You have received the hearing of faith, dearly beloved brethren; now hear the form of the Lord's Prayer. Christ taught us to pray briefly, He who wishes swiftly to grant what is asked. Or what will He not give to those who ask Him, who gave Himself to those who did not ask? Or what delay does He make in answering, who so anticipates the vows of suppliants in dictating their prayers? What you are about to hear today, the angels are astonished at, heaven marvels, earth trembles, the flesh cannot bear it, the hearing cannot grasp it, the mind cannot reach it, the whole of creation cannot endure it: I dare not speak it, I cannot be silent. May God grant that both you may be able to hear, and I to speak. Which is more to be trembled at: that God gave Himself to the earth, or that He gives you to heaven?
That He Himself enters into the fellowship of flesh, or that He makes you enter into the sharing of divinity; that He Himself takes on death, or that He raises you again out of death; that He Himself is born into your servitude, or that He begets you unto His own freedom; that He takes up your poverty, or that He makes you His heirs, co-heirs of His Only-begotten? Surely more terrible it is that earth is carried over into heaven, that man is changed into deity, that the lot of servitude obtains the rights of dominion. But although this is to be feared, yet because the case regards not one who teaches but one who commands, let us draw near, little sons, whither charity calls, love draws, affection invites.
Let our inmost parts feel God as Father, let the voice ring out, let the tongue speak, let the spirit cry, and let all that is in us respond to grace, not to fear; for He who changed the Judge into a Father wished to be loved, not feared. 'Our Father, who art in heaven' (Matt. 6). When you say this, do not hold Him as though He were not on earth; do not take it as though He who shuts in all things were shut up in a place, but understand that you have your origin from heaven, whose Father is held to be in heaven; and see to it that, by living in holiness, you respond to a holy Father. He proves himself God's son who is not darkened by human vices, who shines with divine virtues. 'Hallowed be thy name.' Whose kind we are, by whose name too we are reckoned:
We therefore ask that His name, which is holy in itself and through itself, may be hallowed in us; for God's name is either honoured by our conduct, or blasphemed by our deeds. Hear the Apostle saying: 'The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you' (Rom. 2). 'Thy kingdom come.' And when did God not reign? We ask, then, that He who has always reigned for Himself may now reign in us, so that we too may be able to reign in Him. The devil reigned, sin reigned, death reigned, and mortality was long held captive: we ask, then, that, when God reigns, the devil may obey, sin may fail, death may die, captivity may be taken captive, so that we, being free, may reign unto perpetual life. 'Thy will be done, as in heaven so on earth.'
This is the kingdom of God, when both in heaven and on earth God's will alone prevails, when in all men God is the mind, God lives, God acts, God reigns; God is the whole, according to that saying of the Apostle: 'That God may be all in all of you' (1 Cor. 15). 'Give us this day our daily bread.' He who gave Himself to us as a Father, who adopted us to Himself as sons, who made us heirs of His goods, who exalted us with His name, who endowed us with both His honour and His kingdom, He Himself has enjoined us to ask for daily bread. In the kingdom of God, among divine gifts, what does human poverty seek? Does so good, so kind, so bountiful a Father grant bread to His sons only when asked? And where is that saying:
'Be not solicitous what you shall eat, or what you shall drink, or wherewith you shall be clothed' (Matt. 6)? He commands us to ask for that which He forbids us to be anxious about, insofar as the heavenly Father exhorts us, heavenly sons, to ask for heavenly bread. He Himself said: 'I am the bread that came down from heaven' (John 6). He is the bread which, sown in the Virgin, leavened in the flesh, prepared in His passion, baked in the furnace of the tomb, seasoned in the churches, brought to the altars, daily supplies heavenly food to the faithful. 'And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.' Man, if you cannot be without sin, and wish always to have all forgiven you, forgive always; as much as you wish to be forgiven you, forgive so much;
As often as you wish to be forgiven, so often forgive; nay, because you wish to have all forgiven you, forgive all: man, understand that by remitting to others you have granted pardon to yourself. 'And lead us not into temptation.' Because in the world life itself is a temptation. 'The life of man,' he says, 'is itself a temptation' (Job 7). Let us ask, then, that He may not leave us to our own judgment, but may bind us in every act by His fatherly love, and confirm us on the path of life by heavenly moderation. 'But deliver us from evil.' From what evil? From the devil, indeed, from whom comes all evil. We ask to be delivered from evil, because he who has not been free from evil cannot enjoy the good.
If, not yet born, if, still placed in the womb, they ask for bread and seek the kingdom, why is a question raised as to how the Son of God always remained in the secret of God the Father? If the Church begets, it is not a matter of reasoning, it is a heavenly mystery; how the Son of God was in God the Father is not to be handled by human reasoning, nor is divinity to be estimated after a human manner. You have heard 'God'; think nothing earthly, nothing human: you have heard 'the Father of Christ'; believe this according to substance; you have heard 'your father'; believe this according to grace: He always had it that He should be a Son, He granted you now to be a son. So, then, know yourself to be a son in such a way that you do not fail to know yourself to be a servant; so hear that you have been restored to the likeness of Christ, that you may always acknowledge yourself to be subject to Christ.