Word to the Wise
Thursday, June 22, 2023 -
[2 Cor 11:1-11; This is how you are to pray: Our Father..... 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]; Matt 6:7-15]
If I read this gospel passage aloud to a congregation, I can count on a low voice or two to recite the prayer as I read it. The Lord's Prayer is so familiar that we say it almost by instinct. It is one of the first prayers we learn. The trio - Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be...- is attached to Catholic devotions beyond measure. Long books have been written about the theology and vocabulary of the Lord's Prayer. For example, the Greek verbs are in a form called "the aorist tense," which has a tone of NOW, which is lost to our English language.
At parish missions and retreats during the usual penance service, I ask the participants how often they have said the Lord's Prayer. I get a chuckle because the times are too numerous to count. I then ask if they pay close attention to the lines, "Forgive us our trespasses AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US."? Then I point to the lines that follow the prayer (in the same size print), "If you forgive others their transgressions, etc." Inevitably, I will get a question in the confessions that follow, "Do I HAVE to forgive so-and-so who did such-and-such? I have to respond, "What did Jesus say?"
We cannot ask for "daily bread" and "forgiveness" and then ignore the rest of the line "as we forgive those who trespass against us." AMEN