A DANGEROUS PRAYER

A visit with a pilgrim group to Jerusalem always includes a moment of reflection on the Mount of Olives where the “Our Father Church” commemorates that moment when Jesus taught this prayer to His disciples. On the walls inside and outside the church, you can find the Lord’s Prayer in more than 60 languages, including Tagalog. We usually sit down there and think about this profound prayer. Then I read a text I got years ago, I don’t know anymore from whom it came from. And this text makes us aware how dangerous a prayer the “Our Father” actually is. Here is the text:

“Do not say ‘Father’ if every day you do not behave like a son or a daughter;

Do not say ‘Our’ if you live isolated in your egoism;

Do not say ‘Who are in heaven’ if you think only of earthly things;

Do not say ‘Holy be Your name’ if you do not honor Him;

Do not say ‘Your Kingdom come’ if you confuse Him with material success;

Do not say ‘Your will be done’ if you do not accept it when it is painful;

Do not say ‘Give us this day our daily bread’ if you are not worried about the people who are hungry, who are without culture and means to live;

Do not say ‘Forgive us our sins’ if you bear your brother a grudge;

Do not say ‘And lead us not into temptation’ if you intend to keep on sinning;

Do not say ‘Deliver us from evil’ if you do not take position against evil;

Do not say ‘Amen’ if you do not take the words of the ‘Our Father’ seriously.”

A dangerous prayer, don’t you think so? The next time you recite it, take note of what you are actually saying. Otherwise, it becomes what Jesus calls in today’s Gospel passage, “a babbling of pagans.” Fr. Rudy Horst, SVD