Word to the Wise
Thursday, June 17, 2021 - Thursday in the 11th Week in Ordinary Time
[2 Cor 11:1-11 and Matt 6:7-15]"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. This is how you are to pray: 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. If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions." [Matthew]
I have printed the entire gospel passage for today because there are three very important points that are all related to one another! Jesus' first point has to do with one of the problems that many people encounter with prayer. Somehow the notion that "more is better" creeps in and "prayers" multiply. It is a bit like trying to fill any silence in a conversation with more words. In spiritual direction I challenge these folks with the fact that they are talking to God but do they ever listen?
The second point comes to us in the simple words that Jesus has given to us as a prayer. Our English language does not capture the particular verb tense that the Greek text uses, which denotes an urgency in the petitions. We say the "Lord's prayer" so often in our lives that it has become second nature and loses its "punch." We bundle it with a "Hail Mary" and "Glory Be..." to cover every devotional situation.
The third point is the link between prayer and forgiveness! If we wish to pray authentically to God for forgiveness, we must be willing to show that forgiveness to our neighbor. In this connection, I challenge retreatants with the parable that appears later on in this same gospel - the parable of the Unforgiving Servant. [Matt. 18:21-35].
In short, are we willing to stop "babbling" the Our Father and start listening to what Jesus is telling us in the very prayer he is trying to teach us? AMEN