Isaiah 6:3: "Holy, holy, holy"
St. John Chrysostom tells us: Worthy of him who calls God Father, is the
prayer to ask nothing before the glory of His Father, but to account all things
secondary to the work of praising Him. For "hallowed" is glorified.
For His own glory He is complete, and ever continuing the same, but He commands
him who prays to seek that He may be glorified also by our life. Which very
thing He had said before likewise, "Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in
heaven." [Matt. 5:16] Yea, and the seraphim too, giving glory, said on
this wise, "Holy, holy, holy." [Isa. 6:3] So that
"hallowed" means this: "glorified." That is "that we
may live so purely, that through us all may glorify Thee." Which thing again
appertains unto perfect self-control, to present to all a life so
irreprehensible, that every one of the beholders may offer to the Lord the
praise due to Him for this. http://www.voskrese.info/spl/matthom19.html
Homily 19 on the Lord's Prayer.
St. John is reminding us that God is holy and does not
need us to tell Him this fact. By willingly stating this, however, we place
ourselves in the Holy presence of God, uniting our lives to His will, so that
this awesome glory may be seen through us in the pure and self-controlled lives
we lead. In the Catechism we read:
2813: In the
waters of Baptism, we have been "washed . . . sanctified
. . . justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the
Spirit of our God."Our Father calls us to holiness in the whole of our life,
and since "he is the source of [our] life in Christ Jesus, who became for
us wisdom from God, and . . .sanctification," both his
glory and our life depend on the hallowing of his name in us and by us. Such is
the urgency of our first petition.
St. Cyril of
Jerusalem says it this way:
The Name of God is in its nature holy, whether
we say so or not; but since it is sometimes profaned among sinners, according
to the words, “Through you My Name is continually blasphemed among the
Gentiles,” [Romans 2:24] we pray that in us God's Name may be hallowed;
not that it comes to be holy from not being holy, but because it becomes holy
in us, when we are made holy, and do things worthy of holiness.
So, the
next time we pray the Our Father, let us remember this awesome truth, God’s
name becomes holy (hallowed) in us so that we may then always do things worthy
of holiness.
Let us
give St. Thomas Aquinas the last
word:
We pray that this
name may be manifested in us, that it be known and revered as holy. Now
"holy" (or hallowed) may have a threefold meaning. First, it is the
same as firm. Thus, those who are firmly established in eternal happiness are
all the blessed in heaven, the Saints. In this sense, none is a
"Saint" on earth because here all is continually changeable. As St.
Augustine says: "I sank away from Thee, O Lord, and I wandered too much
astray from Thee who art my firm support."
Secondly, "holy" may be understood as "unearthly." The holy ones who are in heaven have nothing earthly about them: "I count (all things) . . . but as dung, that I may gain Christ."Earth may signify sinners. This would arise as reference to production. For if the earth is not cultivated, it will produce thorns and thistles. Similarly, if the soul of the sinner is not cultivated by grace, it will produce only thistles and thorns of sins: "Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee."Again, earth may signify sinners as regards its darkness. The earth is dark and opaque; and so also is the sinner dark and obstructive to light: "Darkness was on the face of the deep."And, finally, earth is a dry element which will fall to pieces unless it is mixed with the moisture of water. So God placed earth just above water: "Who established the earth above the waters." So also the soul of the sinner is dry and without moisture as it is said: "My soul is as earth without water unto Thee."
"Holy" may, finally, be understood as "laved in blood," since the Saints in heaven are called Saints because they have been washed in blood: "These are they who are come out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb." And again: "He hath washed us from our sins in His blood."
