ACC ~ Matthew 6 v9
SHOWING BELIEF
TERTULLIAN: Prayer begins with a demonstration of our belief in God and a blessed act of faith at the moment when we say, “Father, who art in heaven.” For we are thereby both adoring God and demonstrating our faith, and this form of address is the result. It is written, “To those who believe in God he gave the power to be called the children of God.” [1] ON PRAYER 2.1. [2]
[1] Jn 1:12.
[2] CCL 1:258; FC 40:159**; ANF 3:682**.
THE CHURCH IS THE MOTHER OF FAITH
TERTULLIAN: Our Lord so frequently spoke to us of God as Father. He even taught us to call none on earth father, [1] but only the one we have in heaven. [2] Therefore, when we pray to the Father, we are following this command. Blessed are they who recognize their Father! Remember the reproach made against Israel, when the Spirit calls heaven and earth to witness, saying, “I have begotten sons and they have not known me.” [3] In addressing him as Father we are also naming him God, so as to combine in a single term both filial love and power. Addressing the Father, the Son is also being addressed, for Christ said, “I and the Father are one.” Nor is Mother Church passed over without mention, for the mother is recognized in the Son and the Father, as it is within the church that we learn the meaning of the terms Father and Son. ON PRAYER 2.2-6. [4]
[1] In the same voice that we say Abba.
[2] Mt 23:9.
[3] Is 1:2.
[4] CCL 1:258; FC 40:159-60**; ANF 3:682**. To address God as Father is the privilege of belief in the Son, a privilege we receive and learn about from the one who mothers our faith, namely, the church.
THE PRIVILEGE OF CALLING GOD ABBA
ORIGEN: According to the apostle, “as long as the heir has not reached his majority, he differs little from a servant, though he be lord of all. He remains under tutors and governors until the time of his maturity appointed by his father.” [1] But the “fullness of time” [2] consists in our Lord Jesus Christ coming among us, when those who desire it receive adoption as sons, as Paul says in these words: “For you have not received the spirit of bondage in fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, whereby we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” [3] ON PRAYER 22.2. [4]
[1] Gal 4:2.
[2] Gal 4:4.
[3] Rom 8:15.
[4] GCS 3:347; ACW 19:73-74*. It is the distinct privilege of those who believe in God the Son to address God as Father in the same way he did.
APPROACHING GOD WITH GREAT CONFIDENCE
ANONYMOUS: He wishes himself to be called Father rather than Lord, so that he may give us great confidence in seeking him and great hope in beseeching him. Servants do not always demand what they want nor even always seek with a good conscience things that are righteous. Frequently servants do not consider what pertains to the benefit of their master but to their own benefit. Hence they do not always deserve to be heard. Sons, however, always make petition because they seek with good conscience what is righteous. They do not consider first what is for their own good but what is for the good of their father. Hence they always deserve to be heard. If you believe yourself to be a son of God, seek those things that are advantageous for you to receive and that it behooves him to bestow. However, if you always seek from him carnal and earthly things, you are setting yourself a difficult or impossible task. How would those things benefit you who don’t have them, which everywhere he admonishes you to scorn if you did have them? INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW, HOMILY 14. [1]
[1] PG 56:711.
THE LIMITS OF SPATIAL METAPHORS
AUGUSTINE: Let the new people, therefore, who are called to an eternal inheritance freely employ the word of the New Testament and say, “Our Father who art in heaven,” that is, the place where holiness and justice reign. For God is not contained spatially. The heavens may be in a sense “higher” created bodies of the world, even while remaining created, and so cannot exist apart from some spatial location. But do not think of this spatially, as if the birds are nearer to God than we. It is not written that “the Lord is closer to tall people” or “nearer to those who live on higher hills.” For it is written, “The Lord is near to the broken-hearted and saves the crushed in spirit,” [1] namely, close to those who are humble. SERMON ON THE MOUNT 2.5.17. [2]
[1] Ps 34:18 (33:18 LXX).
[2] PL 34:1276-77; NPNF 1 6:39**; ACW 5:106. The spatial metaphors are only partially useful in speaking of both God’s almightiness and nearness yet limited by finite perceptions.
IN HEAVEN ALL INEQUITIES ARE OVERCOME
CHRYSOSTOM: This at once takes away hatred, quells pride, casts out envy and brings in the mother of all good things, charity. By inward prayer the inequality of human things is thwarted. It shows how nearly equal are the king and the poor person in all those matters that are most indispensable and of greatest weight. Behind those closed doors before God, we are all equals. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 19.4. [1]
[1] PG 57:278; NPNF 1 10:134*.
GOD IS NOT MADE HOLY BY DEGREES
CYPRIAN: We pray “Hallowed be thy name,” not that we wish that God may be made holy by our prayers but that his name may be hallowed in us. But by whom is God made holy, since he himself is incomparably holy? It is because he commands us, “Be holy, even as I am holy,” [1] that we ask and entreat that we who were sanctified in baptism may continue in that which we have begun to be. And this we pray for daily, for we have need of daily sanctification, that we who daily fall away may wash out our sins by continual sanctification. [2] TREATISES, ON THE LORD’S PRAYER 12. [3]
[1] 1 Pet 1:16; cf. Lev 20:7.
[2] When we pray to be holy even as God is holy, we are following his command by asking that the sanctification begun in our baptism may continue.
[3] CCL 3a:96; ANF 5:450*.
GLORIFYING HIS NAME
CHRYSOSTOM: The prayer to hallow God’s name corresponds with what Jesus has previously taught: “Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven,” [1] just as the seraphim too, giving glory, sang “Holy, holy, holy.” [2] So “hallowed” means “glorified.” In effect he is saying, “Enable us to live so purely that through us all may glorify you.” It points us again to mature self-control, that we may present to all a life so irreprehensible that every one of those who observe may offer to the Lord the praise due to him for this. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 19.4. [3]
[1] Mt 5:16.
[2] Is 6:3; Rev 4:8.
[3] PG 57:279; NPNF 1 10:134*.
Mt