Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Devotion for today: Hallowed be Thy Name, part two

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."
http://www.saintwiki.com/index.php?title=Catechetical_Instructions:_The_Lord%27s_Prayer,_The_First_Petition

Monday, November 4, 2013

Devotion for today: Hallowed be Thy Name



Continuing with our meditation on The Lord’s Prayer, today we look at the first of the seven petitions found in the Lord’s Prayer.

Matthew 5:16: "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

St. Cyril of Jerusalem: 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.

In studying the Our Father for this blog, I was taken by the fact that the first two lines parallel the first two Commandments. God reminds us in both that He is God, and that His Name shall not be used in vain. I realized that I cannot pray this line in the Our Father if I am careless about using the name “God” or “Jesus Christ” in everyday exclamations, as is so popular today. God’s name is hallowed: that means it is holy, must be revered, feared in a holy way, and respected in all expressions in which it is used. The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us:

2807 The term "to hallow" is to be understood here not primarily in its causative sense (only God hallows, makes holy), but above all in an evaluative sense: to recognize as holy, to treat in a holy way. And so, in adoration, this invocation is sometimes understood as praise and thanksgiving.  But this petition is here taught to us by Jesus as an optative: a petition, a desire, and an expectation in which God and man are involved. Beginning with this first petition to our Father, we are immersed in the innermost mystery of his Godhead and the drama of the salvation of our humanity. Asking the Father that his name be made holy draws us into his plan of loving kindness for the fullness of time, "according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ," that we might "be holy and blameless before him in love.”

In other words, “hallowed be Thy Name” does not mean that we are making God holy or proclaiming God holy by our words. It means that we recognize the awesome holiness of God. This line, in itself, is a prayer of praise and adoration. Jesus is showing us that we always begin our prayers with praise and adoration. We do not jump right into the needs and wants, not even into the confession of sins until we praise and adore Our Father. By doing this, we become part of God’s goodness and love since we can place ourselves humbly in His presence. We see this as a petition because by acknowledging the pure holiness of God’s name, we ask to be pure and blameless, like Him, in His sight. Ephesians 1:12 tells us, “It is for this that we were made. God created us, so that we…might live for His praise and glory.” How fitting then that our perfect prayer taught by Jesus Himself has us begin by praising our loving Father. When we praise, we are filled with joy and wonder!
(hallowed be Thy Name part two - tomorrow)