Commitment and Accompaniment

Matthew 6:9-13

“This, then, is how you should pray:

“‘Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from the evil one.

God has repeatedly placed Ignatian Spirituality upon my own path of formation over the past 8 months or so. It is the forefront of deep contemplative and imaginative prayer within Catholic Spirituality. My Spiritual bucket list includes a formal silent Ignatian Retreat at some point. I am a prayer geek. God's revelation to us was completed in the Living Word of Jesus Christ. This is what we call 'Public Revelation'. Jesus told His disciples before the ascension,

I still have much to tell you, you cannot bear to hear it yet. However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears.

Nothing new can be added to God's Word, but that does not mean that it does not continue to unfold and enlighten us in new ways. This is the realm of 'private revelation'. This morning's Gospel is possibly the most memorized and repeated scripture in history. It is easy to gloss over. That is what I did upon my first reading. Enter Ignatian Spirituality. If you are looking for God's Word to speak intimately to you, you can't stop after just one reading. After allowing myself some distraction, I returned to the Gospel. And nothing happened.

The end.

Just kidding. Obviously if I am posting, you know something happened. Enter [Commitment and Accompaniment]. In reality in my moments of distraction I realized that I entered today's Gospel without my usual opening commitment prayer to 'set the stage'. The Spirit shows me that in fact, the Our Father, is a commitment prayer. "Our Father", we are declaring our identity and God's identity, we are committing to our relationship. We submit ourselves within that relationship when we emphasize "Thy", not "my". "This day" places us in proper frame of mind for prayer, we [become present to the present which allows us to enter His presence]. "Our daily bread" first establishes our dependence upon our Father's provision and second remaining in today, the present. Our Father is in the present, not in stockpiling for the future. To learn to live this is to learn to live another tenet of Jesus, Matthew 6:34 is “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” The call to forgiveness follows provision. This is fitting, for without God's provision, His grace, we would not be able to forgive others. This too should be a "present" activity. Daily. Just as we are not called to stockpile provisions, we are not called to stockpile sin, hurt, anger, or resentment. Here I recognize the wisdom of the Ignatian practice of the Daily Examine. The Holy Spirit does inspire one turn of phrase for me today. "Lead us not into temptation" becomes, "Walk with me through temptation". This is what a Father does. He cannot take away what has become inherent, but He does accompany, encourage, counsel, and fortify. We cannot do this alone. The 'Our Father' becomes now a commitment prayer of daily accompaniment. And as all prayer is intended to be a two sided conversation, so too with the Our Father. For within our lines of the prayer lie the echos of the Father's promises of answer. Jesus would not give us a model that the Father would not honor. God implores each of us, "Truly make me your Father and I will provide you what you need." Finally, the finish, "deliver us from evil." I think many may feel a broken promise here, given how often it is spoken, and the reality the world reflects day in and day out. "Deliver us from evil" is not synonymous with "Deliver us from pain, suffering, trials, disappointments." Jesus' own words above confirm this. The promise is to deliver us from ultimately being delivered fully to evil. It is a promise to keep us in 'the family', saving us 'a seat at the supper table', that when this earthly life passes, we shall indeed be seated with our Father and Brother at the banquet table of heaven.