The mortal condition, the earthly frame, the muddy substance, uncertain of life and death, worn by toil, consumed by punishments, a nature subject to rottenness and dust, is not able to grasp, does not suffice to estimate, dares not to put to flight, dreads to believe, what today it is compelled to confess. Whence human frailty may be able to merit so great a grace of God's gifts, such greatness of promises, such bounty of gifts, it cannot find out. This, I think, the prophet Habakkuk, not in doubt, foresaw with the gaze of his mind, when, struck with such great dread, he says he was so agitated with trembling at this hearing: 'Lord, I have heard thy hearing, and I feared; I considered thy works, and I was terrified' (Hab. 3, according to the Septuagint).
He feared the hearing, not because the great prophet then heard the Lord, but because he then found the Lord, his Master, turned toward him, and heard Him as a father; not because, contemplating the fabric of this world thus concordant to him out of elements so discordant, he was terrified, but because, then considering the works of such great tenderness toward himself, he was struck with a trembling of wonder and with dread. 'I considered,' he says, 'thy works, and I was terrified.' He was then amazed that he was adopted into a son, when he had lost the very confidence of his servitude. Finally, that you may know the affection of this prayer, which the Godhead today insinuates and pours into you, the prophet then dares, being in some way released from dread at this gift received from heaven.
See what he says again: 'I have kept watch,' he says, 'and my belly was terrified at the voice of the prayer of my lips.' After he had perceived the bounty of the divine gift, he kept watch over himself, lest he should again endure himself as an enemy, as a foe, as a robber, as in paradise. He becomes more vigilant, becomes a more careful guardian of himself, who, after the loss of so great a thing, guarded the heavenly treasure in earthen vessels. 'And my belly was terrified.' Here the prophet calls the inward parts of the heart the 'belly'; for as the belly is fed and filled with food, so the heart with perceptions. 'And my belly was terrified at the voice of the prayer of my lips.' If the understanding of the heart had poured a voice into the mouth, had given words to the lips, why was he terrified at his own vows, at his own desires, at that which he was about to pray for?
Because it was not the suggestion of his own heart, but of the divine Spirit that spoke by his utterance. Hear Paul saying: 'God sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father' (Gal. 4). When he transmitted this hearing to the inward parts, he marvelled that he had merited so much, and all the inward parts of the man were affrighted. Rightly he added: 'And trembling entered into my bones,' because the very inmost parts of the prophet were shaken. 'And beneath me,' he says, 'my strength was shaken.' What is 'beneath me'? Inasmuch as the man himself, one and the same, now raised up on high through grace, lay beneath his former self through nature, and earthly strength could not sustain heavenly strength. Already Mount Sinai smoked, when God, about to give the law, descended upon the mount (Exod.
19). What would the flesh do, when God descended into flesh, about to confer grace upon the flesh? The Father came, because man could not bear God, nor the servant his Master. And because He is faithful in His words which He spoke: 'Open thy mouth, and I will fill it' (Ps. 80); now open your mouths, that He Himself may fill them with such a prayer, with such a cry. 'Our Father, who art in heaven' (Matt. 6). Where are those who distrust God's promise? Behold how swiftly the confession of faith is rewarded: as soon as you have confessed God to be the Father of His only Son, you yourself are adopted into a son of God the Father, that you might be an heir of heaven, you who were held an exile of paradise and of the earth; and therefore now you call, 'Our Father, who art in heaven.'
Because you once had a father who dissolved you into mud, who led and dragged you to the gates of hell: let him know no earth, be ignorant of the love of the flesh, not seek the father of dust, permit no vice to have licence in himself, who claims God as a heavenly Father according to nature. And let him who believes himself a son of God respond by deed, by life, by morals, by uprightness to so great a lineage, lest, descending again to earthly things, he tend toward the very injury of so great a Begetter. 'Hallowed be thy name.' If the name of Christ gives sight to the blind, running to the lame, health from various infirmities to the sick, life to the dead, and hallows you yourself, man, and all creation, how do you pray and demand the holiness of that very name? Because from Christ you have been called a Christian;
And therefore you make supplication that the prerogative of so great a name may be strengthened by merits following in you. 'Thy kingdom come.' He demands devotion, He requires desires, He seeks out vows, He who holds His own coming in His own power. Faithful is that soldier who thirsts for the presence of his king, longs for the kingdom, seeks and covets its triumphs: but here you ask that He who is to reign may come both to you and in you, in whom the devil long held and possessed the citadel, death the empire, hell the power. Let us pray, then, dearly beloved, that Christ may always reign in His soldier, and the soldier may always triumph in his King. 'Thy will be done, as in heaven so on earth.'
Blessed is that day which joins, associates, and equalizes earthly wills with heavenly ones, so that between substances so unlike there may be one and the same will. This is faithful peace, unshaken concord, persevering grace, when, through the ordering of one Lord, a household diverse in nature is made one in will and is found the same in feeling. 'Give us this day our daily bread.' After the heavenly kingdom, who would ask for temporal bread? But He wishes us to ask, day by day and daily, in the sacrament of His body, for the viaticum of bread, that through this we may attain to the everlasting day and to the very table of Christ, so that whence here we have taken a taste, thence there we may take fullness and all satisfactions.
'And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.' He who thus asks, yet does not release debts, accuses himself even by that whereby he prays; he who asks that only so much be granted him, so much be remitted, as he himself remits and grants, thus invites God to a compact according to his own pleasure. Let each one demand for himself just so much to be granted as he himself has furnished to another. But debts, brethren, are to be forgiven, not only of money, but of all matters, faults, crimes; whatever, man, you may incur, in these you shall pardon another when he has incurred them against you. He who gladly pardons the one who sins asks pardon with confidence for his own sins. 'And lead us not into temptation.'
We are compelled to ask this a thousand times in many ways, brethren, lest frailty, daring too much and presuming to rely on itself, and not reckoning the measure of its own strength, should ill-advisedly succumb in the conflict; and then God, offended, should hand over to temptations those who transgress. 'But deliver us from evil.' He judges humbly enough of himself, and does not presume to be saved by himself, who implores to be delivered from evil by God. Mark yourselves, understand, little sons, how great is the glory and power of the perfect, of the strong, when so great a virtue is disclosed in the very conception, so great a majesty in the birth. Not yet born, he calls upon a Father, asks for holiness, seeks the kingdom, gives laws to the earth, equalizes earthly wills with heavenly ones, and, already devout, demands provision for the labours to come.
'Give us this day,' he says, 'our daily bread.' Blessed are you who have begun to conquer before the fight, to triumph before you live, to reach the storehouses of the Father before the bosom of the mother, to seize the food of the flock before the juice of milk, to sound aloud with the whole jubilation of victories before answering with the wailing of the cradle. Truly, as the Apostle said, 'the weak thing of God is stronger than men' (1 Cor. 1). Or who will be able to report the sacrament of so great a conception? where the Virgin mother gives birth to a world daily, nor does she leave her offspring to toil, but sends her buds ahead to eternal glory. Do you suppose that a mortal breast can grasp the greatness of the Lord's charity toward us?
Do you suppose that a mind depressed by the weight of an earthly body can understand and feel the divine affection toward us? For whatever of heaven glitters, radiates, and shines forth in adornment, whatever on earth is fragrant in flowers, savours in fruits, rejoices in living things, was made for love of us, appointed to our service. But however great they are, they are yet small as an indication of the supernal love toward us. For us the principalities of the heavens, for us the ethereal powers, for us the supernal dominions, for us the offices of the angels do military service with unwearied watches. But these still are small for asserting the divine intimacy toward us, and lesser, and as much weaker as the creature is less than its Creator.
God, uncontemplatable in countenance, unseeable to the gaze, estimable by no sense, inaccessible to the mind, not even fully known by the hearing itself, how often, in what manner, how variously, how diversely has He fitted Himself to human sights? How has He offered and granted Himself to human communion, to human familiarity! With Noah He makes him a partaker of His counsel, and forewarns that the flood is impending to expiate the world, and in that small guardian designates the whole age in seed (Gen. 6): when to Abraham He comes as a guest, invited He succeeds with all dignity, does not refuse what is offered, takes what is set before Him as though hungry and weary, and by divine bestowal, as though needy, receives and accepts human things (Gen. 18)?
Hence it is that the dead-and-gone limbs of the old man presently revive, the already-extinct inward parts of the barren old woman are raised up, and nature, buried in a living corpse, about to come forth, rises to its Author, and begets very many, the time already past, through the one whom it had believed to be its Founder (Gen. 21). To Moses, fiery God gathers Himself in a bush, then confers with His servant on what is to be done, is exercised in Egypt by various mighty deeds, and is laid open at the beck of His minister (Exod. 3); He inflicts scourges, or removes them (Exod. 8);
And in the sea, how great He is, and how much He has given to man, the services of the avenging wave demonstrate, when, the gulf being dried up, the water yields to the godly, and, the liquid hardened, He furnishes a wall, provides a bulwark for those to be delivered, and with the whole power of His nature runs down to triumph over the most savage foe (Exod. 14). In a marvellous companionship God, dwelling in the Israelite camps (Deut. 23), now strikes numerous nations with lightning, now touches them with hail (Josh. 10); now lays them low by the blast of trumpets alone (Josh. 6); so that without conflict, without wound, God may lead the victorious ranks which He goes before.
He was present to their desires, He granted the vows of each, presently He answered their questions, disclosed hidden things, foretold things to come, laid open the things sought, bestowed a king, gave riches, tempered the rains, made the lands fruitful, adorned their very marriages with abundance and honour of children. But He deemed it still too little, if He should show His affection toward us only by furnishing prosperity, and not also by enduring adversity. After all things, He, poor, enters His own world: He lies in the cradle as a man, by His wailing implores, seeks, demands the very tenderness which He Himself furnished to you. The Parent of all made use of you as a parent; He who was subject to you, to whom every height lies subject, He feared whom the things to be feared dread, He fled to whom all things flee for refuge;
The Arbiter of the heavens, and a guest in the houses of sinners; He is fed with bread who feeds all. And what more? The Holder of the ages is held; the Founder of the earth is set up; the Bestower of pardon on mankind is judged; the Searcher of hearts is examined; the Giver and Restorer of life is punished; the Resurrection of all is buried; so that the slow mind of man, and his intelligence sluggish enough, might at least by death prove in itself God's affection, which by the aforesaid and by innumerable benefits of God it had not understood, had not felt, of God's charity toward it. He, therefore, who made us to be, granted us to live, taught us also to pray, because He wished to grant all, He who wished to be entreated by His own prayer for us. 'Our Father, who art in heaven' (Matt. 6).
Behold, man, by your own voice Christ today, that He might make you a co-heir of God the Father, adopts you into a son, when He says, 'Our Father.' What is of His own dignation, He wished to be of your power, according to that saying: 'As many as received Him, He gave them power to be made the sons of God' (John 1); and yet He commands you to say it, so that it may be the dignation of the Giver, not the temerity of one presuming. 'Who art in heaven.' Not that He is not on earth, but you who now call upon a heavenly Father, He wishes to tend toward and to seek again a heavenly nature, that our life may respond to so great a lineage, lest earthly morals degenerate those whom a heavenly nature has now bestowed and conferred. 'Hallowed be thy name.' Not that it is to be hallowed by your prayer, the name which hallows you;
But because you have been called a Christian by the name of Christ, it is to be asked by you that by your deed this name may be hallowed and honoured in you. For just as the fame of virtues answers only to the glory of the name, so the ill repute of one who lives evilly redounds to the injury of that same name, the Apostle saying: 'The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you' (Rom. 2). And indeed, sons, then does a Gentile disparage the Christian name, when he sees a Christian living otherwise than he professes and is said to live. 'Thy kingdom come.' Not that a kingdom may come to God who always has it, but you ask that it may come to you who do not have it, and that you may receive that which the Lord promises you by His own affection, when He says:
'Come, you blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the foundation of the world' (Matt. 25:34). 'Come, you blessed'; He did not say, 'Let us come.' 'Take possession'; He did not say, 'Let us take possession.' Let no one wonder that he calls Father the one who is not yet born; for if John leaps for joy (Luke 1), and Jacob wrestles in the womb (Gen. 25), let the prudent man weigh what the divine nature can do, if human conception can accomplish so much through God.