ACC ~ Matthew 6 v13

NEW SINS MUST BE RESISTED

TERTULLIAN: To complete the prayer that was so well arranged, Christ added that we should pray not only that our sins be forgiven but also that they be resisted completely: “Lead us not into temptation,” that is, do not allow us to be led by the tempter. God forbid that our Lord should seem to be the tempter, as if he were not aware of one’s faith or were eager to upset it! That weakness and spitefulness belongs to the devil. For even in the case of Abraham, God had ordered the sacrifice of his son not to tempt his faith but to prove it. In him he might illustrate that which he was later to teach, that no one should hold loved ones dearer than God. … The disciples were so tempted to desert their Lord that they indulged in sleep instead of prayer. Therefore the phrase that balances and interprets “lead us not into temptation” is “but deliver us from evil.” ON PRAYER 8.1-3, 5-6. [1]

[1] CCL 1:262; FC 40:166-67.

WHETHER THE DEVIL IS EVIL BY NATURE

CHRYSOSTOM: Jesus here calls the devil “the wicked one,” commanding us to wage against him a war that knows no truce. Yet he is not evil by nature, for evil is not something derived from any nature as created but is what has been added to nature by choice. The devil is the prototypically evil one, because of the excess of his evil choices and because he who in no respect was injured by us wages against us an implacable war. Thus we do not pray “deliver us from the wicked ones” in the plural but “from the wicked one.” THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 19.6. [1]

[1] PG 57:282; NPNF 1 10:136**. Evil is not from God’s will in creating but from the free choice of creatures. The devil is wicked not by nature but by choice. Hence evil is not an intrinsic aspect of God’s creation.

THE RECAPITULATION OF ALL PREVIOUS PETITIONS

CYPRIAN: After all those things, in the prayer’s summation there occurs a little clause concluding all our petitions and prayer in succinct fashion. For at the very last we state “but deliver us from evil,” understanding the phrase to mean all adversities that the enemy undertakes against us in this world. There can be strong and faithful protection against these adversities if God delivers us, if, as we pray and implore, he furnishes us his aid. Moreover, when we say “deliver us from evil,” nothing remains for which we should ask still further. When once we seek God’s protection against evil, having obtained this, we stand secure and safe against all the works of the devil and of the world. For what fear, indeed, is there with regard to the world for one who has God as protector in the world? TREATISES, ON THE LORD’S PRAYER 27. [1]

[1] CCL 3a:107; FC 36:150-51. The brief petition to be delivered from evil summarizes and comprehends all our petitions to God.

THE ORDERING OF THE SEVEN PETITIONS

AUGUSTINE: We must consider and carefully set forth the respective and distinctive notes of those seven petitions. While our present life is passing away like time, our hope is fixed on the life eternal, and while we cannot reach the eternal without first passing through the present life, eternal things are first in importance. In addition, the fulfillment of the first three petitions has its beginning in the life that begins and ends in this world. For the hallowing of God’s name began with the advent of the Lord’s humility; and the coming of his kingdom—the coming in which he will appear in brightness—will be made manifest not after the end of the world but at the ending of the world; and the perfect fulfilling of God’s will on earth as in heaven—whether you take the words heaven and earth to mean the righteous and the sinful, or the spirit and the flesh, or the Lord and the church, or all of these together—will be fully achieved through the full attainment of our blessedness, and therefore at the ending of the world. But all three will continue for all eternity; for the hallowing of God’s name will continue forever, and of his kingdom there is no end, and there is the promise of everlasting life for our blessedness. Therefore these three things will continue, completely fulfilled, in the life that is promised to us.

It seems to me that our remaining four petitions pertain to the needs of this temporal life. The first of them is “give us this day our daily bread”; the mere fact that it is called a “daily” bread shows that it pertains to the present time, the time which the Lord has called “today.” This is equally clear, no matter what significance one may attach to the expression “daily bread”; that is to say, whether we take it as signifying spiritual bread or the bread that is visible either in the sacrament or in our earthly food. Of course, this opinion does not imply that spiritual food is not everlasting. What the Scriptures call daily food is offered to the soul in the sound of human speech or in some kind of sign that is confined to time. There will be none of these things when everyone will be “taught of God” [1] and will be imbibing the ineffable light of truth through mind alone but not imparting it through any bodily actions. Perhaps that is the very reason why this nourishment is called food rather than drink. For just as food must be broken up and chewed before it can become nourishment for the body, so also is the soul nourished by the Scriptures when it has uncovered and digested their inner meaning. But whatever is taken in the form of drink is not changed as it flows into the body. Therefore truth is called food as long as it is referred to as daily bread; when there will be no need of breaking it, so to speak, and chewing it, then it will be in the form of drink. This will be the case when there will be no need of discussing and discoursing, when nothing will be needed but a drink of pure and crystal truth.

In this life we are both receiving and granting forgiveness of sins, and this is the second of those four petitions. But in eternity there will be no forgiving of sins, because there will be no sins to be forgiven. Temptations make this life troublesome, but there will be no temptations after the fulfillment of the promise, “You will hide them in the secret of your presence.” [2] Of course, the evil from which we wish to be delivered is an evil that is present with us in this life, and it is during this life that we wish to be delivered from it. For through God’s justice we have by our own faults made this life mortal, and through the mercy of God we are being delivered from that mortality. SERMON ON THE MOUNT 2.10.36-37. [3]

[1] Is 54:13.

[2] Ps 31:20 (30:20 LXX).

[3] PL 34:1285-86; FC 11:144-46.

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