Lord’s Prayer: Give Us This Day

(Continued from page 1)

Let’s begin our reflections by recalling that Jesus was never an attention seeker,¹ nor attributed any authority to himself as an individual,² which is the likely reason we find no mention of Jesus in historical records, but receive his story via an oral tradition until it reached the pens of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We should also recall that during prayer the name we seek is “wholeness,” which when fulfilled erases the mountains that divide the kingdom of heaven and allow us to rise to a new life in Christ—a life wherein we stop asking for things and begin living.³

Because God’s kingdom is already granted⁴ to us by birthright, Jesus (like the prodigal son) has no reason to plead with the Father or beat around the bush. With authority, he declares: Give us this day… because he knows that he is gathering to himself (and us all) an inheritance already ours.⁵ By joining Jesus in this declaration, we are proclaiming our faith and confidence in the will of Father being fulfilled right now, this very day. Unfortunately, as we grow older, the day is something that increasingly slips through our fingers. Not so with the child.

We talked previously about how a child’s sense of wonder is one of the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Another key children possess is the ability to act spontaneously and immerse themselves in the living hour—a key that we adults often bury in our pockets while grinding our teeth over the past, and wringing our hands over the future. This is why as children our hours seem to stretch on for days, while as adults our days feel compressed into seconds. When Jesus says that we must enter the kingdom as a child would,⁶ he is talking about more than possessing humility before the face of God. He is calling us to immediacy and attention to the moment at hand.⁷

Consider the story in the Book of Mark where Jesus tells the apostles that when staying at someone’s house they should remain there until they leave.⁸ Reading Jesus’s admonition literally, we think: Well, how could the disciples do anything else? How could they leave a house while still being there?

But on deeper reflection, we realize that we often do leave places before we’ve actually left them. We begin thinking about future appointments; errands we have to run; work that needs to be done. We chew over past mistakes, or that perfect come–back line we should have said but couldn’t think of at the time. All the while forgetting that every day has trouble enough of its own;⁹ that being anxious over yesterday’s or tomorrow’s troubles does nothing but block our entrance to the living hour,¹⁰ this unique yet eternal moment in time that offers limitless opportunities for realizing the kingdom.

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus teaches his disciples the importance of staying in the present, while serving the God of the living, not the dead.¹¹ Like the apostles, we too are called to remain eternally watchful¹² for a Holy Spirit that announces neither past nor future intentions,¹³ as it works to make its presence known. But unlike those apostles who, on the road to Emmaus, could not recognize the Christ at hand, because their eyes were blinded by the past,¹⁴ we must seek him out in the hearts, souls, and minds of each person we meet—be they enemy or stranger, family or friend, sinner or saint.

Read Chapter 7: Our Daily Bread (Gathering Our Inheritance)

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1. Jesus, after sternly warning him, immediately sent him away, and said to him: 44 “Be careful not to say anything to anyone. Mark 1:43-44 [↩]
2. Jesus said: “My teaching is not my own; it is his who sent me. 17 If anyone has the will to do God’s will, they will find out whether my teaching is from God, or whether I speak on my own authority. 18 Those who speak on their own authority seek honor for themselves; but those who seeks the honor of him that sent them are sincere, and there is nothing false in them. John 7:16–18 [↩]
3. You, in the same way, are sorry now; but I shall see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will rob you of your joy. – John 16:22 [↩]
4. Have faith that whatever you ask for in prayer is already granted you, and you will find that it will be. – Mark 11:24 [↩]
5. Everything that the Father has is mine; that is why I said that he takes of what is mine, and will tell it to you. – John 16:15 [↩]
6. “I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven at all. Matthew 18:3 [↩]
7. At that time Jesus began to proclaim: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew 4:17 [↩]
8. “Whenever you go to stay at a house,” he said, “remain there till you leave that place. Mark 6:10 [↩]
9. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own anxieties. Every day has trouble enough of its own.” – Matthew 6:34 [↩]
10. “My time,” answered Jesus, “is not come yet, but your time is always here. – John 7:6 [↩]
11. As to the resurrection of the dead, have you not read these words of God: 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of dead men, but of living.” – Matthew 22:31-32 [↩]
12. Happy are those servants whom, on his return, the master will find watching. – Luke 12:37 [↩]
13. The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes, or where it goes; it is the same with everyone that owes his birth to the spirit.” – John 3:8 [↩]
14. It happened that very day that two of the disciples were going to a village called Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 Talking together, as they went, about all that had just taken place. 15 While they were talking about these things and discussing them, Jesus himself came up and went on their way with them; 16 But their eyes were blinded so that they could not recognize him. Luke 24:13–16 [↩]