Wednesday, October 11, 2023
Jon 4:1-11; Lk 11:1-4
In today’s gospel, Jesus teaches us to pray!
What is so great about it?
Jesus brought about a spiritual revolution through this prayer. For our reflection, we also need the Matthean version of the prayer (Mt 6:9-13).
In Jesus’ time, God remained largely an impersonal entity. Their reverence for God eliminated Him from their prayers. Besides that, prayer was also characterized by hypocrisy. It became an attention-seeking behaviour for some, forsaking the spiritual union it intended. When God Himself remained ousted from such publicity stunts, prayer as a form of neighborliness had no place in their spiritual and moral imagination.
It is in this context that Jesus offers the needed corrective.
The occasion itself deserves our attention. Jesus is found in prayer. Once he finishes his private prayer, a disciple requests that he teach them to pray. But Jesus does not teach them a private form of prayer!
Unlike other prayers that addressed God in impersonal terms, Jesus calls God ‘FATHER.’ Not just that! He wants everyone who prays to say ‘OUR,’ extending the fraternal union to everyone who shares the faith.
Thus, Jesus ends up teaching a prayer that is both profoundly personal and radically communitarian.
The contextual implication of the prayer is enormous!
Do we share such paternal intimacy with God in our prayers? For many of us, prayer is beggary and not an occasion for personal communion and rightful interaction with God!
Do we believe that we share fraternal communion with everyone? How neighborly am I in my prayer and action? As a keeper of my siblings, how bothered am I to represent them in my prayers?
Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar
Discover more from gospeldelights
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.