“Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Union with the will of God is the heart of salvation and the essence of holiness. It is also the cornerstone of the culture of life. To say, “thy will be done” is the opposite of saying, “my will be done; it’s all up to my choice.”
When we see a child living in the womb, we see the will of God. The Lord never makes human beings by accident. Each child exists precisely because God wants that child to exist, no matter what the circumstances surrounding his or her existence.
When we say “Thy will be done,” we are expressing confidence that because God says yes to the child, so can we. He will give us all the strength we need to follow his plan.
We pray, furthermore, that his will be done “on earth as it is in heaven.” In heaven, the angels and saints are perfectly united with God because they see him as he is. One who sees God face to face cannot sin, because it is unmistakably clear that there is no good that surpasses God himself.
Many acknowledge “God” and yet go ahead and abort their children, because here on earth, our vision is clouded and imperfect. Hence in the Lord’s Prayer we ask that we not be misled to think that anything good can come from offending God.
“Give us this day our daily bread.” We ask the Father for the provisions we need each day to live and to serve him. We ask him for the spiritual strength to resist the temptations that will certainly come our way, and for the grace to advance his Kingdom.
This also means we are praying for the graces we need to advance the protection of human life. We may be tempted to compromise with the culture of death. We ask for the daily bread of strength to defend life, to speak up for the helpless, to intervene to save the weak. We pray also that those tempted to abort their children because of economic reasons may experience the help of God’s people, the daily bread of their generosity.
“Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” We are asking the Lord to use us as an example of how readily and generously he should forgive our sins.
He is more eager to forgive our sins than we are. This should not only give us confidence, but should help us inspire confidence in those who despair. One of the hardest sins to confess is abortion. And even there, the Lord is ready to pour out his mercy on those who repent.