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| God has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation. So we
are ambassadors for Christ, God as it were appealing through us. We implore you, be
reconciled to God.
-2 Corinthians 5: 18, 20 |
We
have within us the capacities for wisdom and virtue. With these gifts and with the help of
God's grace, we can build in the next century and the next 'millennium a civilization
worthy of the human person, a true culture of freedom. And in doing so, we shall see that
the tears Of this century have prepared the ground for a new springtime of the human
spirit.
- Pope John
Paul 11
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| Make
Good Choices: Choose Love And Life
Freedom to make choices is at the very heart of our dignity as a
human person. Because we are not isolated from others but live in co-existence and in
dependence on the world in which we dwell, our freedom to choose is limited. To choose to
do whatever we want, violating the rights of others and harming our world does harm to all
and to the one who chooses falsely. We all rise and fall together in society.
Making good choices benefits everyone. Good
choice-making is a truly human exercise. One strives to consider the whole picture.
I weigh my motives as they
relate to my solidarity with others, openness to others and my love and service to others.
Besides motive, I consider what will be done to bring about what I want. Finally, I try to
envision the effects of my choice and what I do on others and myself. Such choice always
seeks the good for me and for others.
Making truly "human"
choices based on reason seeking,the good is not,child's play, but it is who we are as the
image and likeness of God with God-given responsibility for others and self. Reason
enlightened by faith in the Gospel of Life can make truly loving and life-giving choices.
The
soul-wrenching choice for abortion is a tragedy for everyone. There are a host of other
prior choices for the civilization of love of Pope Paul VI. He summons us to "real
choices" about sexuality, love, marriage and family. He challenges us with
"tough love."
The late Cardinal O'Connor
described these life and love choices. They say again what the Church has always. taught.
These words appeared in Catholic New York on July 14, 1990.
"The ultimate answer to
abortion, I believe, lies in an understanding of love. There is probably no term we use
more loosely than love. We often call sexual relations 'making love,' when no true love
may be involved at all. Frequently we speak of a couple's being 'in love,' when they are
simply experiencing intense infatuation.
"Love doesn't come and go with the wind. Love is unselfish,
always ready to give. Our Lord tells us that there is no greater love than to lay down our
lives for others.
"There are good parents
who are tempted to encourage a daughter to have an abortion because they love her.
Wouldn't it be a wonderful thing if they encouraged her to protect her baby with the same
kind of love that they are trying to show toward her? It seems to me that parents must ark
themselves if they are thinking of their daughter or themselves. That question is not
intended to be cruel. Most parents are embarrassed or ashamed if a daughter becomes
pregnant out of wedlock. Abortion can be an all-too easy way out. In fact, I have known of
parents who have virtually forced abortions on daughters who didn't want them. Is that
true love?
"In a very special way,
men need to understand the sacredness of their own bodies and the bodies of women. They
should be taught that sexual intimacies are intended for marriage. In the event that they
have caused a woman to become pregnant, they must not only be aware of their
responsibilities, they must be encouraged and helped to fulfill those responsibilities.
"There is another
characteristic of true love that is pertinent to the whole question of abortion. A girl
who loves herself as she should will try to refrain from sexual relations outside
marriage, or if married, will try to use periodic abstinence or natural family planning in
order to avoid pregnancy, rather than to risk a pregnancy with the intention of having an
abortion if it occurs. A man who loves a woman v,ill discipline himself likewise. If both
yield to temptation, then love requires that they share the responsibility in every way.
"Obviously, love of God
requires that we keep his commandments. This still means in the 20th century what it has
always meant: sexual intimacies outside marriage are wrong. If we love young people, we
will not hesitate to teach them this. We must never underestimate them. Far more young
people are prepared to understand this and live accordingly than some adults realize. But
adults must set standards. Adults must be very clear in their own minds that lust is not
love, and that, with the help of the sacraments, purity is possible. Handing out
contraceptives or birth control pills is hardly evidence that you believe that young
people are capable of withstanding temptation.
"If we teach a true love of life, the life of the unborn,
the aged,the disabled, the blind, deaf, retarded, if we teach that God loves every life he
creates, we go a long way toward ending abortion. The God of love has given to human
beings the incredible capacity to share in his creation. We call that sharing
'procreation.' The God of love never intended that human beings would kill human beings.
Love is always creative, never destructive."
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| Entering the millennium as a people of life
By Cardinal Francis George,
OMI
The gift of solidarity
Twenty-six years after the Supreme Court's Roe vs. Wade
decision, our country is in a state of moral disorder. Abortion remains legal for all nine
months of pregnancy, for virtually any reason. Despite near-successful efforts to ban
"partial-birth" abortion, even infants struggling to be born can be killed in
most states. Recently, a New York Times article raised the question of killing
newborns, arguing that life is a continuum and that the moment of birth itself does not
define the value of human life. If we can kill before birth legally, the author asked, why
can't we kill after birth? The question represents the logical extension of the
pro-abortion ethos which shapes our culture now - no life, no life at all, has intrinsic
value simply because it is a human life.
We must respond by offering our vision, founded
on faith, but also persuasive in the public square. A vision of a world where every single
human being, made in God's image, would be welcomed in life and protected by law. Along
with this vision, we offer a virtue that stems from our sense of community. The church
calls this virtue "solidarity," which means we share a common destiny, a common
nature and a common vocation to freely give of ourselves for the good of others.
Pope John Paul
II calls us to use our faith and the virtue of solidarity to create a culture of life.
Today, we experience a growing tension between our I faith and our culture, a
tension that tears at us in our deepest heart.
In the culture of the United States, law is a primary
carrier of norms. Arguably it is the single factor that most creates American unity, given
our diversity of religious faiths, cultural backgrounds, languages and regional
differences. Unfortunately, the damage that the law has done to our culture in the last 30
years is proving difficult to undo. It is up to us as people of faith to find ways to
transform our culture by faith, to create a culture that is more in harmony with the
ideals of solidarity and dignity.
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| The call to conversion
What does it mean to evangelize someone to the Gospel of Life?
It means listening first of all to the Lord, starting with the quiet witness of Gospel
living and Christian service, striving daily to bring our will into conformity with the
Lord's generous and loving will.
There is a caricature of a
threatening pro-life movement that stridently accuses and condemns. This is not and can
never be our way. We must find the courage to voice our pro-life message in a way that
respects the human dignity of all people, those who do not know what to think of the life
issues and even those who are opponents of the Gospel of Life.
Evangelizing means speaking in
the public forum, and doing so in a tone and manner that is compassionate and caring -
judging the act, but being very slow to judge a person. It means speaking to our neighbor
in ways that respect their human dignity and never in a way that makes people want to
avoid us. It means speaking because we know that the Holy Spirit is always there ahead of
us, at work in the world and in the life of the person we are talking to.
We must also help each other
to learn as much as we can about the issues, so we are well prepared to answer the
questions others are likely to ask. Yet we must have the courage to speak out of our
hearts even if we do not know every last technical issue or statistic, knowing that God
will help us to find the right words.
There is a great obstacle in
our society that stops us from being evangelizers, from preaching the Gospel of Life. In
our culture, it is not considered polite to impose yourself upon others, particularly with
regard to faith-motivated topics. there is enormous pressure to keep certain topics
private or confined to churches and parochial schools. We must consider carefully our
motives for speaking, and then speak always with a sense of love for our neighbor and
respect for God's gift of life. Even in the midst of a struggle to find words, we can
trust that God will help us to reach people's hearts.
There is another obstacle to preaching the Gospel of Life. Our
nation has seen examples of well-known Catholics who have intentionally separated their
faith from their actions in the public sphere. The notion of faith as a purely private
matter, along with an exaggerated notion of privacy itself, shrunk the sphere in which
faith can legitimately operate. Faith is first excluded from politics, then from the
school and workplace, then from the living room and bedroom, and finally even from
influencing the consciences of believers on any moral issues, which are all
"personal" and therefore totally individual in nature. The result is not only a
faith that has little impact life - whether public or private- but also a modern
society that is hostile to hearing of faith.
When faith can be
neither public nor normative, when it cannot create a public culture, there are two
options: either a conformity of faith to the prevailing cultural norms - which is the
easiest way to go - or a confrontation which, although sometimes necessary, cannot
be indefinitely sustained. Because Catholics can be satisfied neither with total
conformity nor with constant confrontation, the usual Catholic alternative is
conversation. We have to work to find the vocabulary that will create a culture of
life. In this conversation we must try to show how - far from being a threat to
freedom or democracy - faith and solidarity are actually the firmest foundation for a free
society, because they respect the dignity of each and every human being without
exception. That conversation is still possible, and for that we should be grateful.
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| Reasons for hope
There is every reason to be profoundly hopeful as we enter
the new millennium. We have known for years that most people's sentiments are more
pro-life than not. We know we add to the number of pro-life people each time we find
the courage to speak from the heart. Thousands and thousands of children and
young people are alive today and doing all the things that other children do because a
pro-life individual was there during the course of an unexpected and
"unwanted" pregnancy. That individual was with the mother either physically or
at least in spirit and prayer and in solidarity with the woman who felt she needed to
choose abortion because there was no other choice available.
While President Clinton may have temporarily
prevented the will of the people from prevailing when he twice vetoed the partial-birth
abortion ban act, the struggle for hearts and minds over partial-birth abortion has, in
fact, been been won by the pro-life movement.
Throughout history, God has been generous in raising up holy
people for his church and his world, and God will not be outdone in generosity in the next
millennium.
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| You never know
By Janet Cassidy
"Look at
this!" I heard my husband say as we were driving along one afternoon.
"Stop the car!" I
yelled, as I jumped out of the front seat and responded to his exclamation.
There, in the middle of the
four-lane road, was a small child wandering into the path of an oncoming car. Fortunate
ly, the approaching driver noticed the child and pulled to a stop. People started to
appear and a couple of men shouted, "I think she came from that house,' pointing to a
house in great disrepair.
Grabbing the little one's
hand, I found an anxious, grateful mother ... and she found me very inquisitive.
"What are you
doing?" I asked, implying neglect. She started to yell at a young boy who was
apparently supposed to be taking care of the small child. In a slightly raised voice, I
heard myself tell her not to hurt the boy. I realized all of us were quite upset and it
appeared that she blamed the boy.
As I got back into the car, I
complained to my husband about mothers who allowed children to be responsible for
children. He wisely pointed out that perhaps. she stepped away for a minute. Small
children are very fast.
I knew he was right. Taking
one look at the house, the mother, the boy and the barefoot, diapered child who wandered
across the street, it's very easy to draw the wrong conclusion. You never know. But, by
the look on that mother's face .
She was concerned, naturally,
but the workmen in the nearby house? The neighbors,running out? The passersby?
Instinctively, we all cared about this little one. I realized that if we can all care so
much about the well-being of a complete stranger, how much more God must care for us.
And care he does for the
wandering, misguided among us. The little child didn't have a clue that she was in danger.
She could have turned away from me and run further,into harm's way, but she was
cooperative. She took my hand and let me help her. If she would have started screaming and
kicking and pulling away, there might have been chaos. We all know how difficult it is to
do anything with an uncooperative child.
God knows, too. How many times
have we started chaos by stubbornly refusing a helping hand? How many times have we
unknowingly placed ourselves in danger and been intercepted like that wandering child?
We are all God's children, and
we mustn't turn away his offers of help. That help often comes in different forms. For the
little girl, it was obvious - strangers were delivering God's help that day,. But there
are times when it is much more subtle.
Perhaps it is a slight nudge
from a close friend. Maybe it is the voice of reason sparking our conscience. It might
just be a word or two from a passerby.
If we can manage to slow down
and take the time to work with God instead of against him, we might discover that he can
be very creative in delivering his grace ... you never know.
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| It is important to preserve memoy of martyrs
In the full calendar of celebrations during Jubilee 2000, one stands out as very dear to
the heart of our Holy Father. It also has profound significance for the authentic life of
Jesus' Church. He has designated May 7, 2000, to commemorate the 11 new martyrs" of
the 20th century. He will preside at a memorial service in Rome's ancient Colosseum on May
7. He will stress the importance of preserving the memory o the martyrs of our time and
the martyrs of two millennia of Christianity.
Martyr means
"witness." The martyrs are an effective and lasting sign of the fruitfulness of
the Lord's grace at work in the members of Christ. All believers in the Risen Lord are
called to be witnesses (martyrs). In her history and in this celebration the Church
celebrates the special kind of martyr who suffered and died for their faith in the Lord
during persecution of the Church.
An early writer, Tertullian (+220) captures the essential role of these martyrs in the
Church: "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the faith." From the first
martyr, St. Stephen (Acts 7) to the martyrs of the 20th century, and the most recent and
current in Sudan and East Timor, there have been millions for two millennia. Many are
known only to the Lord. Some are known and have been beatified and canonized. Canonization
means that a person's name is added to the Canon of Saints. "Canon" means a
"list." The word is used in music, e.g. the Canon of Vivaldi or Mozart's
compositions.
During his 21 years as Vicar
of Christ, Pope John Paul II has proclaimed an extraordinary number of Catholics as
"Blessed" and "Saint." From October 1978 to March 2000, there have
been 120 beatification celebrations in which 982 were proclaimed Blessed. Of these, 756
were martyrs. There have been 38 canonizations in which 296 were declared Saints. Of
these, 256 were martyrs.
Our Holy Father wants us to
remember that the Church has been blessed with the blood of martyrs and that martyrdom has
been a constant in her history for two millennia. He asks to reflect on the martyrs of our
time, to preserve the memory of the "new martyrs," many of them nameless,
"unknown soldiers" of the Lord's cause. Our 20th century was a time of prolonged
and intense persecution in nations under the hell of Nazism and Communism. Only God knows
the great number who suffered and died for their faith. Persecutions in Spain, Mexico and
other nations resulted in countless martyrs.
When John Paul 11 wrote of
Jubilee 2000 in 1994 he stated:
"The Church of the first
millennium was born of the blood of the martyrs: 'Sanguis martyrum - semen christianorum.'
The historical events linked to the figure of Constantine the Great could never have as it
occurred ensured the development of the Church during the first millennium if it had not
been for the seeds sown by the martyrs and the heritage of sanctity which marked the first
christian generations. At the end of the second millennium, the Church has once again
become a Church of martyrs. The persecutions of believers - priests, religious and laity -
has caused a great sowing of martyrdom in different parts of the world. The witness to
Christ borne even to the shedding of blood has become a common inheritance of Catholics,
Orthodox, Anglicans and Protestants, as Pope Paul IV pointed out in his Homily for the
Canonization of the Ugandan Martyrs."
This witness must not be
forgotten. The Church of the first centuries, although facing considerable 'organizational
difficulties, took care to write down in special martyrologies the witness of the martyrs.
These martyrologies have been constantly updated through the centuries, and the register
of the saints and the blessed bears the names not only of those who have shed their blood
for Christ but also of teachers of the faith, missionaries, confessors, bishops, priests,
virgins, married couples, widows and children.
In the Declaration on Jubilee
2000, he wrote that the history of the Church is a history of holiness.
"A sign of the truth of
Christian love, ageless but especially powerful today, is the memory of the martyrs. Their
witness must not be forgotten. They are the ones who have proclaimed the Gospel by giving
their lives for love. The martyr, especially in our own days, is a sign of that greater
love which sums up all other values. The martyr's life reflects the extraordinary words
uttered by Christ on the Cross:
"'Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do' (Luke 23:34). The believer who has seriously pondered his
Christian vocation, including what Revelation has to say about the possibility of
martyrdom, cannot delude it from his own life's horizon. The 2,000 years since the birth
of Christ are marked by the ever-present witness of the martyrs."
During
his Apostolic Visitation to the Church in Lithuania, John Paul 11 paid tribute to the
martyrs who suffered and died under Communism. The high point.of this historic visit was
his pilgrimage to the flill of the Crosses. Amid a sea of crosses commemorating thousands
of Lithuanian Catholics, he delivered an eloquent and moving discourse on the martyrs.
This is a brief excerpt:
"Thus the drama of the
Cross was lived by many of your fellow countrymen. For them Christ crucified was an
invaluable source of strength of soul at the time of deportation and sentence to death...
"At the same time however
the Cross is also an ,exaltation.' When foretelling his death on Golgotha, that is, his
death on the cross, Christ said: 'The Son of man must be lifted up.' To this Hill the sons
and daughters of your land carried crosses which were similar to the one upon which the
Redeemer died on Golgotha. Thus they proclaimed the certainty of their faith which was
that all those brothers and sisters of theirs who had died - or rather, had been killed in
various ways - 'had eternal life.' But, love surpasses deadly hate, which has violently
spread also to our European continent. The love with which God loved the world, in Christ
crucified and risen. Of this love the Cross is a symbol. The Cross is a symbol of eternal
life in God."
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| First Impressions
What's the
first impression people get when they enter a church building? Is it a feeling of awe or
reverence? Is it a feeling of coldness or severity? Is it a feeling of warmth or peace? Is
it a feeling of being in the presence of God or a feeling that God wouldn't be caught dead
in that place?
The impression people get when
entering the church I pastor is important to me. Much depends on the architectural design
of the building. (Ours at St. Joseph is: Archdiocesan "1960s Church Cookie Cutter
#21") But even more importantly, the impression will come from the people met inside
and around the church building.
These are the things important
to me: Has someone anticipated the arrival of any people in this church? Are the doors
open? Are the lights on? Do the parishioners realize that in respecting the visitor they
respect God (even if there is a higher decibel of noise at the exchange of greetings at
the beginning of Mass)? Do people greet everybody at the door? Do the folks inside welcome
them?
Forever before me, surrounding issues of
hospitality, are Abraham, Martha and Mary. In a way, none of them really knew whom they
were welcoming, as Abraham greeted a stranger and Martha and Mary, a friend. Only later
did they realize who was their guest. Perhaps we, too, can come to understand that in
welcoming the visitor, the stranger, to our communities of faith, we allow the Lord to
enter, as well. wide the doors!
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| Them
What
excitement and anticipation must have filled the people of Nazareth when they heard Jesus
say, after having read the passage from Isaiah, foretelling the era of the Messiah:
"Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."
At last! Here was someone who
would tell them how God would destroy the hated Roman oppressors, their enemies, and set
them free from the burden of imperial and inimical dictates! No wonder these same people
grew angry with Jesus when he dared tell them that God was free to show God's mercy even
to their enemies! Who did "Joseph's son" think he was, reminding them of Naaman
the Syrian and the widow of Zarephath near Sidon? By what right did this Jesus presume to
compare himself with the great prophets Elijah and Elisha? What Jesus said was not what
they expected to hear.
The people of Nazareth are not
the only ones who hate surprises. If hearts are honestly searched, the realization dawns
that most have had times in their lives when they became very angry with someone who
challenged preconceived ideas of how God should act in a particular situation.
What is almost always
forgotten is the saying in the Gospel of St. John that compares the action of the Holy
Spirit to the wind that "blows where it will." What is wanted is a God who is
dependable, one who rewards the good and punishes the hell out of the evil, not some
will-o-the-wisp wimpy Yahweh! What is desired is a God who is merciful to us, but who
deals with our enemies justly, like, with the imposition of the electric chair, gassing,
hanging or lethal injection for their despicable actions.
Louis Evely, in his 1963 book That Man is You,
captures this attitude all too well:
"In one of his plays, Jean
Anouilh describes the Last Judgment as he sees it. The Good are densely clustered at the
Gate of Heaven, eager to march in, sure of their reserved seats, keyed up and bursting
with impatience. All at once, a rumor starts spreading: "Have you heard? The Lord is
going to forgive those others, too!" For a minute, everyone's dumbfounded. They look
at one another in disbelief, gasping and sputtering, "After all the trouble I went
through!" "If only I'd known this ..." "I just can't get over
it!"Exasperated, they work themselves into a fury and they start cursing God; and at
that very instant they are damned to hell.That was the final judgment, you see. They
judged themselves, excommunicated themselves.
Love appeared, and they refused to acknowledge
it. "We don't know this man." "We don't approve of a heaven that's open to
winos, queers and whores." "We spurn this God who lets everyone off the
hook." "We can't love a God who loves so recklessly and foolishly." And
because they didn't love Love, they didn't recognize God. Yet, love does things like that,
and we have to expect such surprises from God. God wants us to learn to identify God by
the way God loves.
Love is not a warm, vague
feeling of tolerance for other people and their mistakes, errors and sins. Love is a
conscious decision. If the decision is made to act in a loving way towards someone,
putting into practice the .,patience," "kindness," and other specifics of
loving that SL Paul gives in I Corinthians, then eventually that other person will be
loved. If however, the choice is made to be crushed by the rejection of those we love, and
because of this rejection fail to act in a consistently forgiving and loving way toward
them, then, like the people in Jean Anouilh's play, we simply don't recognize Love
crucified and risen. That being so, we will continue to fry, hang, gas and poison those on
Death Row in an indiscriminate way, so absolutely sure that justice is being served and
that all in that place are absolutely guilty, all the while forgetting the lessons taught
in Genesis 1: I 1, when Adam pridefully postured in the raiment of God's wisdom, mistaking
the image of God for God's very self.
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| Ganksgiving OR
giving ganks
By Annemarie
Scobey-Polacheck
Teenasia, our former two-year-old foster daughter, was a good
talker. She came to us at 16 months with no words at all but soon made up for that initial
silence with a steady stream of comments about the world around her. She could name body
parts and household objects, family members and favorite foods. She even started stringing
words together: "Wanna pretzel, Mom" or I do it self."
My favorite phrase, however,
was "gank you." Teenasia "ganked" us for everything - breakfast in the
morning; a drink before bed; zipping her zipper; blowing her nose. When her brothers
handed her an out-of-reach toy or helped her hold a crayon, she often responded with a
hearty, "Gank you, Liam" or "Gank you, Gacob."
Both Liam and Jacob - then 5
and 8 - were reasonably polite kids and usually remembered their manners, but Teenasia
brought the art of thanking to a new level and often remembered when they forgot. At the
risk of sounding braggy, Teenasia may have been gifted at gratitude.
Teenasia's "ganking"
made me think about thankfulness more at Thanksgiving than I ever had before. And in
thinking about thankfulness, I came to a startling discovery. Thankfulness, in its deepest
form, is love. Thankfulness is what makes us strong.
The other day, I was passing
out pancakes to my ravenous children. They inhaled them so quickly, I could hardly finish
pouring another round on the griddle before they were ready for more. As I tossed two more
pancakes onto Liam's plate, he suddenly looked at me and said, "You always get your
pancakes last, Mom. You give us ours first. That's generous." As I blinked my
surprise, he added that "generous" was a new word for him, and wasn't I
surprised he knew it?
I was surprised he knew
generous (or "gener-wuss" as he said it) but I was more surprised he noticed I
got my pancakes last and that he appreciated it.
Seeing gratitude in my children has made me think
about my own gratitude in my relationship with God. Liam's comm6nts made me feel proud of
him - a moment of, "He gets it; he's seeing me;
he's not thinking the pancakes
just materialized out of nowhere." Could it be God has a similar reaction when I
pray, in a spirit of thanksgiving'? I imagine God chuckling, "She finally understands
this is not coincidence or her own doing, but rather my hand at work in her life."
Thanking another person - or thanking God requires the thanker to spend a moment outside of
himself or herself. Gratitude is
recognition of the other, and we cannot recognize the other if we are too focused on
ourselves.
I
don't know if I demand more "pleases" or "thank you's" out of my
children than the average mother. I do know however, that those words were drilled into me
at an early age and, when I became a parent myself, I passed on the tradition. It made
sense to me that if being a child means you get your cereal poured for you, your
shoes tied, and (if you're lucky) cookies baked and given to you warm and gooey with a
glass of cold milk, the least you can do is say "thanks."
By teaching children to be thankful, we are giving them a lifetime gift. The exact
opposite of being a thankful person is being a complainer and, as far as I can tell,
complainers have awful lives. For a complainer, nothing is cooked well enough in
restaurants or arranged conveniently enough in stores. Everything about their jobs,
families and relationships is a difficult trial.
While we all have legitimate complaints at times, I would never want one of my children to
grow up with an attitude focused on the negative. The best way to make sure my children
find joy in their adult lives is to teach them to be thankful as children. Thankfulness,
when learned young, becomes a habit and a vantage point.
A
spirit of thankfulness will make my children stronger. They will be better able to look
outside themselves and serve those people who truly do not have as much to be thankful
for. They will have fuller relationships, because they will be accustomed to looking for
the gift - not the flaw – in their neighbor.
In our family, some of us have not mastered the Ah" sound, but that will not stop us
from giving thanks. Whether it's "ganks" or "sanks , we're a pretty
grateful bunch And I'm thankful for that.
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| The Our Father is
beautiful in original Aramaic
by
Fr. Steven M. Garvit
The most widely spoken prayer among
people today is "The Lord's Prayer" or "The Our Father." When Jesus'
disciples asked him how to pray, he taught them a simple prayer that we all know so well.
It is a prayer rich in meaning. For example, the
Greek word
for Father
used in the prayer is Abba.
'This word literally means "daddy." That is very specific. That word is
usually reserved when little kids speak to their
dad. It is a word that describes comfort between
father and child. It means I will protect you always and 1 will make sure no harm comes to
you. The word daddy carries with it emotional meaning that the word dad or father does
not. We know this because of our knowledge of the English language. So why wasn't the word
"daddy" used when people translated the prayer into English? "Our daddy who
art in heaven................................ " That is the problem with language and translation. It is hard to take the meaning of one word in a certain language and translate that identical meaning in another language.
Now let me throw
this out to you. The language Jesus spoke to his disciples was Aramaic. That was the
common language of the day. Jesus probably knew some Greek as well, but it was
not his everyday language. So when the disciples
heard the prayer from
Jesus, it was in Aramaic. From Aramaic, the authors of the gospel wrote it in Greek.
That is one translation.
From Greek it was translated into English.
That means the
prayer we pray so often has gone through two translations before
we got it in English. We have all heard how things get lost in translation. The same is true of "The Lord's
Prayer." The Aramaic words Jesus spoke go much deeper
than the words we have
now. So if we have the Aramaic words of the Lord's Prayer" and translate
them we would have a much
richer insight to this popular prayer and it would actually be closer to what Jesus
actually meant.
The following is transliterated directly
from the Aramaic into English.
O cosmic Birther of all radiance and
vibration
who fills all realms of sound, light
and vibration.
May Your light be experienced in my
utmost holiest.
Your Heavenly Domain approaches.
Let Your will come taste — in
the universe (all that vibrates)
just as on earth (that is material and dense).
Give us wisdom (understanding,
assistance) for our
daily need,
detach the fetters of faults that
bind us, (karma) like
we let go the guilt of others.
Let us not be lost in superficial
things (materialism,
common temptations),
but let us be freed from that what
keeps us off from our
true purpose.
From You comes the all-working will, the lively strength to act. the song that beautifies all and renews
itself from age to age.
Amen.
Sealed in trust, faith and truth.
(I confirm with my
entire being)
A few years ago I was in Antioch,
Turkey. This is the place where Christians were first called Christians. We had the privilege of meeting a small community of Christians who still worship there today. One from that community prayed the "Lord's Prayer" in its
original Aramaic and it sounded as poetic and rich as the above translation portrays. This
translation reaffirms the awesome breath of God's love, which stretches out over all creation. We know this because we feel it in our bones and we confirm it with our entire being. Now that is the power of prayer. Thank you, Jesus. for teaching us to pray.
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