Thursday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
“Our Father, who art in heaven…”
Today's Gospel features Matthew’s version of the Lord’s Prayer.
The opening words of the Lord’s Prayer have become so familiar that we often speak them without a thought. Or worse yet, the old saying that “familiarity brings contempt” might be applicable. In other words, we are so familiar with the text that the words come to lose their meaning. This is not an uncommon thing for human beings.
But from the earliest days of the church the prayer was a thunderbolt, a radical new way to pray that changed them and, might I say, the course of history.
Far from a safe series of gentle and comforting words, the Lord’s Prayer makes extraordinary claims, topples every earthly power, and announces God’s reign over all things not only in heaven but also on earth. There is an urgency to the prayer, revealing its remarkable, world-upending power. (The only other prayer that comes close in the scriptures is Mary’s startling Magnificat canticle in Luke 1:46-55.)
Let us look at the words, “on earth as it is in heaven.” Heaven is doing fine but earth not so much. It is the cornerstone prayer of the Kingdom of God. For Matthew, in a way, it is the climax of the Sermon on the Mount. The Lord’s Prayer is considered revolutionary because it reorients prayer from self-centered requests to a communal, kingdom-focused petition that challenges earthly power structures. It shifts focus from "my" to "our," praying that God's reign takes precedence, and asks for daily dependence rather than self-sufficiency. It calls upon us, with God’s grace, to establish the Kingdom of heaven here on earth. Or at least try.
The Lord’s Prayer is the most revolutionary and most unsettling prayer ever given voice. It wraps into one prayer what Jesus came to teach—the Kingdom of God. It states that the Kingdom of God isn’t coming. It’s already here. We desperately need to relearn its power and practice—to not just say it—but live it.
But be careful. The world won’t like it.
—Timothy J. Cronin