

What is unique with the entrance of God into human history in the person of Jesus of Nazareth is just that: Jesus, God's Son with us. With us! "The Lord be with you!" .... a signature greeting among Christians. He is with us .... Emmanuel!

It is by this route that we transcend the claim of the group, that God is Our Father, and arrive to the very real claim of individual adoption. We read a moment ago in the Jewish prayer "all of us as one." The Christian difference is alone. We face God alone. I cannot be with you when you die and make your case before the Great Judgement Seat of Christ. You will be alone.

You see, we are not merely members of an association. We are, each of us, a personal and individual son or daughter of God. Each of us is individually chosen for adoption. Each of us is His cherished daughter or son.

Jesus tells us that God is "your Father," and we reply by addressing Him in a group as "our Father." Indeed, this becomes St. Paul's signature greeting:

St. Paul greets all Christians as being family, as being a gathering of adopted sons and daughters. This would not have been startling to Jews. From their youth, Jesus' followers would have used the address "our Father" multiple times each day all their lives. This was a stock part of the Amidah:

As I have said, these words from the Kaddish call to mind the Lord's Prayer, emphasizing the corporate character of the Jewish people. That is their point: a people doomed to be scattered, calling to mind their indentity as a group.

What we find, by contrast, in the Gospels is this new emphasis on "your Father in Heaven." This is very different. It asserts a relationship conceived to be individual, personal, and intimate. Jesus emphasizes this very fact when He teaches His followers to pray:

Do not become "chest beaters," Jesus says, like ostentatious rabbis standing on soap boxes in public squares. Do not emulate Roman pagans who repeat rote phrases over and over before their idols that they might drill down through their marble hearts. Instead, the Master teaches, retreat to a private setting, and open your most-tender heart to your Father.

Jesus says, He is My Father, and also yours. On the morning of His resurrection, the Risen Lord says to Mary Magdalene,

It is here that a great revelation is made. That is, when Jesus teaches His followers,

a quite fitting response would be this one:

We are of a certain age at the Hermitage. We recall the Roman Church's experience of the Credo in the mid twentieth century. Following Vatican II, the Novus Ordo Rite of the Roman Catholic Church required the faithful to say,

Uniate Roman Catholics churches in India still require this form today. No doubt, this corporate declaration, "We," was added to build up a sense of unity. Do you recall the Vatican II reform of the Kyrie:

But these corporate prayers do not speak to the psyche of the individual praying before God. Like the Credo (whose original form in Greek was first-person singular), Jesus taught that the Lord's Prayer must be spoken from the heart: "your Father and Mine."

The case is rather like a family of many children. Each of those children has two identities: first, as a unique son or daughter especially beloved of his or her parents and, second, as being the member of a large family — two identities. No doubt, teachers at school will confuse your name with another brother or sister.

I know parents of many children who each year devote a special day for each, individual son or daughter. On this day, that one is an "only child." Each word and sentence they speak is heard with solicitude and individual attention. On that day, this girl or boy is the one who matters most. She is the apple of her father's eye. She is the dearest one of her mother's heart.

We do not have to guess which memories of Mother and Father followed these children for the rest of their lives. It was those wonderful days alone, those little "spots of time" (Wordsworth), when nothing mattered except the love shared between the one child and Mother and Father.

The words "I believe in God" or "Lord, have mercy on me" are deeply personal statements. "I believe in God" — these words must be said from the heart or not at all. They can never be said lightly or absent-mindedly. How could they be?!

If a young woman should declare her most secret heart to a young man with those longed-for words, "I love you," something very great has happened. And when they are returned, mountains move within the soul. Declaring belief in, therefore love of God is incommensurately consequential. One is accountable for using such language.

By contrast, saying similar words as part of group — "We believe .... " or "Lord, have mercy on us" — is a very different situation. There is plenty of room in this impersonal setting for ambiguity or ambivalence.

To take a humble example, consider a surprise birthday party for your mother. You are standing in a group of one hundred people. Mother walks into the room, and a chorus proclaims in unison, "We love you!" Is this equivalent to taking her hand, looking her in the eye, and saying, "I love you, Mother"?

When He teaches us to pray, Jesus implores us to leave the group. This most consequential prayer must be handled with care. He bids us to seek out a private place .... and alone. Here you must turn your most-tender heart to your Father, and say, "My Father in Heaven, hallowed Your Name." Can you feel the tremblings within the heart at such a moment?

What follows from here is real emotional and spiritual communion. Here we empty our heart of every thought. Here we own up to the things He already knows .... but, mysteriously, waits for us to admit. Spiritual life does not begin until each of us understands that we are actually and really God's daughter or son whom He loves with the attentions of a Mother and Father: with joy, and with pain; with hope, and with disappointment; with anxiety, and with satisfaction; and above all, with love.

Teach us to pray, the Disciples ask. And Jesus replies by saying, in effect, all else is in vain until you begin here.

Begin! For eventually, by knitting your heart and soul to your Father's, you will be filled with such powers that will master demons and put to flight all evil around you! If this is not your goal, then you do not understand salvation and the Kingdom of Heaven. For the Kingdom of Heaven is made of such unconquerable goodness as this.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.   Amen.