YEAR B: HOMILY FOR WEDNESDAY OF THE 27TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
HOMILY THEME: LORD’S PRAYER….”Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples”
BY: Fr. Austin Chukwuemeka IHEKWEME
Today, we see how one of Jesus’s disciples tells him: «Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples» (Lk 11:1). Jesus’s reply: «When you pray, say this: Father, hallowed be your name, may your kingdom come, give us each day the kind of bread we need, and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive all who do us wrong, and do not bring us to the test» (Lk 11:2-4), may be summarized in a single phrase: the best mental attitude for the Christian prayer is that of a child in front of his father.
We can see right away that the prayer, according to Jesus, is something like a “father-son” kinship. That is, a family matter based on a relation of closeness and love. The image of God as a father speaks to us of a relationship based on affection and intimacy, not on power and authority.
To pray as Christians means to position ourselves in a situation whereby we see God as our father and we speak to him as his sons: «You write: ‘To pray is to talk with God. But about what?’. About what? About Him, about yourself: joys, sorrows, successes and failures, noble ambitions, daily worries, weaknesses! And acts of thanksgiving and petitions: and Love and reparation. In a word: to get to know him and to get to know yourself: ‘to get acquainted!’» (St. Josemaria).
When children speak with their parents they try to transmit, through their words and body language, what they feel in their heart. We become better praying men and women when our relation with God is more intimate, as that of a father with his son. Jesus himself left with us his own example. He is the Way.
And, if you invoke the Virgin Mother of God, master of prayer, it will even be easier! In fact «the contemplation of Christ has in Mary its insurmountable model. The Son’s face belongs to her in a very special way (…). Nobody has devoted himself with Mary’s assiduity to the contemplation of Christ’s face» (John Paul II).
Fr. Austin Chukwuemeka IHEKWEME (Ikenanzizi, Nigeria)
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