The gospel writer Luke offers a rich teaching on prayer part of which we find in the gospel text selected for us today. We are told that Luke’s gospel, written after 70 AD, was primarily addressed to a Gentile audience, as somewhat of a “Catechism on Prayer” for Gentile Christians whose knowledge of the God of Jesus and the Old Testament were considered by the writer to need development. Some commentators term Luke the “Evangelist of prayer”, and Dante is quoted as naming him “the scribe of Christ’s gentleness.” I found this passage simple, straightforward, and wise.

As it opens Jesus is at prayer. There’s no specific place mentioned, but it’s clear his disciples were nearby. I wonder what his prayer might have been on that occasion. Being human like us, I suppose his prayer was often just a time of quiet, sensing God, and pondering his own growing understanding of himself as within that divine reality. Being human like us, I suppose he brought his experience into his prayer as we do. Perhaps this time there was gratitude for the comfort and happiness of his recent visit with his dear friends Martha and Mary. And maybe he acknowledged some regret that he might have hurt or embarrassed her a little with his response that Mary had chosen the better portion. Then too he might have called a blessing on her in his prayer, hoping that she would understand what he had meant. And doubtless, in the presence of his Abba, there was some deep exchange of love.

When the disciples saw that Jesus had finished his prayer, they asked him to teach them to pray. In ancient times communities of believers and worshippers were recognized by their common prayer. The disciples knew this: they reminded him that John’s disciples had been taught. Even today this still holds true: I read that the Marianists have as their bond the Consecration to Mary; Muslims and Jews have their distinct prayer styles. We have Liturgy of the Hours.

Jesus was aware that his disciples as individuals did pray, but now they wanted to learn to pray together as his followers, to claim that identity. So to remind them that words would be useless if when people gathered they did not first open themselves to God, so we notice that he said When you pray, say…only if they were at prayer would the words matter. Then he gave them words. Of course, we observe here that Luke doesn’t present the same formula for the “Our Father” as does Matthew, whose version became the one that was taken into the liturgical tradition of the church and is almost identical to what we recite daily.

Luke’s version gives us a slightly briefer prayer formula, one that has two wishes and three petitions. The first wish is that God’s name be hallowed. In ancient times, one’s name was equivalent to one’s identity. You could know much about a person by hearing the name. The name mattered. So wishing that God’s name be hallowed, reverenced, held sacred, was to desire praise, laud and honor to swell from the hearts of believers, that all creation might recognize the true reality of God. The second wish they were to utter was “your kingdom come”. Together the followers of Jesus had begun to sense a new community emerging, a fellowship, family, kingdom, or kin-dom, if you will, a group into which they were drawn. Here are words for a hope that this entity, under the providential care of the almighty Creator God, would become apparent in the world, that their lives of generous service could make that visible.

Then come the petitions: first for daily bread, for whatever nourishment and sustenance, spiritual or physical, might be needed to live; then for forgiveness, to let God’s completely undeserved love enter their hearts transforming them into people who could share it openly, forgiving all whose lives they touch, even those who might have offended them or who owe them something. (If the disciples were able, like Jesus, to address their prayer to God, as Abba, or Father, there hopefully would come a sense of a deep understanding of the parenthood of God which would imply an awareness of human brother - and sister - hood, and they would recognize the call to behavior appropriate for that reality. Lastly, the third petition was the request that they not have to face that last and greatest effort of the spirit of evil, the inevitable assault aimed at turning them from God. Strengthened by their unity, they can seek to be spared the torment of that, so they might never risk forfeiting their place in kingdom here and in the life beyond earthly existence.

Having provided a simple prayer form, Jesus next followed up with some clarity, some insights about how God responds to prayer. It is interesting to notice that to help them understand, Jesus uses not one but two basic human relationships with which they were familiar and could identify. First, the relationship between friends, people who have come to know, understand, trust and support one another and then, secondly, relationship between parent and child, the bond between the life-giver, provider, caregiver, benevolent protector and the offspring, the grateful, trusting, expecting one who is confident of being loved.

Within either relationship the directions are the same for those wanting to pray. Our God loves us immeasurably more than we can understand and can be counted on to provide even more generously than any parent or friend could. So the disciples, and yes, we too, are to “ask”, speak out our needs though they are already known and anticipated. We are to “seek” the God who is waiting to be pursued and found; and we are urged to “knock”, to come close, to bring ourselves ever more deeply into God’s presence, so we can be welcomed and given whatever we need.

Luke, while reminding the disciples of their humanness, concludes this little teaching, by pointing out that they will actually receive that greatest gift of all, what they most need, the presence of the Holy Spirit. All they need do is ask.

As we gather around the Eucharistic table, in unity with those disciples of early times, may our prayer together be simple and sincere. With loving and forgiving hearts, may we speak our needs and trust in God’s generous response. Most especially may we ask, as we allow Jesus to transform us through the bread broken and shared, that we experience the continued presence of the Holy Spirit in the days ahead, that gift our God is most anxious to share.

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