Daily Mass Gospel Reflection - On Earth, As In Heaven

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 6.22.23 | Bishop Robert Barron

[MurphsLaw]

Matthew 6:7-15

Friends, today’s Gospel gives us the Our Father.
It asks that God’s will be done “on earth as it is in heaven,”
but biblical cosmology sees these two realms as interpenetrating fields of force.
Heaven, the arena of God and the angels,
touches upon and calls out to earth,
the arena of humans, animals, plants, and planets.

Salvation, therefore, is a matter of the meeting of heaven and earth,
so that God might reign as thoroughly here below as he does on high.
Jesus’ great prayer, which is constantly on the lips of Christians,
is distinctively Jewish in inspiration:
“Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.”

This is decidedly not a prayer that we might escape from the earth,
but rather that earth and heaven might come together.
The Lord’s Prayer raises to a new level what the prophet Isaiah anticipated:
“The earth shall be filled with knowledge of the Lord,
as water covers the sea.”

The first Christians saw the Resurrection of Jesus as the commencement of the process
by which earth and heaven were being reconciled.
They appreciated the risen Christ as the one who would bring the justice of heaven to this world.

[MurphsLaw]

+++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 others their transgressions,
your heavenly Father will forgive you.
But if you do not forgive others,
neither will your Father forgive your transgressions." +++

[No name given]

Amen 🙏🏻!!!!