Pope Audience: trust in God who
knows everything
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| Pope Francis at the Genera Audience of Feb. 27, 2019, in the Vatican (Vatican Media) |
During his General Audience on Wednesday Pope Francis spoke
about our trust in the Father that “makes us ask for what we need without
anxiety and agitation”.
By Robin Gomes
In his General Audience this week, Pope Francis continued
his catechesis on the Lord’s prayer, ”Our Father”, focusing on the first of its
7 invocations – “hallowed be thy name”.
Speaking to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square under a
warm, sunny sky, he urged them to trust in the Father who knows everything
about us and to ask Him what we need without anxiety and agitation.
He said that the “Our Father” has the pattern of every
prayer, consisting of contemplating God and sincere supplications for our
needs. The first 3 of the 7 supplications of “Our Father” are centred on
“thy”, God the Father - holy be your name, your kingdom
come, your will be done.
The remaining four deal with “we” and our human needs – our
daily bread, forgiveness of sins, help in temptation and freedom from
evil.
The Father knows everything
The contemplation of God, the Pope said, is the mould of
every Christian and human prayer. On the one hand, we contemplate God,
His mystery, beauty and goodness, and, on the other, we sincerely and
courageously ask for “what we need to live, and live well”. Thus, simply and
essentially, the “Our Father” educates those who pray to Him not to multiply
vain words, because Jesus says, "your Father knows what you need before
you even ask him for it" (Mt 6:8).
The Pope explained that in our prayers we do not reveal
ourselves to the Father because He knows us much better than we know ourselves.
God is a mystery to us, but we are not an enigma in his eyes.
He is like mothers who at a glance understand everything about
their children: whether they are happy or sad, whether they are sincere or are
hiding something...
Trust in the Father
The first step of Christian prayer, the Pope pointed out, is
entrusting ourselves to God, to His providence. In the Sermon on the
Mount, following the “Our Father”, Jesus exhorts us not to worry and be anxious
about things. It seems like a contradiction that Jesus first teaches us
to ask for our daily bread and then tells us not to worry about our food, drink
and clothes. The Holy Father explained that the contradiction is only
apparent. The Christian's prayer expresses trust in the Father and
it is precisely this trust that makes us ask for what we need without anxiety
and agitation.
God’s holiness reflected in us
In the invocation, "Hallowed be Thy name", the
Pope noted, one feels all the admiration of Jesus for the beauty and greatness
of the Father and the desire that all recognize and love Him for what He truly
is. At the same time, there is the plea that His
name be sanctified in us, in our family, in our community, in the
whole world. While God sanctifies and transforms us by His love, it is also
we who, by our witness, manifest God's sanctity in the world, making His name
present.
The Pope said that God's holiness must be reflected in our
actions, in our lives. As a Christian if I do bad things, it hurts and
scandalizes, it is not reflecting God’s holiness.
God’s holiness destroys evil
God’s holiness, the Pope continued, is an expanding force
and we pray that it quickly breaks down the barriers of our world. And
the first to suffer in this is evil that afflicts the world. When Jesus
casts out evil spirits they protest. The holiness of Jesus is
outstretched and expands into concentric circles, like when you throw a stone
in a pond. The days of evil are numbered and it can no longer harm us,
the Pope assured, because Jesus the strongman who takes possession of his house
has arrived. Jesus also gives us the strength to take possession of our
inner home.
The Pope said prayer drives out all fear because the Father
loves us, the Son raises his arms alongside ours and the Spirit works in secret
for the redemption of the world. Hence we do not waver in
uncertainty because Jesus who loves us gave His life for us and the Spirit is
within us.
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