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THE OUR FATHER
The great discourse on the mountain, which occupies chapters 5, 6, and 7 of the Gospel according to Matthew, is an editorial work in which the evangelist collected the teachings of Jesus in the form of ‘logia,’ organizing them to propose a basic formation for the Christian community. The great portal that opens this discourse is the beatitudes, the congratulationsthe Lord gives to those who listen to him, announcing that God is on their side. This is the reason they are ‘Blessed’; it offers the possibility of happiness.
The discourse is organized around distinct tones. First, we find two sayings in which Jesus affirms to the disciples that they are ‘the salt of the earth and the light of the world.’ It is not an invitation but a statement, “You are.” Because Jesus is wisdom, he gives flavor to the disciples precisely because he is the light; he enlightens them and lights them up so that they, in turn, become luminous.
Matthew considers giving flavor and giving light to be the fulfillment of the law, not its replacement but its realization. He says clearly: “Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish it but to give it full compliance.” This is the theological principle of the Christian scribes of the school of Matthew. In dialogue and often in controversy with the Jewish synagogue, this school of scribes does not oppose the law and the prophets, that is, the Old Testament. They understand it perfectly and affirm that Jesus is not overcoming the old law but is its fulfillment.
Thus, the evangelist collected a series of antitheses. There are five formulas in which what the ancients said is contrasted with what Jesus says now. It is not about a change in the law but a deepening, realization, and fulfillment. Jesus brings God’s proposal to completion.
Jesus knows the legislator’s original intention; God and his presence enable you to achieve what the Lord wants. It’s not about changing the rules; it is about communicating to people the possibility of living as God asks. The novelty is not in the legislation but in the person of Jesus. The fact that he exists and communicates his love to humanity is the new element that determines the change.
In the center of the discourse, in the middle of chapter 6, the central chapter, between 5 and 7, we find the “Our Father.” The heart of the mountain discourse is man’s filial relationship with God. Discovering this dignity and living this relationship brings novelty. The fundamental center of Jesus’ discourse is the announcement of God’s fatherhood, and the teaching of the Lord’s Prayer is the heart of this catechesis.
Therefore, in chapter 6, verse 7, we find this ‘logion,’ this saying, from Jesus, who teaches how to pray: “In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” The comparison is with the pagans and those of other religions.
It’s a critical discourse, and it was deeply meaningful for Israel. It distinguished itself from all other peoples and from the Christian community, a small group in the midst of a world with different mentalities and religions. The Christian community developed in a Greek-Roman environment, with a structured, religious mindset. It was not an atheistic world; it was a religious world, but it differed from the central message of Israel and the fullness of the revelation of Jesus.
The mentality of the pagans is that of those who believe God hears them through words. It is an intuitive mentality that ends up becoming our own, leading us to think we can convince the Lord with words. Multiplying words and saying many prayers is a common vice among many religious people. Jesus uses a strong expression when he says: “Do not babble like the pagans… Do not be like them.” A distinction is made: a difference in the quality of the relationship. You have a Father who knows you and what you need and want.
The basic idea is God’s revelation. It is not man’s prayer; it is not moral behavior that determines the matter; it is God’s being the object of Jesus’ preaching. God is Father; God knows you and your needs; God wants your good. He wants all these things because you might think he knows and is still uninterested or wants something else. Jesus reveals that God is a good, loving, and caring Father who cares for his creatures, knows them, can do good to them, and wants to do so. Therefore, there is no need to convince him.
So, “This is how you are to pray.” Then follows the teaching on the Lord’s Prayer. It is a formula, but primarily a model we have learned and repeated. “Our Father” is more than a prayer; it is a model of prayer and a teaching on the style of Christian prayer.
It is also present in Luke, who offers a slightly shorter version. Here, we have another indication of the apostolic tradition among those commissioned to write the Gospel. Matthew presents a complete text with seven invocations, particularly attentive to numbers; Matthew wanted to complete the prayer by bringing it to the fullness of 7 and organizing these seven petitions in three plus three, with a central one.
These are formulas that may have been transmitted separately. They are expressions of prayer, attitudes of prayer, and formulations of wishes. Synthetic elements reveal the style of the relationship with God. First, the invocation: “Our Father in heaven.” No, my father … it is a community reference. It is not an individualistic sentence. Even when I say it alone and speak to him, calling Him ‘Our Father,’ I pray alone but always with my brothers and sisters,recognizing that the person of God with whom I enter into a relationship is not only for me;he is our Father and is not on the earthly but on the heavenly level.
The image of the Father recalls a dimension of ordinary experience, but it is not the everyday experience of parents that allows me to understand how God is; it is precisely the revelation of God, the Father who is in heaven, that shows us how parents should be on earth. And it is dangerous to say, for example, to a child, “God loves you as much as your father.” You could be talking to someone who has had a lousy father; this is also possible, and that boy could answer, ‘If God loves me as much as my father, I am ruined,’ or ‘I reject God as I have rejected my father.’ So, it is not human experience that makes us understand God, but rather God’s revelation that helps us become the people we should be. God is the Father par excellence; He is the model, the revelation of Jesus, and He specifies His way of being.
Our prayers are first oriented toward Him; we pray before this Father whom we trust. The first three invocations concern realities that pertain to God. “Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done.” These are three basic desires that concern God, not us. This is called looking first at the kingdom of God, hunger, and thirst for the righteousness of God. I want your name to be sanctified. I am not giving God an order to sanctify his name. I am expressing the desire that God’s name be recognized as holy.
In biblical language, the “name” is the person as known, loved, and esteemed. The name of God, therefore, is the way God is known. Sanctifying the name means demonstrating God’s holiness. Holiness is God’s way of being different from everything created. God is other, different from what we know. His behavior is holy. To sanctify the name means to reveal who God is and what God is truly like. If we use a simple, almost childish expression, we could say ‘make a good impression.’ It is what parents sometimes tell children, “I beg you not to make us look bad,” because if a child misbehaves rudely, the one who sees him thinks it is his parents’ fault: “Haven’t they taught him?” “Look how they raised this child!” The child makes daddy look bad because the father did not raise him well.
How many times have parents taught children well, only for the children not to want to learn? As children of God, we risk giving a wrong impression of our heavenly Father because others see us and despise Him. If those saved and God’s children behave this way, what father do they have? What has He taught you? He can do nothing with this class of sons and daughters. Therefore, He is not appreciated.
The first wish in our prayer is: “Hallowed be your name.” We want to show who you are in the right way. We want you to be honored. Second, we want your kingdom to come; it is not that the kingdom of God will come if we ask for it. If we don’t ask for it, won’t it come? It’s our wish. Jesus teaches the disciples to desire the kingdom, that is, to let God be the one who reigns, the one who commands, the one who guides. When I say, ‘let your kingdom come,’ I am expressing a fundamental wish of mine. I want you to reign in me, in our lives, and in the world.
“Your will be done.” It is not resignation. It is not a passive acceptance: ‘Do what you want’; instead, it is the desire for God’s project to be fulfilled. Perhaps it will help us understand better if we add a contrast: ‘Your will be done, not that of the others.’ We want God’s plan to come true, not other forces or human opinions to determine our history. ‘Your will’: We want your project carried out as you envisioned it in heaven, so it can be done on earth.
This formula marks the passage from God’s reality—His name, His kingdom, His will—to human, earthly realities. Indeed, the second part of the Our Father addresses our needs, beginning with our bread. It is a positive request.
“Give us today our daily bread.” It is the synthesis of everything we need. It is the formula of prayer in which we ask the Father to give us what we need today. Tomorrow, we will think about tomorrow, and above all, we ask for our bread; we do not ask that it rain bread from heaven, but that He give us the ability to make bread. “Give us our bread” is a commitment to collaborate, not to wait for everything to come down from heaven. We ask God for the grace to make it grow, and we go to work to make bread.
The other three petitions, the last in the series, show the negative side of our story. Sin, temptation, evil. “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” The concept of sin is expressed in the image of debt. We owe something that is missing, and there is a request for pardon. It is a request for God’s mercy to fill our voids, to remedy our defects, and to allow us to do the same with others.
It is not that our forgiveness determines God’s; we are not the measure of love: ‘Forgive us to the extent that we forgive.’ But continue to forgive, and by your forgiveness, we promise to do the same. “Do not subject us to the final test.” A new version translates it as: “Do not abandon us to temptation.”
This helps clarify the meaning of the old way: ‘Do not subject us to the final test.’ On a linguistic level, this formula is also correct; it only needs to be interpreted carefully. God does not push us toward evil. If He tests us, it is for our verification and improvement. ‘To incur temptation’ means to give up during the test. ‘Do not subject us,’ that is, do not abandon us. Don’t let us go on like this.
Here, we note that the sentences are always plural. For your part, forgive us; do not abandon us, but free us from evil. It is the child’s prayer, asking his father to take him by the hand at this moment as he walks through a dangerous place. In the moment of trial anddifficulty, please do not abandon us, but, on the contrary, free us from evil. It can also be translated as “Deliver us from the evil one,” from the wicked, deliver us from all evil. Be our liberator.
It is Jesus’s prayer. Variations of these formulas appear in Jesus’s habitual preaching and prayer. Jesus prays to the Father because he is a son. In Jesus, we become sons and daughters. Thanks to him, we receive God as Father and learn to pray, that is, to relate to Him with the full confidence of being his sons and daughters.