June 16, 2016 Thursday
11th Week
in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Sir 48: 1-14Gospel: Mt 6:7–15
Jesus said to his disciples, “When you pray, do not use a lot of words, as the pagans do, for they hold that the more they say, the more chance they have of being heard. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need, even before you ask him. “This, then, is how you should pray: Our Father in heaven, holy be your name, your kingdom come and your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today the kind of bread we need. Forgive us our debts just as we have forgiven those who are in debt to us. Do not bring us to the test but deliver us from the evil one. “If you forgive others their wrongs, your Father in heaven will also forgive yours. If you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive you either.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
How many times have we thoughtlessly worded our prayer and appeared like we were wrestling with God? Would that Shakespeare was correct when he wrote that, “Words without thoughts never to heaven go”! Prayer is not a tug-o-war game with the Lord but an art of aligning one’s will to God’s will. This requires not so many words. If we examine the prayer the Lord taught his disciples, there is only one line asking for “bread”; the rest are meant to dispose the heart to God’s decision.
We are bound by the same pattern at prayer. When we pray,“Our Father who art in heaven”, we commit ourselves to the lifestyle befitting God’s children. This raises our awareness of our dignity and decreases our appetite for sin.
When we pray “Thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”, we commit ourselves with zeal to the building of God’s kingdom on earth. This raises our docility to God’s plans. Meanwhile it decreases the likelihood of disobeying the Commandments and increases our readiness to love.
The mendicant line “Give us this day our daily bread” is not even the tug- o-war zone. It is supposed to heighten faith in God’s capacity to provide and so detach our hearts from the greedy desire for more than the bread we need for the day. This disposes us to “store up treasures in heaven” (Matt. 6:20).
When we pray, “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us”, we commit our hearts to the work of reconciliation. When we pray “Do not bring us to the test but deliver us from evil”, we commit ourselves to rejecting not just sin but even the slightest indication of it.
Obviously, if we use the “Our Father” as pattern in praying, our words would be few but our thoughts would overflow. As sure as Shakespeare we know that our prayers to heaven go! – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com.
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