18 July 2010: The Sixth and seventh petitions

The Lord’s Prayer: Sixth and seventh petitions

And do not let us yield to temptation: such is the sense of the words, ‘And lead us not into temptation’; evidently, the word ‘lead’ does not mean ‘draw’ or ‘impel’.

God could not draw or impel us into the snares laid to tempt us to sin. The impulse to sin, or temptation, comes from the devil, the world, and our corrupt nature. How can we, then, be ever free from temptation?

By ‘Lead us not into temptation’, we are not seeking exemption from it; but begging our Father to make allowance for our weakness. To turn away from us hurtful temptations; show us the snares of the devil; remind us of the eternal truths in time of need. Finally, to give us superabundant graces that we may apply to our spiritual advancement.

“God is faithful, and will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing, will also give you a way out that you may be able to bear it.” (1 Cor 10:13)

This is what we ask of God; but what does he ask from us, so that our prayers may infallibly be granted? That we distrust ourselves, that we fly from the common causes of temptation, the occasions of sin; that we do not delay to pray in temptation. If it is an obstinate one, that we make it known to our spiritual director; resolve to follow his advice faithfully.

‘But deliver us from evil.’ By this petition, as by the preceding ones, we ask for many things in a few words. To be preserved from all evil or temporal misfortune, sicknesses, war, famine, reverses of fortune, persecutions, calumnies, defamation, etc.

We ask to be preserved from falling into mortal sin -- an evil infinitely greater than all imaginable temporal misfortunes; an evil in God’s sight, the greatest evil that can befall man. We ask to be raised out of the habit of mortal sin. Above all things, to be preserved from dying in mortal sin, from eternal damnation.

We should ask to be preserved from some of these evils ‘conditionally’ only, so far as is good for our greatest interest -- eternal salvation. Some temporal evils, borne with patience and resignation, purify and sanctify us; they are a supernatural blessing.

But how often it happens that we make them an occasion of impatience or discouragement, or murmuring against Providence! In saying ‘deliver us from evil’, we ask that such a misfortune may never happen to us, and that we may not lose any of the hidden treasures of adversity and suffering.

What a wonderful prayer is the ‘Our Father’! Indeed a universal prayer, containing all that is best to ask for the glory of God and our happiness. Such thoughts ought to make us say it with an ever-fresh devotion.

The seven petitions of the ‘Pater noster’ end with the word ‘Amen’ -- so be it -- a brief but expressive desire, by which we virtually repeat all and every petition.

As the word ‘Amen’ contains the whole substance of the Lord’s Prayer, let us learn the habit of saying it with attention and feeling, adding to it sometimes these words: ‘Yes, my soul, let it be so, let it be so.’

Ref: cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp451-3

True Christian Liberation

The Church has the duty to anounce the liberation of millions of human beings; but she also has the corresponding duty to proclaim liberation in its integral, profound meaning, as Jesus announced it and realized: ‘Liberation from everyting oppressing mankind, liberation which is, above all, salvation from sin and the evil one, in the joy of knowing God and being known by him.’

Liberation made of reconciliation and pardon. Liberation gushing from the reality of being children of God, whom we may call “Abba, Father” (Rom 8:15), by virtue of which we recognize our brother in every man, whose love may be transformed by God’s mercy.

Liberation as overcoming various servitudes and idols man shapes for himself, and as growth of the new man. Liberation which is not diminished in the mission proper to the church, the economic, political, social and cultural realm. ...

We must avoid reductions and ambiguities at all costs. There are many signs which help to distinguish a question of Christian liberation: fidelity to the word of God, to the Church’s ‘magisterium’, to her living tradition; the sense of communion with the bishops, first of all, and with other sectors of the People of God.

Ref: cf “Prayers and Devotions from Pope John Paul II”, p279

Directing all human realities to God

God expelled our first parents from paradise (cf Gen 3:23), as a sign that men would come into the world in a state of separation from God. Instead of transmitting supernatural gifts, Adam and Eve passed sin. All evil, personal or social, originate in the sin of the first man.

Even though Baptism completely forgives the guilt and the punishment of original sin, and of the personal sins a man may have committed before receiving it, he is not freed from the effects of sin. Man remains subject to error, to concupiscence and to death.

Original sin was a sin of pride. (cf St Thomas, “Summa Theologiae”, II-II, 163, 1)Each one of us falls into the same temptation of pride when we seek to occupy in society, in our private lives, in everything, the place that belongs to God: “you will be like gods” (Gen 3:5). These are the words man hears within the disorder of his senses.

As at the beginning, man seeks now also, on many occasions, the autonomy that makes him the arbiter between good and evil. He forgets his greatest good which is his love for, and submission to, his Creator.

Mary, our mother was “preserved immune from all stain of the guilt of original sin from the first moment of her immaculate conception by a singular grace and privilege” (Pius IX, “Ineffabilis Deus”, 8 December 1854) of God. She will teach us to go to the root of the evil that besets us. Above all, she will strengthen us in our friendship with God, in whatever situation we find ourselves.

Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 3:526-8

Our Lady of Victory, at Toledo, so-called from a signal victory over the Moors by Alphonsus IX, King of Castile, in the year 1202, after having a flag carried on which was the picture of Our Lady. — (Report of King Alphonsus to Innocent III.) “Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar (http://www.bethlehemobserver.com); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)

Our Lady of Victory at Toledo, Spain (1202).(www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html)