The Lord’s Prayer-2 * 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time * Jesus Calms a Storm on the Sea of Galilee The Lord’s Prayer II Q: I was asked if the Our Father was just a prayer to God the Father. What about Jesus and the Holy Spirit? Good question!
The Our Father is a prayer of Jesus. He gave it to humans so we would know how to pray. When we pray his prayer, we are praying with him (remember being yoked to him) – which is why the Church often ends its prayer requests with “through Jesus Christ, Your son, our Lord” – because he paid our way. Everything we ask – including our entrance into heaven – should be asks “in Jesus’s name.” He is our password to eternity – we get nothing and can go nowhere without him. With his name, all doors open.
After he ascended into heaven, the Holy Spirit was sent back to us as our Trinitarian portal and communicator. This means that when we pray (whether we think of it or not), we pray through the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, we pray Jesus’s prayer with Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, to the Father. So yes, it’s a Trinitarian prayer.
Last week we discussed the first phrase of the Our Father: “Our Father who art in Heaven.” Although we are not ready-made children of God from the start, we are meant to become increasingly so by growing more in communion with Him through Jesus Christ. As Benedict XV! Said, our relationship with Christ actually defines our sonship. To name God as “our Father” becomes both our petition and our summons to live as son and daughter. – Benedict XVI
After placing ourselves in the presence of God, the next 7 petitions/blessings are all about
the Spirit of our adoption being fulfilled. The first 3 are about God moving towards us (thy name, thy kingdom, thy will). The last 3 are about us moving towards God (forgive us, lead us not, and deliver us). And in the middle, connecting God to us and us to God, is the God+human, Jesus Christ.
Today, we will briefly
review the first of
the three petitions:
Hallowed be thy name
If you think of “Our Father who art in Heaven” as similar to the 1st Commandment, then this statement could be compared to the 2nd Commandment, since “hallowed” is the positive version of not using God’s name in vain. Since God’s is already hallowed (holy/sacred/whole/perfect), the point of Jesus putting this in the prayer is that we need to see the Father this way. Part of inviting the Creator of the Universe into our prayers is humbly recognizing Who He Is in our hearts and minds. This is what is meant when we say we ought to begin our prayers by lifting up our minds to God: letting our small selves and this world go, recognizing who God is, and entering into each other’s presence.
What about His “name”? When Moses asked God what his name was, He replied, “I AM.” In one sense, God gives Moses a name and He doesn’t give him a name. Part of the reason is that a human-worldly name could not possibly contain or capture who God is. He is the Author of existence, but that’s a hard thought to process. What is important to understand is that God did not say “I WILL BE” or “I MIGHT BE.” His “I AM” means He lives with us now, in the eternal present. “Now” is important because the present is also when we are who we are. It is the only time we can love – not in the past or future but the present. The present is the only time we can do good or evil or forgive others. It’s the only time we can become anything more than we were before. And, the present is where God is, too, waiting for us to recognize Him and engage.
Another way to know what a name represents is by what a thing does. For instance, we know what a hammer is by the fact that it is good for pounding nails. A “car” is a machine used for transportation. We know partly who Mary is because she is has brown hair, is a great swimmer, an A student, and a caring person. God is the Author of existence and the Creator of the universe and all its laws of nature, including the higher, spiritual laws of existence, such as love, justice, truth, freedom, and beauty. So, when we praise God’s name, we also actually claim to have a relationship with Him through all of these things that come from Him. And we thank Him for allowing us to participate in His creation.
How might we hallow God’s name? By giving Him priority in our lives. When we pursue the truth of God, such as we attempt to do at our Tuesday meetings, we hallow His name. When we express our appreciation to Him for the awesome beauty of nature, we hallow His name. When we strive after all the characteristics and manifestations of His love, we hallow His name. Furthermore, when we act in His name, we not only hallow his name, we glorify it (magnify it). For example, when we stand up for someone or something because it’s the right thing to do, regardless of the consequences, we both hallow and glorify His name.
Next week: Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
This coming Sunday is the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time
After the penances of Lent, the glories of the Easter Season, and then the festivities of three holy days (Pentecost, Most Holy Trinity, Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ), the Church now returns to Ordinary Time. The Church once again clothes herself and her priests in green.
Q: What does the green represent? The colors are an external reminder of what is supposed to be happening on the interior. In this case, green is a reflection of nature; it represents growth, newness, and – as such – it symbolizes hope.
Following is the Church’s annual Liturgical Cycle.
Gospel Reading for this Sunday: Jesus Calms a Storm on the Sea of Galilee
Mark 4:35-41
Context:
Being only Chapter 4 in Mark, it is still early in Jesus’s ministry yet Jesus can no longer teach within the towns because of the size of the crowds. In today’s reading, his audience is gathered around Him next to Sea of Galilee. To assist his voice projection, he is teaching from the stern of a boat on the shore. There, he teaches several "kingdom parables." These are parables that help to define the kingdom of God that is coming. The kingdom parables in Mark's Gospel include the "Parable of the Sower," the "Seed that Grows Mysteriously," and the “Parable of the Mustard Seed." We covered two of them last week. The “Seed that Grows Mysteriously” is about how man does not control how the seed becomes a tree any more than he controls the coming of the kingdom of God. In the “Parable of the Mustard Seed,” Jesus shows us that the kingdom does not come like giant redwoods or the Cedars of Lebanon (worldly greatness), but rather like the lowly mustard tree. Like he himself did. God’s kingdom comes for the humble of heart.
Q: What does the seed represent?
The Word of God. Who is the Word of God? Jesus… his life, his example, his message, his sacrifice.
After a long day of Jesus’s “Sermons by the Sea,” evening is coming and Jesus suggests to the Apostles that they sail to the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee. They are probably in boats owned by Peter, his brother Andrew, and James and John Zebedee. As they depart, Jesus goes to sleep in the stern from which he had been preaching. Not long after they depart a storm arrives. Such “squalls” are common on the Sea of Galilee even today, and without warning the storm overtakes their boats. A number of the Apostles are experienced fishermen who know what to do, but the storm proves to be too much for them. They finally cry out to Jesus, who is still asleep in the stern.
Mark 4:35-41 Jesus Calms a Storm on the Sea of Galilee
On that day, as evening drew on, Jesus said to his disciples:
“Let us cross to the other side.”
Leaving the crowd, they took Jesus with them in the boat just as he was.
And other boats were with him.
A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was already filling up.
Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion.
They woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Quiet! Be still!”
The wind ceased and there was great calm.
Then he asked them, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?”
They were filled with great awe and said to one another,
“Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?”
Let’s take this one part at a time.
Q: “… they took Jesus with them just as he was.” What does this mean?
It means he was still seated in the boat from where he was teaching. They didn’t go anywhere to refresh themselves first.
Why? Jesus was tired, exhausted.
Q: Jesus may have been exhausted, but does that explain his sleeping through this terrible storm, with the fishermen-Apostles screaming and yelling through the wind and rain?
I don’t know. Perhaps it depends on how exhausted he was. What else wakes people up in the night? Noises, fear? But, what did Jesus have to fear?
Nothing. Does anyone doubt he had perfect trust in the Father? This lends itself to deeper, worry-free sleep, I suppose!
And yet perhaps there’s another message happening here.
“A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was already filling up.
Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion. They woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
Q: What sense do you get from this comment? No doubt they are panicked. One can also see that there’s a sting to their question, “Do you not care?” But since the boat was about to go down, we ought to be able to excuse their tone. What else? An expectation?
Yes, they clearly think that there is something he can do to help them.
“He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Quiet! Be still!” The wind ceased and there was great calm.”
Q: Why is this miracle special?
Up to this point, the Apostles may think Jesus is the Messiah and Prophet capable of wondrous signs. But they know only God can control nature. What Jesus did is begin to reveal to the Apostles that he is divine.
“They were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?”
Q: Jesus is asleep in the boat during a violent storm. At the last minute, the Apostles wake him up and ask for his help. Jesus wakes up and asks them, “Why are you terrified? Do you not have faith?” There seems to be a larger message going on in this story. Can anyone guess what it is? There are two. The first message: No matter how smart or skilled we are at what we do, we need Jesus’s partnership. The Apostles waited until the last minute – when they were desperate and about to go under – before asking for help. Does this sound familiar in our own lives, and with the people we know? Do we really need to wait until everything has gone to hell before we ask for help? Spiritually speaking, it is like a child waiting until they are already in trouble before running for help. Imagine for a moment if we asked him to participate in our lives before we got into trouble. How much more interesting of a relationship would that be? The Apostles didn’t have to wait until everything was going wrong, and neither do we.
The 2nd message:
Place yourself in the Apostles shoes. If you could be anywhere else in the world at that time, what safer place would you rather be than in this boat during this storm with Jesus Christ? The answer is there would be no other place on earth that was safer.
In fact, let’s ask ourselves this question: Even if the boat went down, where else on earth would be a better place than with Jesus Christ?
Now we can understand Jesus’s question: “Why are you terrified? Do you not have faith?”
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