Bishop Barron's Gospel Reflection March 3, 2020

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

First Week of Lent

MATTHEW 6:7-15

Friends, today’s Gospel is Matthew’s version of the Lord’s Prayer. I want to reflect on the first verses. How wonderful that it comes directly from the prayer of Jesus himself. It is as though the prayer that he teaches them sums up the content of his own prayer. We call God "Father" when we pray. We call him Abba, Daddy. The same intimacy that Jesus has with his Abba he invites us to share. We don’t just imitate his prayer, the way we would imitate the prayer of any spiritual teacher; rather, we enter into the dynamics of his own being when we pray. "Hallowed be thy name." May your name be held holy. The first thing we ask is that we might honor him, that we might make him first in our lives, that he might be set apart from everything else. Job, family, money, success, the esteem of others, our friends—all of it is good, but none of it is to be held holy in this sense. If we get this wrong, we get everything else wrong. If we don’t hold his name holy above all, everything becomes profane. Reflect: What does it mean to "hold God’s name holy above all" in your own life? Is anything competing for that top position of honor?  Tuesday of the First Week of Lent Lectionary: 225 Reading 1 Is 55:10-11 Thus says the LORD: Just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down And do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, Giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats, So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; It shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it. Gospel Mt 6:7-15 Jesus said to his disciples: “In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. “This is how you are to pray: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. “If you forgive men their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”