Word to the Wise
Thursday, June 19, 2025 - Thursday in the 11th Week in Ordinary Time
[2 Cor 11:1-11 and Matt 6:7-15]"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]
The "Lord's Prayer" (or as we Catholics tend to call it, "the Our Father") is so familiar and comforting it can be like something familiar that we eat or drink without asking what the ingredients are! Certainly, the teaching that immediately follows the prayer in the Gospel According to Matthew escapes our attention. That teaching underlines the words of the prayer in regard to forgiveness. It calls attention, especially, to the words "as we forgive those who trespass against us."
We pray the Our Father probably thousands of times in our lives as Christians without giving much thought to the contents and without realizing that we are asking God to forgive us TO THE EXTENT THAT WE FORGIVE OTHERS. How good ARE we at forgiving? Later on in this same gospel, Jesus preaches the parable of the Unforgiving Servant [18:21-35]. In that parable, a wicked servant who owes a huge sum to his master as a result of embezzlement is completely forgiven by his master, but then refuses to forgive a fellow servant who owes him a very small amount. When we leave the Sacrament of Reconciliation, with God's complete forgiveness, do we bring that forgiveness ourselves to others who may have hurt us in some way? The familiar comfort of the "Our Father" is actually a challenge, and the teaching that immediately follows it in the gospel is not a footnote! AMEN