Pai Nosso - Ler Mateus 6, 9-13 (Sr. Marianne Dacy)

28/07/2010: Casa generalícia - Roma

Our Father in heaven hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debts. And lead us not into temptation, but rescue us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Short time of silence.

We will explore 2 themes: Father and Bread.

The essential  basic food of the people of Jesus’ time was bread.  To eat bread  was to have a meal. The poor ate bread made from barley, which survived the heat and water shortages  better  than wheat  which took longer to  ripen.  It is the barley harvest  that is celebrated at Passover, and  it follows  that unleavened bread  made in haste could be made from barley or wheat.   However, the well-to-do usually ate bread made from  wheat,  considered to be a superior  grain.

 Jesus’ multiplication of the loaves and fish to  feed the hungry crowd is reported  in all the four  gospels, but the fourth gospel  specifies  that the loaves  were made of barley, the bread of the poor. There are parallels in  the account of Elisha’s  feeding of one hundred in 2 Kings 4:24-44. In that episode Elisha’s servant asks; ‘How can a hundred people be satisfied  with  twenty barley loaves?.

Dt8:3. One does not live by bread alone...

Sir 15:3 She  will feed him with the bead of learning

A short EXEGESIS of text of Matthew.

Some RABBINIC texts on ‘Father’.

The watchful care of “our father who is in heaven” is emphasized both in the teachings of Jesus and in rabbinic literature. Jesus taught:

…so that you may be the sons of your father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. (Mt. 5:45)

The sage Rabbi Abahu said:

The day of rain is greater than the resurrection of the dead, because the resurrection of the dead benefits only the righteous, but rain benefits both the righteous and the unrighteous. (Babylonian Talmud, Ta'anit 7a).

The ‘Our Father’ and JEWISH PRAYER.

DIDACHE

Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, as in Heaven so also upon earth; give us to-day daily bread, and forgive us our debt as we forgive our debtors, and lead us not into trial, but deliver us from the Evil One, for thine is the power and the glory forever (Didache 8.2)

KADDISH

Magnified and sanctified be his great name in the world that he has created according to his will. May he establish his kingdom in your lifetime and in your days and in the lifetime of all the house of Israel, even speedily and at a near time.

 Again, the petition, “and lead us not into temptation”, in Luke 1:4 and Matt 6:13 has a parallel in b Ber 60b that reads:

And lead us not into sin or into iniquity or into testing or into contempt

AMIDAH

Holy are you, and awe-inspiring is Your Name; and beside You there is no God. You are praised, O Lord, the holy God (3^rdBenediction)

Forgive us, our Father, for we have sinned against you. Turn us back to You, O Lord, and we shall return; Renew our days as of old. You are praised, O Lord, who delights in repentance. (5^thBenediction)

Blot out and remove our transgressions from before Your sight, For your mercies are manifold .You are praised, O Lord, who abundantly pardons. (6^thBenediction)

Look at our affliction, and champion our cause, and redeem us for the sake of Your name. You are praised, O Lord, Redeemer of Israel (7^thBenediction).

Restore our judges as at first, and our counsellors as at  the beginning; and reign over us —You alone. You are praised, O Lord, who loves justice. 11^thBenediction).

David Flusser has drawn the attention to the  “Plea of Deliverance” as an apotropaic prayer, that is intended to ward off evil.  The lines 13-16 confirm this interpretation :
11QPs a XIX, 1-18 (Plea of Deliverance)

Forgive my sin, O Lord,
and purify me from my iniquity.
Vouchsafe me a spirit of faith and knowledge,
And let me not be dishonoured in ruin.
Let not Satan rule over me,
Nor an unclean spirit;
Neither let pain nor the evil inclination
Take possession of my bones.