Pope: with the 'Our Father' Jesus teaches us to lift all suffering to Heaven
It is a "audacious" prayer, which contains seven questions to God. "None of us is required to embrace the theory that someone in the past has advanced, that is, prayer of supplication is a weak form of faith, whereas the most authentic prayer is of pure praise, that seeks God without the weight of any request ".
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - With the "Our Father" Jesus does not teach formulas to "ingratiate ourselves" with the Lord; rather, he invites us to pray to Him, breaking down all barriers of subjection and fear, "he wants all suffering, all restlessness, to rise towards Heaven and become dialogue". Continuing his catechesis dedicated to the "Our Father" for the general audience Pope Francis, today highlighted its "bold" character because, if Christ had not suggested it, probably none of us would dare to pray to God in this way ", calling him" Father" and addressing "seven questions" to him.
In this regard, Francis also claimed that "no one is required to embrace the theory that someone in the past has advanced, that is, prayer of supplication is a weak form of faith, whereas the most authentic prayer is of pure praise, that seeks God without the weight of any request ".
To the eight thousand people present in the Paul VI Audience Hall, the Pope stressed that "Jesus puts on the lips of his disciples a short but audacious prayer, made up of seven questions - a number that in the Bible is not accidental, THAT indicates fullness".
Jesus, he said, "invites his disciples to approach God and to ask him some questions with confidence: first of all concerning Him and then concerning us. There are no preambles in the 'Our Father'. Jesus does not teach formulas to "ingratiate ourselves" with the Lord; on the contrary, he invites us to pray to Him, breaking down all barriers of subjection and fear. He does not say to turn to God calling him 'Almighty', 'Most High', or with similar titles, but simply with the word “Father”, which expresses confidence, filial trust ".
"The prayer of the 'Our Father' has its roots in the concrete reality of man. For example, he makes us ask for bread, daily bread: a simple but essential request, which says that faith is not a 'decorative' issue, detached from life, which intervenes when all other needs have been met. If anything, prayer begins with life itself. Prayer - Jesus teaches us - does not begin in human existence after the stomach is full: rather it lurks wherever there is a man, any man who is hungry, who cries, who struggles, who suffers and wonders' why '. Our first prayer, in a sense, was the wail that accompanied our first breath. In that newborn cry, the destiny of our whole life was announced: our continual hunger, our continual thirst, our search for happiness ".
"Jesus, in prayer, does not want to extinguish the human, he does not want to anaesthetize him. He does not want us to dampen the questions and requests by learning to bear everything. Instead, he wants all suffering, all restlessness, to rush towards Heaven and become dialogue ".
"We should all be like the Bartimaeus of the Gospel (cf. Mk 10: 46-52)", the blind man who with his cries manages to meet Jesus who gives him back his sight saying: "Your faith has saved you" (v. 52), "as if to explain that the decisive thing for his recovery was that prayer, that invocation cried out with faith, stronger than the 'common sense' of so many people who wanted to silence it. Prayer not only precedes salvation, but somehow it already does, because it frees from the despair of those who do not believe a way out of so many unbearable situations. Of course, believers also feel the need to praise God. The Gospels bring back to us the exclamation of joy that breaks out from the heart of Jesus, full of amazement with gratitude to the Father (cf. Mt 11: 25-27). The early Christians even felt the need to add a doxology: to the text of the 'Our Father', “For the Kingdom, the power and the glory are yours now and foreover” (Didache, 8, 2) ".
"God - he reiterated finally - is the Father, who has immense compassion for us, and wants His children to speak to Him without fear. That's why we can tell Him everything, even the things that in our life remain distorted and incomprehensible. And He promised us that he would be with us forever, until the last days we spend on this earth ".
"The 'Our Father' - he said in the greeting to the Arabic-speaking pilgrims - is not a prayer we must memorize and recite to God, but it is an example of how we should pray, thank and ask. St. Paul teaches us: "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus"(Phil 4: 6-7)".
.png)
27/03/2019 13:57
26/10/2017 20:04
