by Rev. Fr Francis Joseph Vattukulam, SDB
Genesis 18:20-32
Psalm 137:1-3,6-8
Colossians 2:12-14
Luke 11:1-13
Theme: Ask, Seek & Knock
You are seeing a strange face today. As I was introduced, I am Fr Francis. I am a Salesian of Don Bosco from Bangalore, India. I am happy to be here. I thank Fr Raymond for giving me the chance to share my reflections with you.
We have prayed this prayer ‘Our Father‘ so many times and I would like to tell you how I used to pray this prayer unconsciously.
My daddy in heaven, may my name be kept always holy.
Let everyone appreciate me, acknowledge me, respect me.
May my kingdom come everywhere, I become the prince of everyone, every country, every land.
And let everyone honour me.
And may you accept my will here on earth as it is in heaven.
And give me roti canai every day, maybe, and briyani.
And let everyone forgive me even if I offend everyone in so many ways possible.
Sometimes, you know, our prayer becomes so much like a person-centered. We hardly acknowledge God’s power or His spirit into our lives. Actually I believe the second part of the prayer reminds us of how the first part can be brought about here on earth.
The second part says like this:-
Give us today our daily bread.
The Latin vulgate which means from the Greek St Jerome translated into Latin. It says, “Give us today panem supersubstantialem” which means give us every day this supernatural bread. Give us everyday supernatural bread. It means give us the grace to receive this supernatural bread everyday although we think give us today our daily bread means our physical nourishment.
But actually St Jerome would say probably is indicating to the fact that ‘I should be able to receive the Lord in the Eucharist every day.’ And that is supernatural bread.
Give me every day. Give me that earnest desire to receive you every day in my life. And that is something uniquely spiritual. A spiritual message that is there.
‘And forgive us our trespasses.’
Well it is very easy to say forgive us our trespasses. You know Jesus tells the woman, ‘Your sins are forgiven you‘ which means not only the way you offended me as a person but all your sins are forgiven. Which means there is actually a theological significance in that. That means anytime we offend any person, any sin that we commit, is a sin against God.
That is why Jesus says, ‘Now who can forgive actually? If you offend me I forgive you. Someone else cannot forgive you your offense that you commit against me. I can forgive only the offense against me.‘
So when Jesus says, ‘Your sins are forgiven or forgive us our trespasses‘ means we are telling God all the offense that I have done against anyone else is also an offense against God. And that only God can forgive us all our sins, whatever I have committed against anyone. That is why when we go for a confession we confess our sins to God because our offenses are ultimately against God Himself too.
Forgive us our trespasses.
It is said that sometimes we find so difficult to forgive those who have trespassed against us.
So an incident is narrated wherein a class teacher found that many of his students were so unforgiving among themselves.
They had so many quarrels and bickering among themselves. So he identified three of them who were always quarreling among themselves and they were so unwilling to forgive.
So one day he told them, ‘Can you please forgive your friends?’
They said, ‘No. They have hurt me so much that I will never forgive.’
‘If that is the case, I give you a small exercise.’
So this teacher brought these three students forward and kept in their bag of books.
As each one came, he asked the first one, ‘How many people do you have to forgive?’
He said, ‘Two.’
‘Okay, you carry two rotten potatoes in your bag.’
And the other one he asked, ‘How many do you have to forgive?’
‘Three.’
‘So you carry three rotten potatoes in your bag.’
And the other one next to one, ‘How many have you to forgive?’
‘Four.’
‘You carry four rotten potatoes in your bag.’
‘And you carry along wherever you go, you carry this bag with you, with these rotten potatoes.’
The first day, it was all right. It was smelling badly. By the second day, it was giving out such a stench that the students themselves found it very difficult to take it along.
But the third day, it was unbearable because the neighbours used to say, ‘You are stinking so badly. Please go away, move aside, move aside.’
So finally these students came to the teacher and said,
‘Teacher, please take these rotten potatoes away because it is not only that I am suffering, my neighbours are also not able to bear with me.’
The teacher said, ‘That is how when you are unforgiving it is not only you who suffer, your neighbour also suffers. And the moment you are willing to forgive, I will take away these rotten potatoes from your bags.’
They said, ‘Yes, we are willing to forgive because it becomes difficult for me. It becomes difficult also for those around me.’
I think our unforgiving attitude can cause us so much of difficulties, sicknesses and also it becomes unbearable also for other people. Let us learn to earnestly forgive and when we forgive, that is when God’s kingdom comes here on earth.
When we earnestly forgive, it may be difficult to forget. I understand. But when we forgive, that is when God’s will is established here on earth.
And when we receive the Lord in the Eucharist, that is when His will is established here on earth. His kingdom is established here on earth because Jesus came to dwell among us. He is a man who came to dwell among us 24/7. And when we receive the Lord in the Eucharist, every day His kingdom comes here on earth. His will is established here on earth. He dwells concretely here among us.
Now the prayer ‘Our Father‘, you know sometimes some people say it may be a little long. Oscar Wilde, a great storyteller if I remember well, he said a very interesting story like this.
It seems a Bishop was on his canonical visitation and he went to visit a very distant island in his ship. And when he visited there, there was a monastery of monks, three monks there.
So he wanted to see if the monks were very prayerful in their life, whether they were living by the norms of their religious life and so on. He reached there, he was warmly welcomed by the monks. And he wanted to examine them about their prayer life.
So he asked them,
‘All right, monks. I understand you are living a solitary life. Very good. Congratulations. But I would like to see how you are living your prayer life. Do you say all your prayers, you know, we priests we have got several office of readings, morning prayer, midday prayer, evening prayer, compline night prayer and so on.’
They said, ‘No. We know only one prayer.’
‘Don’t you know the prayer ‘Our Father’?’
‘No. What is that?’
So the Bishop taught them this prayer, the ‘Our Father‘. So he asked him, ‘Then what do you pray actually?’
He said, ‘We know only one prayer that is ‘We are three. You are three. Have mercy on us.’ That is all.’
‘So have we been praying all this all this while without knowing even the most fundamental prayer, ‘Our Father‘?’
‘Yeah we know only that.’
So the Bishop made an effort to teach them the prayer, ‘Our Father‘. And they were very, very happy. After teaching them at least a fundamental prayer, the Bishop was going away. And the Bishop went away and then after about half an hour, the Bishop found someone calling to them. And he looked and he found these three monks running on water, on the sea.
He was shocked. ‘My goodness. These people are like Jesus walking on water.’
Three monks and what they know is only just this very simple prayer ‘You are three, we are three. Have mercy on us.’
So he called, beckoned to them and they came into the ship and the Bishop asked, ‘What happened? Why are you coming after me?’
‘Oh Bishop, we have forgotten the prayer that you taught us, the ‘Our Father‘. Please teach us again that prayer.’
The Bishop was so humbled he said, ‘You please carry on with your small prayer. We are three. You are three. Have mercy on us.‘
Because he found they were living a very, very holy life.
We can also pray very simple prayers during our daily life. When we go about with our daily activities, let us learn to say simple prayer. Maybe ‘You are three, we are three, have mercy on us.’ and that will be greatly acceptable to God as we also observe this act of forgiveness and having an earnest desire to receive the Lord in the Eucharist.
God bless us.
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