CHAPTER IX

OF THE PREFACE TO THE LORD’S PRAYER

OUR FATHER WHICH ART IN HEAVEN

QUESTION I

Why in this Preface Christ used the name “Father,” rather than “Lord” or “Judge”

Whereas this form of Christian prayer, delivered by Jesus Christ, has such a force that, before we come to its prayers and petitions, we are to premise certain prefatory words, by which, piously drawing nigh unto God, we may also more confidently approach him, it is the duty of the pastor to give a distinct and perspicuous exposition of them, that his pious people may have recourse to prayers with the greater alacrity, and may understand that in prayer they are to commune with God their Father. To consider the words that compose this preface, they are indeed very few in number; but, looking to the matter, they are of the highest importance, and replete with mysteries.

FATHER

The first word, which, by the command and institution of God, we utter in this prayer, is Father. The Saviour, it is true, might have commenced this divine prayer with a word more expressive of majesty, such as Creator, or Lord; yet did he omit these, lest they might be associated with ideas of fear, choosing rather an expression that inspires love and confidence in those who pray to and petition God: for what sweeter name than that of Father? a name which sounds indulgence and love.

QUESTION II

First Proof of the Propriety of the Appellation of “Father”

The suitableness of the word Father, as applied to God, the faithful may be taught from the arguments of Creation, Government, and Redemption. For whereas God created man according to his own image, an image which he impressed not on the other living creatures; on account of this peculiar privilege with which he adorned man, justly is he called in Sacred Scripture the Father of all men; the Father not alone of believers, but also of unbelievers.

QUESTION III

Second Proof

His government may also supply the pastor with an argument [for this appellation;] for, by the exercise of a special superintending care and providence over our interests, he manifests the love of a Father towards us. But in the explanation of this argument, to comprehend more clearly the fatherly care of God over men, it seems necessary to say a few words touching the guardianship of angels, under whose protection men are.

QUESTION IV

By the Providence of God, Angels are intrusted with the Guardianship of the Human Race

Angels are commissioned by the providence of God to guard the human race, and to be present with every man to protect him from any serious injury. For as parents, when their children have occasion to travel a dangerous way, infested [by robbers,] appoint persons to defend and assist them in case of danger; so has our heavenly Father placed over each of us, in this our journey towards the heavenly country, angels, guarded by whose care and diligence, we may escape the ambushes prepared by our enemies, repel their terrible attacks, and proceed directly on our journey, secured by their guiding protection against the devious wandering, into which our treacherous foe may mislead us from the way that leadeth unto heaven.

QUESTION V

By what Arguments we may clearly understand the Great Utility which redounds to Men from the Guardianship of the Angels

The advantage derived to the human race from this special care and providence of God, the functions and administration of which are intrusted to angels, whose nature occupies an intermediate place between man and the Deity, appears from the numerous examples recorded in Scripture, which testify that angels, by the intervention of the divine goodness, have frequently wrought wondrous things in the sight of men; from which we are taught to infer, that innumerable other important services are rendered us invisibly by angels, the guardians of our safety and salvation. The angel Raphael, who was appointed by God the companion and guide of Tobit, conducted him, and brought him back safe; assisted to save him from being devoured by an enormous fish, and pointed out to him the singular virtue of its liver, gall, and heart; expelled the demon, and, by fettering and binding up his power, preserved Tobit from harm; taught the young man the true and legitimate rights and use of marriage; and restored to the elder Tobit the use of his sight.

QUESTION VI

Of the Angel by whom St. Peter was freed from Prison

On the admirable advantages that flow from the care and guardianship of angels, the angel that liberated the prince of the apostles will also afford abundant matter for instructing the pious flock. To this event, therefore, pastors will also call their attention: they will point out the angel illumining the darkness of the prison; awakening Peter by touching his side; loosing his chains; bursting his bonds; admonishing him to rise, and, taking up his sandals and other apparel, to follow him. They will also point out the same angel restoring Peter to liberty; conducting him out of prison through the midst of the guards; throwing open the door of his prison; and ultimately placing him in safety. The history of the Sacred Scriptures, as we have already observed, abounds in examples, by which we are enabled to understand the magnitude of the benefits conferred on men by God through the ministry and intervention of angels, not sent on particular and private occasions only, but from the hour of our birth appointed to take care of us, and by their tutelary protection to watch over the safety of each individual of the human race. In the exposition of this point of doctrine, the diligence [of the pastor] will be rewarded by the fact, that the minds of the faithful will be interested, and excited to acknowledge and revere the paternal care and providence of God over them.

QUESTION VII

By what other Argument the Faithful may recognize the Paternal Care of God for Men

Here the pastor will exalt and proclaim aloud the riches of the goodness of God towards the human race, [of that God,] who, although since the first parent of our race and sin, we have never ceased to offend him by innumerable crimes and enormities even up to the present day, yet retains his love for us, and never lays aside his especial care over us. To imagine that he is unmindful of man were insanity, and nothing less than to hurl against the Deity the most blasphemous insult. God is wrath with Israel, because of the blasphemy of that nation, who supposed themselves deserted by the aid of heaven; for we read in Exodus: They tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us or not? And in Ezekiel, the Lord is angry with the same people for having said: The Lord seeth us not: the Lord hath forsaken the earth. By these authorities the faithful are therefore to be deterred from the impious supposition, that God can possibly be forgetful of man. This complaint the Israelites, as we read in Isaiah, make against God; and its folly God repels by a similitude, which breathes nought but kindness; Zion said: The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me: to which God answers; Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will not I forget thee. Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands.

QUESTION VIII

The Benignity of God towards us is shown from the Example of our First Parents

Clearly as this truth is established by these passages, yet, to persuade the minds of the faithful with absolute conviction, that at no time can God forget men, or withdraw from them the offices of paternal affection, pastors will add to the evidence of this truth, by introducing the most striking example of our first parents. When you hear them sharply reproved, for having despised and violated the command of God; when you hear their condemnation pronounced in this awful sentence: Cursed is the ground for thy sake: in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life: thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field: when you see them expelled from Paradise, and when, to take away all hope of return, you read that a cherub was stationed at the entrance, brandishing a flaming sword, turning every way: when yon know that, to avenge the injury done him, God consigned them to afflictions both of mind and body: when you see and know all this, would you not he led to think, that man was irrecoverably lost; that he was not only utterly deprived of the divine assistance, but also abandoned to every sort of injury? Nevertheless, in the midst of so great evidences of the divine wrath and revenge, a gleam of the love of God shot forth. [The Scriptures] inform us, that the Lord God made for Adam and his wife coats of skins, and clothed them; a most convincing proof, that at no time would God abandon man. This sentiment, that no injuries offered to God by man can exhaust the divine love, is conveyed in these words of David: Hath God in anger shut up his tender mercies? This Habakuk, addressing himself to God, explains, when he says: In wrath remember mercy: and this Micahus unfolds: Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? He retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. And so it really is; when we imagine that God has utterly abandoned us, that we are utterly bereft of his protection, then is it that in a special manner he, of his infinite goodness, seeks after and taketh care of us; for, in his anger, he stays the sword of his justice, and ceases not to pour out the unexhausted treasures of his mercy.

QUESTION IX

Third Reason why God heaps up the Blessings of his fatherly Love upon the Human Race

The creation and government [of the world] therefore serve to display, in an admirable manner, the singular love and protecting care of God towards man; but amongst both the great work of redemption stands out so prominently, that this God of boundless beneficence, our father and parent, has by this third benefit heaped up, and shed a lustre on his supreme benignity towards us. The pastor, therefore, will announce to his spiritual children, and will inculcate continually in their ears this surpassing manifestation of the love of God towards us, to the end that they may know, that by redemption they are become, after an admirable manner, the children of God: To them he gave power, says St. John, to be made the sons of God; and: Who are born of God. Therefore it is that baptism, which we receive as the first pledge and memorial of redemption, is called the sacrament of regeneration; for thereby we are born children of God: That which is born of the spirit, says our Lord, is spirit; and: ye must be born again; and the apostle Peter says: Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God who liveth.

QUESTION X

By the Singular Kindness of God we are made Sons of God by Redemption

By virtue of this our redemption we have received the Holy Spirit, and are dignified with the grace of God, by which we are adopted the sons of God: Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, saith the apostle Paul, but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry: Abba, Father. Of this adoption, the force and efficacy are explained by St. John in these words: Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.

QUESTION XI

What Offices Christians, being now made Sons of God, ought to do in return for so many instances of fatherly Love

Having explained these things, the faithful people must be reminded of the reciprocal affection which they owe to God, our most loving Father, that, by this means, they may comprehend what love and piety, what obedience and veneration, I they should render to their Creator, Governor, and Redeemer; with what hope and confidence they should invoke his name. But to instruct the ignorance, and correct the perversity of such as may imagine that prosperity and a successful course of life are the only proofs that God preserves his love towards us; and that the calamities and adversity by which he may try us, indicate his hostility of disposition towards, and the utter alienation of his love from us, it must be shown, that when the hand of the Lord touches us, it is not at all with hostile purpose, but with a view to heal by striking; and that the wound that cometh from God is medicinal. For he chastises the sinners to reclaim them by salutary severity, and by the infliction of present punishment to rescue them from everlasting perdition, for he visits our transgressions with a rod, and our iniquity with stripes; but his loving kindness he will not take away from us. The faithful, therefore, are to be admonished to recognize, in such chastisement, the fatherly love of God, to keep in their memory and on their lips these words of the patient Job; to repeat these words of the prophet Jeremiah, spoken in the name of the people of Israel: Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God; and to keep before their eyes the example of Tobit, who, when he felt the fatherly hand of God upon him, visiting him with blindness, exclaimed, Blessed art thou, O God, for thou hast scourged me.

QUESTION XII

It must be inculcated that God never forgets us

Here the faithful should beware most carefully against the error of believing, that whatever afflictions or calamities befall them, happen without the knowledge of God; for he himself saith: A hair of your head shall not perish: nay, let them rather console themselves with these words of the divine oracles, contained in the Revelation: As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; and let their apprehension be calmed by this exhortation, addressed by St. Paul to the Hebrews: My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

OUR

QUESTION XIII

Why we are here ordered to call God “our” Father, in the Plural

When we all invoke the Father, calling him our Father, we are taught that, as a necessary consequence of the gift and right of the divine adoption, the faithful are all brethren, and should love one another as brethren: Ye are all brethren, saith the Redeemer; for one is your Father, which is in heaven; and hence also in their epistles, the apostles call all the faithful brethren. Another necessary consequence is, that by the same adoption of God, not only are all the faithful united in one common relationship of brotherhood, but, as the only-begotten Son of God is man, they are called and are his brethren also. Hence the apostle, in his epistle to the Hebrews, speaking of the Son of God, says: He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying: I will declare thy name unto my brethren. This David had, so many centuries before, prophesied of Christ the Lord; and Christ himself thus addresses the women in the Gospel: Go, tell my brethren that they go into Galilee; and there shall they see me. This he said after his resurrection from the dead, when he had put on immortality, lest it should be supposed that this fraternal relation was dissolved by his resurrection, and ascension into heaven. So far is the resurrection of Christ from dissolving this bond of union and love, that we are assured, that from the throne of majesty and glory, on which he will sit on the last day to judge all men, he will call even the least of the faithful by the name of brethren.

QUESTION XIV

Wherefore the Faithful are accounted among the Brethren of Christ

But how can we possibly lie other than brethren of Christ, called as we are joint heirs with him? For he is the first-begotten, appointed heir of all; but we, begotten in the next place, are co-heirs with him, according to the measure of heavenly gifts, according to the degree of love with which we approve ourselves servants and co-operators of the Holy Ghost, by whose inspiration we are impelled and inflamed to virtue and to meritorious actions, that, relying on his grace, we may engage with fortitude in the combat for salvation, the wise and firm termination of which will be rewarded by our Heavenly Parent, at the close of our earthly career, with that imperishable crown of righteousness, reserved for all who shall have run the same course: for, says the apostle, God is not unrighteous, to forget our work and labour of love.

QUESTION XV

In what manner we ought to pray for others, and to account all Men mutually Brothers

But with what sentiments of heartfelt piety we should utter the word our, we learn from St. Chrysostom, who says, that God willingly hears the prayer of a Christian, not only when offered for himself but for another; because nature prompts us to pray for ourselves, grace for others; necessity obliges us to pray for ourselves, brotherly charity exhorts us to pray for another. He adds: The prayer, that fraternal charity recommends, is more pleasing to God than that which necessity utters. On this subject of salutary prayer, a matter so important, it is the duty of the pastor to admonish and exhort all of every age, condition, and rank, that, mindful of this common brotherhood, instead of arrogating an insolent superiority over others, they exhibit in their conduct a bearing of courtesy and fraternal regard. For although there are many gradations of office in the Church of God; yet that diversity of rank and office is very far from removing the bond of this fraternal relationship: in the same manner as variety of use and diversity of function do not cause this or that member of the same body to forfeit the name or office of a member.

QUESTION XVI

For what Reasons Christians are united in so strong a Connection of Relationship

Take the monarch, invested with royal authority: is he not, if one of the faithful, the brother of all who are within the communion of the Christian faith? Yes; and why? Because there is not one God the Father of the rich, and of kings, and another of the poor, and of subjects; but there is one God, who is common Father and Lord of all. Wherefore, one spiritual origin of all, the nobility, the dignity, the natal splendor of all is therefore the same, born as we all are of the same spirit, through the same sacrament of faith, children of God, and coheirs to the same inheritance. The wealthy and the great have not one Christ for their God, the poor and the lowly another; they are not initiated by different sacraments, nor do they expect a different inheritance of the celestial kingdom. No, we are all brethren, and, as the apostle saith to the Ephesians, We are members of Christ’s body, of his flesh, and of his bones. The apostle signifies the same in his epistle to the Galatians: Ye are all the children of God, by faith in Christ Jesus; for as many of you as have been baptized in Christ, have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither bond nor free; there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. But this is a subject that pastors of souls should treat of with accuracy, and dwell on with knowledge, because it is not less calculated to fortify and animate the indigent and the lowly, than to restrain and repress the arrogance of the rich and the powerful. It was to remedy this human evil, that the apostle urged, and pressed on the attention of the faithful, this fraternal charity.

QUESTION XVII

In what Spirit the Christian should utter the words “Our Father”

When, then, O Christian, thou art about to address this prayer to God, remember that thou, as a son, dost approach God thy Father; when, therefore, thou beginnest the prayer, and utterest the words, Our Father, think how lofty is the position to which the supreme bounty of God hath raised thee, commanding thee, as he does, to approach him, not with the reluctance and timidity of a servant approaching his Lord, but with the willing eagerness and security of a child flying to his father; and, in this remembrance and this thought, consider with what care and devotion on thy part, thou shouldest pray; for thou must endeavour to approach him as becometh a child of God; that is, that thy prayers and actions may not be unworthy of the divine origin, with which it has pleased the most gracious God to ennoble thee. To this duty the apostle exhorts, when he says: Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; that of us may be truly said, what the same apostle wrote to the Thessalonians, Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day.

WHICH ART IN HEAVEN

QUESTION XVIII

Since God is everywhere present, how can he be said to have his Dwelling peculiarly in Heaven?

It is certain amongst all who have a correct idea of God, that he is everywhere present. This is, however, not to be understood as though he consisted of parts, filling and governing one place with one part, another place with another; for God is a spirit, and therefore indivisible. And who would presume to circumscribe within the limits of any place, or confine to any particular spot, Him, who saith of himself, Do I not fill heaven and earth? which again is to be understood to mean, that by his power and virtue God embraces heaven and earth, and all things contained in heaven and earth; not that he himself is contained in any place. For God is present with all things, either creating them, or preserving them when created, whilst he himself is confined to no place, is circumscribed by no limits, nor so defined as to prevent his being present everywhere with his nature and power, which the blessed David expresses in these words: If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. Although God be present in all places and things, and, as we have said, circumscribed by no limits, yet He is frequently said in Scripture to have his dwelling in the heavens, because the heavens which we behold are the noblest part of the world; undecaying; surpassing all other objects in power, magnitude, and beauty; and moving in uniform and steady revolutions. To elevate, therefore, the souls of men to the contemplation of his infinite power and majesty, which shine forth most pre-eminently in the work of the heavens, God declares in the divine writings, that his dwelling is in the heavens. He also frequently declares, as is the fact, that there is no part of the universe that is not embraced by his nature and power, there present.

QUESTION XIX

What Subject for Meditation is presented to the Faithful by the words “which art in Heaven”

In this consideration, however, the faithful will propose to themselves not only the image of the universal Father of all, but likewise that of God reigning in heaven, to the end that, when approaching him in prayer, they may recollect, that heart and soul are to be upraised to heaven; and in proportion as we derive hope and confidence from the word, Father, in the same proportion should we learn Christian humility and piety from the glorious nature and divine majesty of our Father who is in heaven. These words also define the proper objects of prayer, for all our supplications offered for the useful and necessary things of this life, except they embrace the good things of heaven, and are directed to that end, are to no purpose, and are unworthy of a Christian. Of this manner of praying, pastors therefore will admonish their pious hearers, and will strengthen the admonition with the authority of the apostle: If, saith he, ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on the things on the earth.