How much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? (Luke 11:13)
By saying the above statement, Jesus implied that
the Father knows our need best and nobody else can give us as He does, because
He is El Shaddai (God almighty)
(Genesis 17:1) and holy (Isaiah 6:3). generous with mercy (Psalm 36:6-11). He
is, indeed, kind and merciful, keeping His love for us for generations (Exodus
34:6-7). He delivers us from all our fears as we seek Him (Psalm 34:6) and He
hears cries of anawin (Psalm 34:7),
who are the humble (poor in spirit) (Matthew 5:3) and poor who are blessed and
bound to the Kingdom of God (Luke 6:20).And His loving-kindness mercy (chesed) endures forever, as sung in
every verse of Psalm 136.
In the First Reading (Genesis 18:20-32), Abraham persistently
negotiated with God for His mercy for a small number of righteous people among
egregiously sinful majority of people in Sodom as He and his two angelic
companions were about to head out to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for their
grievous sins. Why did Abraham do such a thing with God? Because, his nephew,
Lot (Genesis 14:12), whom he once rescued (Genesis 14:5-16), and his family
were in Sodom (Genesis 19:1-26).
Abraham really cared about Lot and his family in
Sodom. He also cared about righteous minority among grievously sinful majority
in this nation. But God decided to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah as God for these
nations’ sins had grown so great (Genesis 18:16-20). So, Abraham began
negotiating with God for His mercy for the sake of a small number of righteous
people. And he did it without compromise but with persistence until he received
desired from God of His mercy for righteous people among wicked people in Sodom
(Genesis 18:23-32).
Abraham himself had thought that he might annoy God
for so persistently asking Him – asking six times (Genesis 18:23-24, 27-28a,
29a, 30a, 31a, 32a). Nevertheless, he pushed himself with these petitionary questions
to the bottom-line of God’s mercy, because he had intimate rapport with Him,
especially through his circumcision (Genesis 17:1-26). Abraham was in a right
position to so boldly negotiate with God for His mercy. And he believed God is
kind and merciful, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and his loving-kindness and
mercy endure forever.
A lesson from the First Reading (Genesis 18:20-32)
is that we must be in intimate fellowship with God in order for us to pray
boldly and persistently as Abraham did for His mercy on those who are righteous
among wicked people. Such a persistent and bold prayer makes sense only if we
are intimate with God. And this theme is reflected in the Gospel Reading (Luke
11:1-13).
In this Gospel text (Luke 11:1-13), the disciples asked
Jesus to teach them to pray as John the Baptist taught his disciples when Jesus
was praying as usual, and Jesus taught his prayer to his Father and taught the
importance of persistence in praying. To the disciples’ request, Jesus taught
the prayer that he prayed to his Father (Luke 13:2-4), and it has been known to
us, as the Lord’s prayer. Only in Luke’s Gospel (Luke 11:2-4) and Matthew’s
Gospel (Matthew 6:9-13), we find the Lord’s prayer.
Matthew records Jesus’ teaching on humility as a
right attitude for prayer – against praying like hypocrites who pray to gain
favorable public attention to themselves (Matthew 6:5-6) and teaching against
making a prayer like pagans’ babbling (Matthew 6:7). And Jesus reminds us that
the Father already knows what we need before we ask in our prayer (Matthew 6:8)
and emphasized the importance of forgiveness
(Matthew 6:14-15). In contrast, as in the Gospel Reading for the
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C, Luke 11:1-13, Luke records Jesus’
parable discourse to emphasize the importance on persistence in our prayer
(Luke 13:5-13). While Matthew puts the Lord’s prayer in light of humility and
against babbling like pagans and with an emphasis on forgiveness (Matthew
6:5-15), Luke presents it with an emphasis on persistence (Luke 11:1-13). And
Lucan emphasis on persistence for prayer echoes the First Reading (Genesis 18:20-32),
which describes the persistence of Abraham’s negotiation with God for His mercy
on a small number of righteous people among wicked majority in Sodom.
The prayer that Jesus wants us to pray persistently
is his own prayer to the Father. And this is a prayer of intimacy between Jesus
the Son and his Father, in which he calls “Father”(Luke 11:2), which in
Aramaic, “Abba”. This is how Jesus
affectionately calls his Father, knowing that He loves him (e.g. John 3:25; 5:20). So, the Lord’s prayer – prayer of Jesus is directly
addressed to the Father in heaven. And the fact that Jesus invited his disciples
to pray to the Father as he does means that he wanted them to be loved by the
Father as he is loved by Him. And this desire of Jesus is reflected in his
prayer to the Father on the night before his death, saying to the Father for
his disciples:
I
consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth. I
pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their
word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that
they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And I have
given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in
them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the
world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me.
Father,
they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that
they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the
foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world also does not know you,
but I know you, and they know that you sent me. I made known to them your name
and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them
and I in them (John 17:19-26).
For Abraham to be in an intimate communion with God,
it was through circumcision as an everlasting covenant (Genesis 17:1-26). But
for us, it is the Sacrament of Baptism that puts us in an intimate position to
the Father, as Abraham was to Yahweh (Colossians 2:11-15, from which the Second
Reading (vv.12-14) is drawn). In other words, what was circumcision for Abraham
to be so bold and persistent in his negotiation with God is what is the
Sacrament of Baptism to us to be persistent in citing the Lord’s Prayer to the
Father, as Jesus prays all the time.
So, as we pray the Lord’s prayer, we first we put
our hearts to the Father, whose name is holy (Luke 1:49; Psalm 111:9; Isaiah
57:15), and acknowledge the coming of His Kingdom (Matthew 4:17) (Luke 11:2).
Then, we get to our petition to the Father, saying, “Give us each day our daily bread”(Luke
11:3).
What is the daily bread?
To understand what the daily bread is, first, we
need to look into the original Greek text and St. Jerome’s Vulgate Latin text
of Luke 11:3.
τὸν
ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον δὸς ἡμῖν σήμερον/ton arton hemon ton epiousion dos hemîn
semeron
panem
nostrum supersubstantialem da nobis hodie
What is translated as “daily bread” in English is “ἐπιούσιον
(epiousion) ἄρτον (arton)”. And in Vulgate Latin, “panem supersubstantialem”.
In Greek, bread (load of bread) is ἄρτος (artos). And ἐπιούσιος (epiousious), which is usually translated in English as “daily” but St. Jerome translated in
Latin as “supersubstantialem”(supersubstantial),
has a set of different meaning, such as, “for the coming day” and “for
sufficient subsistence”. Thus, by saying “ἐπιούσιον
(epiousion) ἄρτον (arton)”,
we are actually asking for a loaf of bread as something essential for our
sustenance for the coming day (tomorrow).
Given that the word, ἐπιούσιον (epiousion) ἄρτον (arton)
is composed of epi (above) and ousia (essential substance), it also
indicates the outer appearance of invisible but essential substance for our
existence.
What can it be, then?
It is what ordinary bread, as visible and tangible
species, transubstantiated into the very body of Christ, namely, the Eucharist,
the living bread of life sent from heaven by the Father, as the Word incarnated
in the human flesh of Jesus (i.e. John 6:32-58; John 1:1, 14; 3:16). And this
is what St. Jerome translated as “panem
supersubstantialem “(supersubstantial bread).
So, Jesus calls us to pray to the Father to provide
us with his body and blood as the essential sustenance for the coming days, one
day at a time. Thus, “our daily bread” is not a loaf of bread that you bake or
buy from a bakery. This is not another “manna from heaven”, which does not
sustain us for eternal life but the flesh of Jesus as our daily bread/ ἐπιούσιον (epiousion) ἄρτον
(arton)/ panem supersubstantialem, we will enjoy eternal
life.
Then, we ask the Father for His forgiveness and
pledge our commitment to forgiver one another (i.e. Matthew 6:14-15; John 20:23)
and ask Him to give us the strength stand for Christ’s second coming during
tribulation (i.e. Revelation 7:14-17) (Luke 11:3). And this also reflects our
move from Ecclesia militans (the
Church that fights against evil in the world) and Ecclesia poenitens (the Church in suffering for purification) to Ecclesia triumphans (the triumphant
Church upon enduring tribulation to be the bride of Christ (i.e. Revelation
19:7; 21:2, 9-10)).
We need supersubstantial bread, forgiveness and
strengths to stand tribulation all the way until Christ returns as the King of
the Universe to take us as his bride into his Kingdom, according to the Father
will. And only the Father can give all of these essentials as “ousia”(substance) through the Holy Spirit
(i.e. John 14:16-21,26-27) (Luke 11:13). And “our daily bread” as
supersubstantial bread, the Eucharist is of the Holy Spirit (i.e. John 6:63).
As children of God, through Jesus (i.e. Ephesians
1:5), by virtue of Baptism (i.e. Colossians 2:11), we are in a right position
to pray persistently for our necessity to sustain ourselves to be the bride of
Christ at the eschaton.
Jesus taught that prayer must be consistent,
persistent, and insistent. It is carried out every day – all the time with joy
(1 Thessalonians 5:17), and it is God’s will for us, who live in Christ – those
who are in intimate communion with Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:18).
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