The Lord's Prayer: The Christian Mission
by Fr. Erasto Fernandez
As we prepare to commune with the Lord and enter more deeply and consciously into oneness with him and with one another we have reviewed what our Christian vision is. We look now at our Christian mission: how do we go about making this vision a reality, that is, glorifying God's name and establishing his kingdom? What do we need to do? What is our mission as Christians? We take up the three petitions addressed to the Father in the first person: 'Give us our daily bread, forgive us our sins and do not bring us to the hard testing…'
Epiousios Bread
In the first petition for ourselves we pray the Father to give us each day our (not belonging to us, but characterizing us) bread. The term 'bread' stands for the entire meal, in fact, for all that sustains human life. But this bread is further qualified as 'daily' which adjective, we are told, is an inaccurate translation of the Greek term 'epiousios'. This is a term which occurs only once in the entire Bible. The fact that the word occurs only once in the entire Bible and that too in this place only, immediately tells us that the early Christians had to coin this new word, because there was no existing word to express the very special, distinctively Christian bread referred to here.
Now, there is only one Christian reality that is so outstandingly special - the Eucharistic bread. But what is it that makes the Eucharist a very special, distinctively Christian bread? The Eucharistic bread is special not so much because it 'contains' the whole Jesus, but (in terms of the understanding of the early Church) because it is 'bread broken to be shared with others, especially those in need.' The Jews were familiar only with the bread which one breaks for oneself to eat and be nourished. Even after Jesus fed the five thousand in the desert, all the people could ask for was: 'Sir give us this bread always.' But the Christian prays differently - not for himself but for others. So, what we ask of the Father is that he fill us with this special bread (everything that we need to share with those he will bring into our lives that day) so that we may go out and share - this sharing is what makes a Christian truly a follower of Christ - Christ present today in flesh and blood.
Since bread stands for all that we need to live, especially as Christians, we could include almost everything under this umbrella term. The important point is that as Christians receiving 'bread' each day from the Father we must, of necessity, go out and share generously with others according to their need. No gift is ever given to us for ourselves alone, to be hoarded or utilized for our personal benefit only. Whatever gifts we receive are always given that we may share our blessings with others. To understand this interpretation more clearly, we look at the parable that Luke gives immediately after the Lord's Prayer (11:5-8).
Here a person goes to his neighbour at midnight to ask for three loaves of bread, so that he may offer them to his friend who has arrived on a journey. The man had nothing with which to fulfill his Christian duty of hospitality and so unless his friend got up and gave it to him, he would not be able to function as a Christian. Realizing that, the neighbour finally gets up and gives it to him (because he now understands that the person is asking not for himself but for his friend). How much more will not God (who unlike the neighbour knows that we ask to be able to share) grant us all that we need to have in order to fulfill our Christian responsibility of glorifying God's name and bringing about his kingdom by sharing with others? When we share with one another freely and selflessly that is when we glorify God's name, because left to ourselves we would naturally be self-centred and look after ourselves only. Any genuine movement towards others, therefore, comes from and is born of God, stemming we might say, from the bosom of the Trinity in which each Person is totally 'for' the other.
The teaching that follows on this parable (v. 9-13) reminds us that when we pray in this way (that we may share what we have received) we will most certainly get what we ask - for he who asks, receives, he who searches finds and he who knocks has the door opened for him. The Father will not refuse the Holy Spirit to those who ask in this truly Christian fashion. Notice that the Holy Spirit sums up all the gifts that a Christian would need to live out his Christian identity in a dynamic manner.
A Scriptural Example
The story of the rich man and Lazarus emphasizes the above truth when it tells us that Dives feasted sumptuously each day. This expression 'each day' links this story with the Lord's Prayer in such a way that we could say that if Dives did have the wherewithal to feast sumptuously each day, it was because the Father gave him that 'bread' each day in answer to his prayer. But the bread that the Father gives is basically oriented towards sharing and not for one's own selfish consumption; and since Dives did not share with the needy, he was judged to be deserving of hell. While the Father is generous to a fault in giving us all that we need to live our Christian calling, we have to ensure that we live out what we are meant to be, or else we destroy ourselves.
The same can be said with regard to the gift of forgiveness. In Luke's presentation of the Lord's Prayer, we pray that we be forgiven, 'as' we forgive, in the very act and in the very measure in which we forgive others. So therefore, if we do not forgive others, we ourselves should not expect to get any forgiveness ourselves. The important point we should not miss in all this is: it is when we share our 'bread' with the needy and extend our forgiveness to all, that is when God's name is made holy and his kingdom established in our midst.
Conclusion
In making us pray the Lord's Prayer just before receiving the Lord's gift of himself in holy Communion, the Church reminds us of our true Christian identity. All that we are going to receive as we commune with the Lord and share his very life in Covenant - all that is meant to be shared with others in need. We come, therefore to receive not just for ourselves but that we may share with others. Hence at this part of the Eucharist, and especially after communing with the Lord, our thoughts and prayer need to reach out to people all over the world. That is the time we think least of ourselves and most of others. Having exercised our Christian identity (a Christian is one who lives not for himself but for others) during the Eucharist, we are then sent into the world so that we can exercise that same self-giving throughout the day in favour of all whom the Lord brings into our lives.
Give and you will receive abundantly
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Copyright © Fr. Erasto Fernandez. All rights reserved.
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