The Lord's Prayer: Another Reflection

A quite different context, that of the nineteenth century and the ministry of Fredrick Denison Maurice, offers a complementary view to that of St. Cyprian. While Cyprian’s emphasis is focused on our status as sons and daughters of God who are privileged to say “Our Father,” thus drawing special attention to the intimate and mystical dimension of the prayer, Maurice gives special consideration to the moral implications of the opening address. One ought to recall that sharp class division is the social context in which he writes. So the prayer seems to suggest a reassessment of how we regard our neighbor, whoever he or she may be. To say “Our Father” is to suggest that there is one Father of one human family. Maurice writes:

How can we look round upon the people whom we habitually feel to be separated from us by almost impassible barriers; who are above us so that we cannot reach them, or so far beneath us that the slightest recognition of them is an act of gracious condescension; upon the people of an opposite faction to our own, whom we denounce as utterly evil; upon men whom we have reason to despise; upon the actual wrong-doers of society, those who have made themselves vile, and are helping to make it vile—and then teach ourselves to think that, in the very highest exercise of lives, these are associated with us. That when we pray, we are praying with them and for them. . . . Think how many causes are at work every hour of our lives to make this opening word of the prayer a nullity and a falsehood. –Sermons on the Prayer Book and the Lord’s Prayer, London 1902, 283-293

The divisions at present in American society and reflected, in some measure, in the Church are now so deep and so vehemently felt, civil discourse is becoming painfully difficult, many people simply opting for a political correctness and coded politeness as a way of avoiding each other. It may be of some help to recall that those who dare to say “Our Father” thereby commit themselves to the conviction that we are inexorably bound together by the providence and love of one God. Radical as it may seem, we need our adversary, our opponent, our enemy. We are praying with them and for them. Some solid meditation on this point may start to carve out room for a God who is infinitely beyond our grasp and whose love cannot, by our standards, be constrained. Is this easy? No. The easy response, always posing as the reasonable response, is to fight, argue, win, and, if necessary (and how often are we told this is necessary), kill. But God’s ways are not ours, for which we might give thanks. There is, I should add, some real civic benefit to this universal vision of the human family. St. Augustine once remarked that we do not love our enemies to the end that they should remain our enemies, in which case nothing has really changed. Rather, he asserted, we love them to the end that they should become our friends. Therefore, a real transformation is under way in saying “Our Father.” .

Cyprian’s Emphasis in his Tract on the Lord’s Prayer

Cyprian’s Emphasis in his Tract on the Lord’s Prayer

In teaching a course on the Lord’s Prayer drawn principally from a tract by St. Cyprian, I have been especially stuck by the significance of the opening words of the prayer. No less, however, I found very helpful Cypian’s counsel that those who are praying give adequate attention to preparation. The prayer is to be “modest” and “decent.” “Let us think that we stand in the presence of God.” The “composure of the body” and the “manner of voice” ought to be pleasing to the divine eyes. “The imprudent person roars with cries.” On the other hand, “It befits modesty to pray with modest prayers.” Finally, “The Lord has commanded us to prayer in secret . . . that we may know that God is present everywhere."

This preparation is not unlike what one might do prior to vigorous physical exercise or attending a play or concert. Some initial planning and transitioning can add immensely to the experience and even enjoyment of a task that requires one’s full attention. Some attention to the body, to the voice, to the quieting of distractions, to an awareness of God’s presence everywhere may help the significance of the words to open themselves more deeply at both a conscious and unconscious level.

After giving Jesus a series of titles, he turns to the body of the prayer. It is worth pausing, however, to think of Jesus as “The Doctor of peace,” “The Teacher of Unity,” “The Teacher of Concord.” These titles and our background knowledge that Cyprian wrote an important treatise entitled “The Unity of The Catholic Church” gives ample evidence of the emphasis he gives to the prayer.

Finally, he quotes the opening line of the prayer, “Our Father who art in heaven.” Immediately he tells us that “A new Human Being” dares to say these words. “A new Human Being, reborn by his own God, restored through his grace, says Pater in the first place because he (she) has begun to be a son (daughter). “From this he ought to begin to give thanks and confess that he (she) is a son (daughter) of God, while he calls God his Father in heaven.” Earlier he remarked that “The God of peace and teacher of concord wants each one to pray for all, just as Jesus carried all in one (himself).”

The emphasis upon our status as sons and daughters of God, that is, our position as persons reconstituted by the forgiveness and grace of Christ, suggest that we pray in union with Christ and share in the intimacy of his prayer to the Father. Again, Cyprian: “We call the Lord Father, so in fact we name ourselves sons (daughters) of God.”

There is, of course, some quite striking spiritual implications to this teaching. While Cyprian commends our being deeply award of “standing in the presence of God,” and so is not commending an excessively casual or complacent approach to prayer, he is presenting for special attention something he believes is completely new, fitted for a “New Human Being.” This person is restored and reconstituted in Christ, drawn up into the life of Christ, and so prays with the freedom of Christ’s own prayer to the Father.

So a New Human Being has a New Prayer. Our Father who art in Heaven.