You have received the hearing of faith, dearly beloved brethren; now hear the form of the Lord's Prayer. Christ teaches us to pray briefly, who desires quickly to grant what is asked: for what will he not give to those who ask, who gave himself to those who did not ask? Or what delay will he make in answering, who so anticipates the vows of his suppliants in dictating their very prayers? What you are to hear today, the angels are amazed at, heaven marvels, earth trembles, the flesh cannot bear it, the hearing cannot grasp it, the mind cannot attain it, the whole of creation cannot sustain it; I dare not speak it, yet I cannot keep silent. May God grant that you be able to hear and I to speak. Which is more to be dreaded—that God gave himself to the earth, or that he gives you to heaven?
That he himself enters the fellowship of the flesh, or that he makes you enter the partnership of the Godhead; that he himself took on death, or that he takes you up out of death; that he is born in your servitude, or that he begets you unto himself as sons; that he takes up your poverty, or that he makes you his heirs, coheirs of his only-begotten? Surely it is more terrible that earth is translated into heaven, that man is changed by deity, that the lot of servitude obtains the rights of dominion. But however much this is to be feared, yet, since the cause looks not to him who speaks but to him who commands, let us draw near, little sons, whither charity calls, love draws, and affection invites: let us perceive the tender heart of God the Father; let the voice resound, let the tongue speak, let the spirit cry out.
Let all that is in you respond to grace, not to fear; for he has changed the Judge into a Father, he willed to be loved, not feared. 'Our Father, who art in heaven.' When you say this, do not hold him as though he were not on earth; do not take it as though he were shut up in a place who shuts in all things; but understand that you have your kin from heaven, whose Father is held to be in heaven. And so live that by living holily you may answer to your holy Father. He proves himself a Son of God who is not darkened by human vices, who shines forth with divine virtues. 'Hallowed be thy name.' Whose kin we are, by his name too are we reckoned.
We ask therefore that the name which in itself and by itself is holy be hallowed in us; for the name of God is either honored by our conduct or blasphemed by our deeds. Hear the Apostle saying: 'The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you.' 'Thy kingdom come.' And when did God not reign? We ask therefore that he who has reigned for himself may ever reign in us, 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 therefore that, God reigning, the devil may perish, sin fail, death die, and captivity be led captive, 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 in heaven and on earth there is God's will alone, when in all men God lives, God acts, God reigns, God is all, according to that saying of the Apostle: 'that God may be all and in all of us.' 'Give us this day our daily bread.' He who gave himself to us as Father, who adopted us to himself as sons, who made us heirs with himself, who exalted us with his own name, who endowed us with his own honor and kingdom, he has bidden us ask, as daily bread, for himself. In the kingdom of heaven, amid divine gifts, what does human poverty seek? So good, so kind, so bountiful a Father—will he not, though unasked, grant bread to his sons? And where is that saying:
'Be not solicitous what you shall eat, or what you shall drink, or wherewith you shall be clothed'? This the Father commands, which he forbids us to be anxious about. What then do we hold? The heavenly Father exhorts us to ask for the heavenly bread of the heavenly Son; he himself said: 'I am the bread that came down from heaven.' He himself is the bread which, sown in the Virgin, leavened in the flesh, made ready in the Passion, baked in the furnace of the sepulchre, stored in the churches, brought to the altars, daily furnishes heavenly food to the faithful. 'And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.' O man, thou canst not be without sin; and if thou wouldst have all forgiven thee, forgive thou all always; as much as thou wouldst have forgiven thee, so much do thou forgive.
As often as thou wouldst be forgiven, so often do thou forgive; nay rather, because thou wouldst have all forgiven thee, forgive thou all. O man, understand that by remitting to others thou hast given pardon to thyself. 'And lead us not into temptation.' Because in this world life itself is a temptation. 'The life of man,' it says, 'is a temptation.' We ask that he leave us not to our own choosing, but that in every action he bind us with his fatherly tenderness, and confirm us on life's path by heavenly governance. 'But deliver us from evil.' From what evil? From the devil, since indeed from him is all evil. We ask to be delivered from evil, because he who is not free of evil cannot enjoy the good.
If those not yet born, if those still established in the womb ask for bread and seek the kingdom, why is a question raised as to how the Son of God is always in the mystery of God the Father, and how the Son of God has been in God the Father? How is it treated by human reason? The Godhead is not, is not to be measured 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 'thy Father'—believe this according to grace. He always had to be Son; he but now granted you to be a son. So then know thyself to be a son, and be not ignorant that thou art a servant. So hear that thou art restored to the likeness of Christ, that thou mayest ever know thyself subject to Christ.