Other Sunday and Holy Day Readings
17th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (Cycle C)
Readings:
Genesis 18:20-32
Psalm 138:1-3, 6-8
Colossians 2:12-14
Luke 11:1-13
Abbreviations: NJB (New Jerusalem Bible), IBHE (Interlinear Bible Hebrew-English), NABRE (New American Bible Revised St. Joseph Edition), IBGE (Interlinear Bible Greek-English), or LXX (Greek Septuagint Old Testament translation). CCC designates a citation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The word LORD or GOD rendered in all capital letters is, in the Hebrew text, God's Divine Name YHWH (Yahweh).
God reveals His divine plan for humanity in the two Testaments, and we read and relive the events of salvation history contained in the Old and New Testaments in the Church's Liturgy. The Catechism teaches that the Liturgy reveals the unfolding mystery of God's plan as we read the Old Testament in light of the New and the New Testament in light of the Old (CCC 1094-1095).
The Theme of the Readings: Ask, and You Shall Receive
The First Reading and the Gospel Reading teach us to pray
with perseverance, trust the Lord, and be willing to accept His divine judgment
and mercy. In the First Reading, God took Abraham into His confidence,
revealing His plan to deliver His just punishment against the wicked citizens
of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. The purpose of taking Abraham into His
confidence was to allow His trusted servant to plead for mercy for the people
of Sodom. Abraham's series of petitions to the LORD [Yahweh], as he negotiates on
behalf of the Sodomites, are the first examples of intercessory prayer in the
Bible.
The Responsorial Psalm is from one of the hymns the faithful pilgrims of the Sinai Covenant sang as they journeyed up the mountain to worship at the Jerusalem Temple. The psalmist begins by giving thanks to the Lord God for having heard the prayers and petitions of a faithful pilgrim. He then praises Yahweh, who is all-powerful and exalted yet cares for the poor and lowly. The hymn ends with a profession of the psalmist's trust in God, who has heard his prayers and whose faithful covenant love for His people endures forever!
In the Second Reading, St. Paul refers to the Sacrament of Christian Baptism in symbolic terms, comparing it to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. St. Paul writes that when we pass through the waters of baptism, we die with Christ to sin, and we are then, like Christ, raised up, out of the baptismal waters to a resurrected new life. St. Paul taught that the cross is not a sign of Christ's condemnation by His enemies but the sign of God's love. The bond of the old Law, with its legal claims that condemned the covenant people for all intentional sins, is nailed to the cross in Jesus's self-sacrifice. Jesus liberated the faithful from the burden of the old Law, lifting the people of God out of sins that condemned them and offering them forgiveness in the Law of the New Covenant by opening a channel of mercy and forgiveness sealed in the Blood of the Savior.
In the Gospel Reading, at the request of His disciples, Jesus gave a formula for prayer known as both the "Lord's Prayer" and the "Our Father," a title taken from the first two words of His prayer. Jesus's example of prayer encourages His disciples in every generation to approach God confidently and call upon Him as "Father" when making petitions. This intimate address indicates an entirely new relationship with God based on the gift of a new and eternal covenant in His Son, the Redeemer-Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth.
Today's readings encourage us not to be fearful or hesitant about approaching our heavenly Father and to understand that He is always ready to hear our petitions. When we seek Him in Jesus's name to ask for His guidance and mercy, we should remember God the Son's promise in Matthew 7:7-8, when He said, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened."
The First Reading Genesis 18:20-32 ~ Praying with
Perseverance
20 In those days, the LORD [Yahweh] said: "The outcry
against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great, and their
sin so grave, 21 that I must go down and see whether or not their actions fully
correspond to the cry against them that comes to me. I mean to find out." 22 While
Abraham's visitors walked on farther toward Sodom, the LORD [Yahweh] remained
standing before Abraham. 23 Then Abraham drew nearer and said: "Will you sweep
away the innocent with the guilty? 24 Suppose there were fifty innocent people
in the city; would you wipe out the place, rather than spare it for the sake of
the fifty innocent people within it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing,
to make the innocent die with the guilty so that the innocent and the guilty
would be treated alike! Should not the judge of all the world act with
justice?" 26 The LORD [Yahweh] replied, "If I find fifty innocent people in the
city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake." 27 Abraham spoke
up again: "See how I am presuming to speak to my Lord, though I am not dust and
ashes! 28 What if there are five less than fifty innocent people? Will you
destroy the whole city because of the five?" He answered, "I will not if I find
forty-five there." 29 But Abraham persisted, saying, "What if only forty are
found there?" He replied, "I will forbear doing it for the sake of the forty." 30
Then Abraham said, "Let not my Lord grow impatient if I go on. What if only
thirty are found there?" He replied, "I will forebear doing it if I can find
but thirty there." 31 Still, Abraham went on, "Since I have thus dared to speak
to my Lord, what if there are not more than twenty?" The LORD [Yahweh]
answered, "I will not destroy it, for the sake of the twenty." 32 But he still
persisted: "Please, let not my Lord grow angry if I speak up this last time. What
if there are at least ten there?" He replied, "for the sake of those ten, I
will not destroy it."
In the earlier part of the narrative, we learned about the promised future birth of a child for the elderly Abraham and his wife Sarah (Gen 18:1-15). This part of the narrative contrasts the blessings of hope and new life God gave Abraham and Sarah because of their faith and obedience with the judgment and curse of death for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah because of their wickedness and rebellion. Earlier in Genesis 13:13, Scripture revealed: Now the inhabitants of Sodom were very wicked in the sins they committed against the LORD [Yahweh]. Sodom and Gomorrah became symbols of wickedness and judgment in the Old Testament (Dt 29:22-23; Is 1:9; 13:19; Jer 23:14; 49:18; 50:40; Ez 16:48-50; Wis 10:6-8) and in the New Testament (Mt 10:15; 11:23-24; Mk 8:11; Lk 10:12; 17:29; Rom 9:29; 2 Pt 2:6-9; Jude 7; Rev 11:8). Centuries after their destruction, the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel (6th century BC) described the crimes of Sodom and her allied "daughter" cities on the plain of Siddim:
The dialogue between Abraham and God in Genesis 18:17-21 was
for Abraham's benefit.
God took Abraham into His confidence, revealing his plan to
His concerning divine judgment against the city of Sodom and her sister cities to
allow Abraham, a trusted servant, and prophet, to plead for mercy for the people
of Sodom: No indeed, Lord Yahweh does nothing without revealing his secret
to his servants the prophets (Amos 3:7 NJB)
In verse 20, God told Abraham He was sending His messengers (malak in Hebrew and angelos in Greek means "messengers") to Sodom because He heard the cries of the innocent. God responds to the suffering of the weak and the blood of the righteous when judging the wicked. These were the cries that God has heard: the pleading of the suffering calling for His intervention (Gen 18:20-21).
22 While Abraham's visitors walked on farther toward Sodom, the LORD [Yahweh] remained standing before Abraham. In Genesis 18:1-2, three visitors approached Abraham's tent: Yahweh and two others. God stayed with Abraham and sent the other two to Sodom to observe the behavior of the citizens. That God sent two "men" (angels) to investigate the accusations against Sodom will later be a requirement of the Law of the Sinai Covenant, in which at least two witnesses were required to testify in a case that required capital punishment (see Dt 19:15; Mt 18:16; 26:60).
In Genesis 18:23-33, Abraham interceded for the citizens of Sodom. This part of the narrative presents the age-old dilemma: must the good suffer along with the wicked, must the innocent perish because of the guilty, and what about the question of individual responsibility versus collective responsibility? God hears the cry of innocent blood in the same way He heard the blood of Adam's murdered son Abel crying from the ground in Genesis 4:10, and He hears the distress of the suffering, just as He heard the Egyptian woman Hagar in Genesis 16:11. He is always ready to withhold His judgment on the wicked for the sake of the righteous:
23 Then Abraham drew nearer and said: "Will you sweep
away the innocent with the guilty? 24 Suppose there were fifty innocent people
in the city; would you wipe out the place, rather than spare it for the sake of
the fifty innocent people within it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing,
to make the innocent die with the guilty so that the innocent and the guilty
would be treated alike! Should not the judge of all the world act with
justice?"
The question of individual and collective responsibility will
not be addressed again in Scripture until the formation of the Sinai Covenant
(see Dt 7:10; 24:16;
Jer 31:29-30; Ez 14:12; etc.).
Genesis 18:23-32 is the
longest speech Abraham made in Scripture. He based his argument on God's
concern for justice as he petitioned God to spare Sodom if there were only fifty
righteous men in the city. God is always willing to temper His judgment with mercy,
so He told Abraham that He was willing to spare the city if there were fifty
righteous men.
Part of Abraham's concern must have been for his nephew Lot and his family, who were living in Sodom (Gen 13:11-12). Encouraged by God's willingness to spare the city if there were fifty righteous men, Abraham began to negotiate with God. Through Abraham's persistence and God's patience, Abraham successfully convinced Yahweh to reduce the number from total destruction to a final count of ten righteous men.
Ten men is the minimum number for a quorum of Jewish adult men required for certain religious obligations like a prayer group of upright men united in petitioning God, called a minyan in Hebrew. Jewish scholars suspect the number of ten men for a minyan is derived from this agreed-upon number of righteous men to save Sodom. In Scripture, ten is the number that represents the perfection of order. From fifty to forty-five, to forty, to thirty, to twenty, and finally ten; six times, Abraham managed to reduce the number from the possibility of utter destruction. Six is the number of man in Scripture (created on the sixth day), but it is also the number signifying man's rebellion against God. For us, the story of Abraham's pleas to God to spare the innocent and God's merciful response illustrates the importance of persistent intercessory prayer and the ministry of the saints.
Responsorial Psalm 138:1-3, 6-8 ~ A Psalm of Praise
The response: "Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me."
1 I will give thanks to you, O LORD, with all my heart,
for you have heard the words of my mouth; in the presence of the angels I will
sing your praise; 2a I will worship at your holy Temple and give thanks to
your name.
Response:
2b Because of your kindness and your truth; for you have
made great above all things, your name and your promise. 3 When I called, you
answered me; you built up strength within me.
Response:
6 The LORD is exalted, yet the lowly he sees, and the
proud he knows from afar. 7a Though I walk amid distress, you preserve me;
against the anger of my enemies, you raise your hand.
Response:
7b Your right hand saves me. 8 The LORD will complete what
he has done for me; your kindness [hesed], O LORD, endures forever; forsake not
the work of your hands.
Response:
Psalm 138 is among a group of psalms attributed to King David. The Book of Psalms names David as the author of seventy-three psalms that include Psalms 3-9; 11-32; 34-41; 51-65; 68-70; 86; 101; 103; 108-110; 122; 124; 131; 133; and 138-145. However, the New Testament credits David with also writing Psalm 2 (Acts 4:25) and Psalm 98 (Heb 4:7). Six of the Psalms attributed to David are psalms of entreaty (Ps 139-144) set within the framework of two psalms of praise (Ps 138 and 145).
Psalms 138 is a hymn of thanksgiving to the Lord that pilgrims sang while processing into the Temple in Jerusalem (verse 2a). The song begins with thanks to the Lord for having heard the prayers and petitions of the psalmist and for giving him the strength he needs to face his difficulties (verses 1-3). He praises Yahweh, who is exalted and yet cares for the poor, but the proud who oppress the poor are far from Him (verse 6). The psalm ends with the psalmist proclaiming his trust in Yahweh, whose faithful covenant love [hesed] endures forever!
The Second Reading Colossians 2:12-14 ~ New Life in
Christ
12 You were buried with him in baptism, in which you were
also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the
dead. 13 And even when you were dead in transgressions and the uncircumcision
of your flesh, he brought you to life along with him, having forgiven us all
our transgressions; 14 obliterating the bond against us, with its legal claims,
which was opposed to us, he also removed it from our midst, nailing it to the
cross.
The second reading is from St. Paul's letter to the faith community at Colossus in Asia Minor. Paul refers to the Sacrament of Christian baptism in symbolic terms, comparing it to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Passing through the waters of baptism, we die with Christ to sin, and, rising up out of the baptismal waters, the Holy Spirit resurrects us to a spiritually new life in Christ Jesus (verse 12).
13 And even when you were dead in transgressions and the
uncircumcision of your flesh, he brought you to life along with him, having
forgiven us all our transgressions;
The Old Covenant Law was powerless to save people from intentional
sins (Num 15:30). The Law could only define intentional wrongdoing and condemn people
for their transgressions. Christ paid the debt for our sins with His Blood on
the altar of the Cross, making our forgiveness possible by taking the debt of our
sins upon Himself.
Circumcision was the sign of incorporation for Abraham's descendants as a people in covenant with Yahweh (Gen 17:9-13). God told Abraham, "My covenant must be marked in your flesh as a covenant in perpetuity. The uncircumcised male, whose foreskin has not been circumcised, that person must be cut off from his people: he has broken my covenant" (Gen 17:13b-14, NJB). Later, when God established the Sinai Covenant with Abraham's descendants, the children of Israel (Ex Chapters 19-24), circumcision was also a sign of covenant unity and submission to the Law of Moses, while being uncircumcised meant separation from a covenant relationship with God (Lev 12:3). The sign of circumcision prefigured the "circumcision of Christ," which is Christian Baptism (Rom 4:11-12; Gal 3:6-13, 29).
14 obliterating the bond against us, with its legal
claims, which was opposed to us, he also removed it from our midst, nailing it
to the cross.
For those who repented wrongdoing in His name, Jesus's work
of redemption canceled the debt of sin imposed by the Law of the Sinai Covenant.
In verse 14, Paul uses the cross as a metaphor for how God erased the legal
claims against humanity under the old Law through Christ's atonement for our
sins. St. Paul does not represent Christ nailed to the cross by His enemies. Instead,
he depicts the bond of the old Law with its legal claims that indicted us for
our sins being nailed to the cross by God.
The Gospel of Luke 11:1-13 ~ The Power of Persistent Prayer
1 He was praying in a certain place, and when he had
finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray just as
John taught his disciples." 2 He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father,
hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread 4 and
forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not
subject us to the final test." 5 And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a
friend to whom he goes at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of
bread, 6 for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey and I have
nothing to offer him,' 7 and he says in reply from within, 'Do not bother me;
the door has already been locked and my children and I are already in bed. I
cannot get up to give you anything.' 8 I tell you, if he does not get up to
give him the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever
he needs because of his persistence. 9 "And I tell you, ask and you will
receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For
everyone who asks, receives; and the one who asks, finds; and the one who
knocks, the door will be opened. 11 What father among you would hand his son a
snake when he asks for a fish? 12 Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an
egg? 13 If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask
him?
In today's Gospel reading, Jesus gives three lessons on
prayer. The first is called the "Lord's Prayer," or the Pater Noster in Latin,
a shorter version of the prayer than in Matthew's Gospel.
Luke 11:1-4 ~ The Lord's Prayer
1 He was praying in a certain place, and when he had
finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray just as
John taught his disciples." 2 He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed
be your name, your kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread 4 and forgive
us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject
us to the final test."
Jesus probably taught the people how to pray many times during His ministry. We have two examples of Jesus teaching His disciples how to pray in Luke 11:1-4 and Matthew 6:9-15 (see the study on the Gospel of Matthew Lessons 10-11). The version of this prayer in the Gospel of Matthew has an invocation and seven petitions, while this version has an invocation and five petitions. There are three versions of the Lord's Prayer. Two versions appear in Scripture: a short prayer in the Gospel of Luke 11:1-4 and the more extended version in Matthew 6:9-13. The longest is a third version found in the Church's first catechetical instruction known as the "Teaching of the Twelve Apostles," also called the "Didache" (c. 50/120 AD; a Greek word for instruction/teaching). The version from the Didache contains a doxology at the end of the prayer, which does not appear in Scripture (see the Agape Bible Study lessons on the Didache 8.2). It is the same as the version of the Lord's Prayer found in Matthew's Gospel except for the addition of the doxology at the end. The Didache's version is prayed in the Catholic Mass and most Protestant Churches.
2 He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father"
The invocation of the Lord's Prayer in the Gospel of Luke is
a single word: "Father," referring to the One, holy and eternal God: the God of
Adam, the God of Abraham, and the God of Israel. He is "our" God, and He is
"Father" because of His relationship with the Son (Jn 1:14, 18; 1 Jn 4:9).
Sacred Scripture never refers to God as "mother," even though certain verses describe God's actions using metaphors that draw on the feminine themes of nurturing, compassion, and motherhood. For example, Isaiah 42 compares God's impatience to deliver Israel by bringing forth the Redeemer-Messiah to that of a woman in labor. Isaiah 49 compares Yahweh's concern for Israel with a mother's care for her baby, and Isaiah 66 promises God will provide comfort to His covenant people like a mother comforts her child. In the New Testament, Jesus says He longs to gather the Israelites like a mother hen gathers her chicks (Lk 13:34). In each case, these are metaphors that compare feminine experiences to describe God's love for His people. Still, they do not suggest God is female any more than the other analogies where Scripture compares God to a tree (Hosea 14:8), a lion (Hosea 11:10), an eagle (Ps 91:4), or a rock (Ps 18:2).
God had no biological gender until the Incarnation and birth of Jesus when He came to live on earth as fully God and man in God the Son. The Old and New Testaments continually refer to Yahweh and God the Son in the masculine as the Divine Spouse of His Bride, the covenant people (i.e., Is 50:1; Hos 2:4/2-9/7, 6/14-17/19; Mt 9:15; 25:1-13; Jn 3:29-36; Rev 21:2-9) and to the First Person of the Most Holy Trinity as Divine Father to His covenant children (i.e., Ps 89:26; Is 9:6; Mt 5:16, 45, 48; 6:1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 14, 15, 18, 26; etc.).
However, God the Father did not become "Father" until after the Incarnation of the Son. He has been "Father" for all eternity because the Most Holy Trinity has always lived in perfect communion through all eternity; He is Three in One: God the Father with His Son and united with the Holy Spirit. This is what we profess in the Creed: I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God eternally begotten of the Father.... God the Father is "Father" because He eternally "fathers" the Son. He was a "father" before there were human fathers. St. Ephraim noted that earthly men are called fathers, but He is the true Father. He also wrote of the relationship of fathers and their sons: The terms 'father' and 'son' by which they have been called are borrowed names that through grace have taught us that there is a Single True Father and that He has a Single True Son."
In teaching us to pray, Jesus encourages us to address God as "Father." This intimate expression of our relationship with God indicates an entirely new relationship with the Lord based on the gift of a new and eternal covenant in His Son, Jesus, the Davidic Messiah (see CCC 2786-87). The first words of the prayer teach us that we should express our adoration before our supplication. By God's grace, we can recognize Him as "Father." This recognition is a gift, and we should give Him thanks and praise for having revealed the intimacy of His relationship to us as "Father." We are blessed to address God as "Father" in three ways:
St. Paul wrote to the Christians in Galatia: But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to ransom those under the law, so that we might receive adoption. As proof that you are children, God sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!" So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God (Gal 4:4-7 NABRE). We adore the Father because, through the sacrifice of our Savior Jesus Christ, He has caused us to be reborn into His life by adopting us as His children, and He has incorporated us into the unity of the Church, the Body of Christ (CCC 2782). Our adoption into the family of God gives us the right to call God "Father" and requires continual action on our part (see CCC 2782-84):
That Jesus should directly address God as "Father" was shocking to 1st century AD Jews. Sacred Scripture called angels, Davidic kings, prophets, and collectively the children of Israel "sons of God," but never had anyone dared to address Yahweh as "Father" publicly. For the 1st century AD Jewish authorities, this was blasphemy, an accusation leveled against Jesus and one of the reasons His enemies sought to kill Him: But Jesus answered them, "My Father is at work until now, so I am at work." For this reason, the Jews tried all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath but he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God (Jn 5:17-18 NABRE).
Tertullian, the 3rd-century Roman jurist, surrendered
his life to Christ to become a priest and Christian apologist. He described
prayer as an act that moves God to compassion and persuades Him to shower good
upon undeserving humanity. Prayer, he wrote, is the obligation of Christians
because it is the instrument by which God accomplishes His purposes in the
world.
He also wrote that before Jesus, the expression 'God the
Father' had never been revealed to anyone. When Moses asked God who He was, he
heard another name: "the Father's name has been revealed to us in the Son, for
the name 'Son' implies the new name 'Father'" (De orat 1, 10).
God has not changed, but through our baptism, we have changed, and as a result, our relationship with God has changed. God is Father to Jesus, and it is Jesus who shares His divine Sonship with us. Through Jesus's work of salvation, we are made "sons in the Son" through our baptism as we become partakers of the divine nature, no longer to be called the sons and daughters of Adam but the sons and daughters of God. St. Peter wrote: Through these, he has bestowed on us the precious and very great promises, so that through them you may come to share in the divine nature, after escaping from the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire. And St. Cyprian wrote, The new man, reborn and restored to his God by grace, says first of all, "Father!" because he has now begun to be a son (2 Pt 1:4; also see CCC 2782). God is our Father because He has gathered us together in one family in Christ, established in a universal human family in the Catholic [catholic means universal] Church. Our shared sonship with Jesus gives us the right to address God as "Father" because, through the Son, we are indeed His children.
The words of the invocation express this unique relationship which we can only claim through Jesus the Son. Before we make this first exclamation, we must repent our sins, cleanse our hearts, and with humility, recognize that no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him (Lk 10:22). Each of us becomes the 'little child' that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 18:3-5, Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me (NABRE). Before repeating the prayer Jesus taught us, we must step forward in the humility of childlike faith to address God as "Father."
There are five petitions in Luke's version of the Lord's Prayer:
hallowed be your name
The first petition is that we hold God's name holy or
sanctified. The Old Testament instructs the faithful: You shall not misuse
the name of Yahweh your God, for Yahweh will not leave unpunished anyone who
misuses His name (Ex 20:7 NJB; also see Dt 5:11); and You will not swear
by my name with intent to deceive and thus profane the name of your God. I am
Yahweh (Lev 19:12 NJB).
The Greek word for hallowed or holy is hagiastheto, the aorist passive imperative of hagiazo, the verb meaning "sanctify." So this prayer should read: Let Your name be sanctified, and it is the prime petition of all petitions. We should first pray that God's holy name will be sanctified everywhere: on earth, in the heavens, throughout creation in both time and space. But we also need to make it personal and relevant. Our cry should be: "Let Your name be sanctified in my life today, Father!"
The Greek word onoma (name) corresponds to the Hebrew word shem. In everyday use, a "name" is simply a label to differentiate one person from another. However, in the Bible, among other peoples in ancient times and in some cultures today, the "name" of a person encompassed everything that the individual represents: his entire character and personality, including his work, power, authority, and moral essence or reputation. This petition for the sanctification of God's "holy name" can be expressed in two ways:
As mentioned above, for ancient peoples, one's "name" encompassed everything there was to know about a person: what that person stood for and what that person believed. Jesus's name in Hebrew, Yahshua (ancient Hebrew), or Yehoshua (in the Aramaic of Jesus's time), means "Yahweh saves" or "Yahweh is salvation." The "name" of Jesus signifies the very "name" of God who is united with and present in the person of the Son. Belief in the "name," meaning the whole of Jesus Christ in everything He taught and everything He did, is the only path to salvation: Only in Him is there salvation; for of all the names in the world given to men, this is the only one by which we can be saved (Acts 4:12 NJB; also see CCC 432). St. Paul wrote: The same Lord is the Lord of all, and His generosity is offered to all who appeal to Him, for all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved (Rom 10:12-13 NABRE). "Calling on the name" means all those who claim Jesus as Lord and Savior by accepting everything Jesus taught and believing in everything He did for humanity's salvation will be saved. It is why we, as a people of Christ's Kingdom, do not have the authority to change what Scripture and the Church teaches to conform to modern, secular culture.
The second petition is your kingdom come. This petition requests that the Father's kingdom be manifested in our lives and among all members of the human family of Adam. One aspect of God's kingdom is Heaven, but His kingdom is also linked to the "good news," which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Lk 4:43). His "good news" announces the establishment of Jesus's Kingdom of Heaven on earth, the universal Catholic Church that is an everlasting Kingdom of the holy people of the Most High God (Dan 7:27).
The Kingdom of God is identified with the life and work of Jesus Christ promised in Isaiah 40:9-11 NABRE. The New Testament refers to it as the "Gospel ("good news") of Jesus Christ": Go up onto a high mountain, Zion, herald of glad tidings [good news]; cry out at the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of good news! Fear not to cry out and say to the cities of Judah: Here is your God! Here comes with power the Lord God, who rules by his strong arm; here is his reward with him, his recompense before him. Like a shepherd, he feeds his flock; in his arms, he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom and leading the ewes with care. St. John the Baptist was the first to link this Isaiah passage to the coming of the Messiah and God's Kingdom in Luke 3:4-6 when he claimed to be the "prophetic voice" of Isaiah 40:3-5.
The Kingdom of God has both a present and future reality. Jesus expressed that present and future reality in His Beatitudes teaching found in His Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:1-12. That teaching begins and ends with a present tense verb in the promise of the Kingdom while He expresses all other blessings and promises in the simple future tense (see the study on the Beatitudes or Matthew Lessons 5-9). The coming of the Kingdom of God is the realization of God's plan of salvation in the world. The Kingdom establishes itself in the core of our being, raising us up to share in God's own inner life. This elevation has two stages:
For our part, we need to respond to God with humility, love, trust, obedience, and service to His Church. The Church (the Kingdom of Heaven on earth) is His vehicle to advance the faithful to that state of grace that will make an entrance into the heavenly kingdom possible.
The third petition is: 3 Give us each day [or this day] our daily bread, and is the turning point in the prayer. We address the first two petitions to God: "hallowed be your name"; "your Kingdom come, but the second series of petitions concern us: "give us," "forgive us," and "do not subject us."
In the third petition, the Greek word, which in most Bibles translates as "daily," is the Greek word epiousios. This word is a grammatical anomaly, and the derivation and meaning of epiousios remain one of the great unresolved puzzles of New Testament lexicography. In Scripture, the word epiousios only appears here in Luke 11:3 and in Matthew's rendering of the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6:11. This Greek word does not occur anywhere else in Greek literature except in Christian documents related to this prayer or the subject of the Holy Eucharist. The term is so unique that it was unknown in other writings, even in the times of the early Church Fathers. Origen of Alexandria, considered by Christian historians to be one the greatest of the Biblical scholars of antiquity, suggested that epiousios is a word invented by Matthew and adopted by Luke since there was no Greek word in existence that would adequately describe the supernatural character of the "heavenly bread" (Origen, De orat. 27.7). Nor does there seem to be any link in the Hebrew of the Exodus passages referring to the manna from heaven: lehem minhassamayim = "bread rain down from heaven for you" or debar yom beyomo = "a daily portion" or the Aramaic translation pitgam yom beyomeh.
Scholars have proposed four different meanings for the word epiousios:
St. Jerome's definition was "super-substantial" or "necessary for existence." In any case, from the times of the Fathers of the Church, it has always been taught that this word is a reference to the Holy Eucharist:
The miracle of the manna from heaven prefigures the first promise of our super-substantial bread: Yahweh then said to Moses, 'Look, I shall rain down bread for you from the heavens. Each day the people must go out and collect their ration for the day... (Ex 16:4, NJB). In the New Testament, Jesus promised "bread from heaven" in John chapter 6:28-59 ~ So Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world" (Jn 6:32-35 NABRE).
Jesus fulfills this promise at the Last Supper in the statement, "This is my Body." And it is fulfilled at every Mass when the priest stands in the person of Christ (Persona Christi) and says the words of consecration, which begin the transformation by God the Holy Spirit of our gifts of bread and wine into the very Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our Savior, Jesus! It is our heavenly bread that our Divine Father provides to nourish us on our spiritual journey to the Promised Land of Heaven, just as He gave manna to the Children of Israel on their physical journey to the Promised Land of Canaan.
Do we interpret this petition as the daily nourishment we need to survive physically or spiritually? The Church Fathers acknowledge that all bread, heavenly and material, does indeed come from God, and we provide, in cooperation with God's creation, the host supernaturally transformed into the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ. However, the Church Fathers warn the interpretation of bread for our physical nourishment must also include the understanding that the petition also refers to the heavenly sustenance that is Christ our Savior. In sacred Scripture, "table bread" is always an anticipation of the heavenly banquet (Mt 26:26; Mk 14:22; Lk 22:19; Lk 24:30-31). Every meal over which Jesus presided in the New Testament had deep eschatological significance; every meal was a salvation meal that looked forward to the "final feast." The material bread that God provides for us daily on our tables symbolizes and foreshadows the heavenly reality that we see in the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist, which is the visible reality of a promise when we are one day called bodily to the heavenly Communion of Saints.
The next petition is "forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us ..." Jesus makes forgiveness the cornerstone of one's relationship with God. In God's mercy, He forgives us our sins, and therefore, we must show the same compassion to those who have wronged us and seek our mercy. This petition also refers to:
The Greek word opheilema, which can be translated as "trespass" or "debt," is in Matthew 6:12 (plural) and Romans 4:4 (singular) in the New Testament. However, St. Luke uses a form of this word meaning "indebted" in 11:4. The transliteration of this Greek word is "what is due" or "an obligation, a debt owed." But here, it has a moral connotation meaning "the debt of sin." St. Luke supports this interpretation by using the Greek word hamartias, which means sins in the sense of "missing the (moral) mark." Jesus was probably speaking in Aramaic, the common tongue of the region, in which the word hobha means debt or sin. In Old as well as New Testament times, sin was conceived in terms of a debt owed to God. Since, for his Greek readers, Luke translated the Aramaic word into the Greek hamartias, meaning "sins," we should understand it in that sense.
According to the Law, the only way in which a "debt of sin" can be paid is with the blood of an unblemished victim (Lev 4:28, 32; Heb 9:22). In the Old Testament, the blood from an animal offered in sacrifice was a temporary remedy for the forgiveness of unintentional sin (Num 15:27-31). The animal died in place of the sinner who received forgiveness for his confessed, unintentional sins (i.e., Lev 4:27-31; 5:17-19; Lev 17:11-12; Num 15:27-31; etc.). Jesus was the perfect, unblemished sacrificial victim for the forgiveness of all the sins of humanity, the unintentional and intentional:
In the ceremonial ritual of the Passover meal, after drinking from the 4th communal cup that closed the meal, the last words the host spoke before dismissing the participants were "It is finished" or "It is fulfilled/accomplished," referring to the fulfillment of the covenant obligation to eat the Passover sacrifice in a sacred meal. These were the same words (recorded in the Gospel of John as teltelestai in Greek) that Jesus cried out on the cross before He gave up His spirit (Jn 19:30). In the time that Jesus lived, the word teltelestai was also an accounting term that was announced or written across a ledger when a debt was "paid in full." Jesus paid our debt of sin when He gave up His life on the Cross and fulfilled all the ritual commands of the Old Covenant Law.
Ever since Adam and Eve's fall from grace through sin, death has reigned over the lives of men and women and measured, by the passing of time, in the limit placed on life. But, Jesus Christ has claimed victory over sin and death, and He has shared that victory with those who believe in Him and demonstrate our belief in the Sacrament of Christian Baptism (Mk 16:16). All those who die in Christ's grace become participants in the death of the Savior with the promise that they can also share in His Resurrection and live eternally in defiance of "time" in the heavenly Kingdom (see Rom 6:3-9; 6:22-23; Phil 3:10-11; CCC 1006).
The fourth petition in St. Luke's account of how Jesus taught His disciples to pray is 4band do not subject us to the final test. Other translations read: "Lead us not into temptation," but this is, in fact, a poor rendering. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains the better understanding of this phrase in CCC 2846-49 and notes that the original Greek in both Matthew 6:13 and Luke 11:5 can mean either: "do not let us yield to temptation" or "do not allow us to enter into temptation," as translated in most other languages. The Catechism explains: "This petition goes to the root of the preceding one, for our sins result from our consenting to temptation ... God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one; on the contrary, he wants to set us free from evil. We ask him not to allow us to take the way that leads to sin..." (CCC 2846, quoting James 1:13-14).
In this petition, we recognize that human efforts alone are not enough to help us cope with temptation. We must turn to God to get the strength we need. St John of Avila wrote: "God is strong enough to free you from everything and can do you more good than all the devils can do you harm" (Sermons, 9, First Sunday of Lent).
The "final test" can mean:
We should expect trials because of the evil present in the world; however, God does not send us into evil to test us. God wants only what is good for us. Our concupiscence, the human tendency to be attracted to sin, entices us to commit sin (see Sir 15:11-20; Mt 5:10-12; Jam 1:12-15 and CCC 1264, 1426, 2515). But, if God does not tempt us, then why do we even pray And do not subject us to the final test or as this petition is poorly translated, And lead us not into temptation; but in a better translation And let us not be led into temptation? See Wis 3:1-9 and Ps 37:23-24. God would never tempt us to do evil, but He will allow Satan to tempt us, and when we rise above that temptation, we are strengthened and purified by the experience: But the souls of the upright are in the hands of God, and no torment can touch them. [...]. God was putting them to the test and has proved them worthy to be with him; he has tested them like gold in a furnace (Wisdom 3:1a, 5 NJB).
Temptation is part of this world, and we must face it every day, but it is God's solemn promise that He will not let you be tried beyond your strength; but with the trial he will also provide a way out, so that you may be able to bear it (1 Cor 10:13 NABRE). The Catechism explains that rejecting the temptation to sin is part of our growth toward spiritual maturity (CCC 2847). We must discern between being tempted and consenting to that temptation by our actions. We must guard against temptation in two ways:
St. James, the first Christian Bishop of Jerusalem and relative of Jesus, wrote: Blessed is the man who perseveres in temptation, for when he has been proved he will receive the crown of life that he promised to those who love him. No one experiencing temptation should say, "I am being tempted by God"; for God is not subject to temptation to evil, and he himself tempts no one. Rather, each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire conceives and brings forth sin, and when sin reaches maturity it gives birth to death (Jam 1:12-15 NABRE). St. John of Avila wrote: "Lean upon Him, because if the Lord is not your support and your strength, then you will fall and you will be afraid of everything" (Sermons, 9, First Sunday of Lent).
We must turn to God to get the strength we need to resist the temptation to sin and, through the work of the Holy Spirit, fight the battle against sin to live the victory of a holy life. Victory is only possible if we persist in vigilance, remain obedient, and are strengthened through prayer and the sacraments Jesus gave to His Church. We petition God to give us the grace to discern what is evil and the strength to resist the temptation to do what is evil. When we pray this petition, it is also good to follow Jesuss' example when Satan tested Him; He quoted Sacred Scripture. We should recall the words of Scripture that promise us victory if we persevere in faith. Take courage when you are tested, and remember: The steps of the godly are directed by the Lord. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will not fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand (Ps 37:23-24 NABRE), and St. Paul's words of encouragement: I can do all things in him who strengthens me (Phil 4:13 NABRE).
Luke 11:5-8 ~ The Parable of the Persistent Neighbor
5 And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend
to whom he goes at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6
for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey and I have nothing
to offer him,' 7 and he says in reply from within, 'Do not bother me; the door
has already been locked and my children and I are already in bed. I cannot get
up to give you anything.' 8 I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the
loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he
needs because of his persistence.
This parable is Jesus's second teaching on how to pray and the Christian's attitude toward prayer. He presented a parable that emphasized the importance of being persistent in prayer. The comparison Jesus makes is between a neighbor who is relentless in his request to borrow some food and the friend who fulfills his request just to get rid of him, compared to the person who is persistent in petitioning God for an answer to prayer. The point is that our persistence and urgency in prayer will get results. It doesn't change God's intentions toward us; instead, our perseverance changes us to recognize God's work in us and His will for our lives.
Luke 11:9-13 ~ Effective prayer
9 "And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you
will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks,
receives; and the one who asks, finds; and the one who knocks, the door will be
opened. 11 What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a
fish? 12 Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? 13 If you then, who
are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will
the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?
In the third teaching, Jesus addressed the effectiveness of petitioning God the Father in which He does not put any restrictions on prayer. Commenting on this passage, St. Jerome noted: "It is written, to everyone who asks it will be given; so, if it is not given to you, it is not given to you because you do not ask; so, ask and you will receive" (Jerome, Commentary on Matthew, 7). Even though prayer is infallible, we are not. If Jesus says prayer is as easy as asking and "it will be given to you," why is it that sometimes God's answer to our prayers is "no" or "be patient," which is often wrongly interpreted as the absence of a reply? Our petition may be delayed or denied because:
Jesus had already given us His model prayer in the Lord's Prayer/Our Father. Now He encourages His disciples to pray by issuing several commands and promises. In verses 9-10, Jesus gave three direct commands and three promises if one follows the commands in connection to how we should pray. Jesus expressed the commands in three words and linked them to the promises expressed in three statements:
| COMMAND: | PROMISE: |
| Ask | everyone who asks receives |
| Seek | the one who seeks finds |
| Knock | to the one who knocks, the door will be opened |
The door that will "be opened" to those who persist in prayer is the door to Heaven and eternal life that had been closed since the Fall of Adam and was not opened until the baptism of Christ (Mt 3:16; Mk 1:9-11; Lk 3:21-22; see CCC 536, 1026):
Jesus illustrated His promise in a series of sayings that use the example of a child coming to a father with a request, something everyone hearing Jesus preach could relate to since everyone had been either a child or a parent. Jesus made four contrasts in this teaching. The kind of fish named in the passage is a barbut. It was a common fish in the Sea of Galilee, and its appearance was smooth and without scales, somewhat like a snake. The scorpion probably referred to one at rest with its tail relaxed instead of curved above its body and the legs beneath its body, looking somewhat like a brown egg. Therefore, the contrasts are between a snake and the fish without scales, between a scorpion and an egg, between a wicked father and the heavenly Father, and between a child making a request to an unrighteous human father as opposed to a believer/child of God making a petition to God the divine Father:
| Contrasts in Luke 11:9-12 | |
| Fish without scales | Snake |
| Scorpion | Egg |
| Wicked father | Heavenly Father |
| A child making a request to an unrighteous father | A child of God making a petition in prayer |
The fish without scales and the snake look somewhat alike, but they are not the same, and a stinging scorpion is undoubtedly different from an egg. It is not difficult for even a wicked father to determine that one choice is better for a child than the other. The point is that even the unrighteous know the difference between what is good parenting and what is not good; therefore, can you trust your heavenly Father to give you the best gift when you pray, even if you don't know yourself which is best. Interestingly, the force of this parable lies in the contrast rather than in the comparison between God the Father and the human father. Jesus acknowledged that even the unrighteous can perform good acts when He said in verse 13: If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the holy Spirit to those who ask him?
Notice that Jesus called His listeners "wicked" in verse 13. Ever since the Fall of our original parents and the curse of the inherited tendency to sin (concupiscence), men and women were in the family of Adam, defined as the "wicked" lost in original sin and with the inherited inclination to sin (see Rom 3:23 and CCC 390, 397-98, 404, 979). Because of the human condition, even when humans are doing good and following nobler instincts like good parenting, they cannot escape the designation "wicked." Only when we are reborn as God's children through the sanctifying grace of Jesus's sacrifice can we live as the "righteous" sons and daughters of God the Father. The best "gift" our heavenly Father has given His children of the New Covenant in Christ Jesus is the gift of sanctifying grace through the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit (see Jn 15:26 and Acts 2:1-4), a precious gift available to all who have faith in Jesus Christ and accept Him, in the Sacrament of Baptism, as Lord and Savior!
Catechism References (* indicates Scripture quoted or
paraphrased in the citation):
Genesis 18:20 (CCC 1867*)
Psalm 138 (CCC 304*); 138:2 (CCC 214)
Colossians 2:12 (CCC 527, 628*, 1002, 1214*, 1227*, 1694*)
Luke 11:1 (CCC 520*, 2601, 2759, 2773); 11:2-4 (CCC 2759*); 11:2 (CCC 2632*); 11:4 (CCC 1425, 2845); 11:5-13 (CCC 2613*); 11:9 (CCC 2761); 11:13 (CCC 443*, 728*, 2623*, 2671*)
Prayer of intercession (CCC 2634*, 2635*, 2636*)
The universal call to prayer (CCC 2566*, 2567)
The Lord's Prayer as a synthesis of the Gospel (CCC 2761-2762, 2763*, 2764, 2765*, 2766*, 2767-2768, 2769*, 2770-2771, 2772*)
Turning to God with persistence and filial trust (CCC 2609*, 2610*, 2613*, 2777*, 2778*, 2779*, 2780*, 2781*, 2782-2784, 2785*)
Buried and risen in baptism (CCC 537*, 628*, 1002*, 1227*)
Michal E Hunt, Copyright © 2013; revised 2022 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.