Is “Hallowed be thy name” actually one of the petitions of the Our Father? If it is, what are we petitioning God to do?
When I was researching for the Good Shepherd reflection a couple weeks ago, I came across this little random note from my CGS training last summer that really changed the way I think of this sacred prayer that Jesus taught us.
Some scholars connect the first verse of the Lord’s Prayer (aka The Our Father) to the Prophet Ezekiel who wrote while the Jewish people were suffering in exile. Their land had been overrun and they were forcibly removed from their homes and taken to Babylon, held in captivity for decades.
Ezekiel writes “Look God, your sheep are scattered, vulnerable and lost. Your name is defamed.” Basically saying that God’s reputation is shot because His sheep are scattered all over the earth. So Ezekiel says “Unite your people, bring them home, so that your name will be Hallowed, or made Holy again.”
Ezekiel is a book found in our Bible that Jesus probably knew very well, being steeped in the Hebrew scriptures as a faithful Jew himself. And it is quite possible (even probable) that Jesus was referring to this prophet’s writings when he described himself as the Good Shepherd who gathers and cares for his sheep.
So it is possible that the first petition of the Our Father is really a plea for God to show His stuff! In other words, when Jesus instructs us to pray “hallowed be your name” – its not just showing reverence, but rather it’s the first petition - our way of asking God to “show the world who you are;” To gather His sheep so that His name may be Hallowed. Each week when we pray this prayer we are asking that God will provide the world with an indisputable show of God’s power - something only God can do.
When we pray “hallowed be thy name” we are asking God to act in a way that will bring glory to God. It is a request that God will yet bring about a change or result so dramatic that all humankind cannot help but notice. So, “Hallowing the name of God” means collecting God’s people. (Dale Bruner)
Ilia Delio writes “It is time for a new catholicity, a new religion of the world, a liberated Church with the Spirit-filled Christ empowering us to become artisans of a new future. We are at a tipping point of a profound change of consciousness or extinction. God is the power of unconditional love who dwells in us, animates us. We are to think so as to unify and love with a grateful heart. To live in catholicity is to be conscious that each life breath that I call my own belongs to the stars, the galaxies, my neighbors and family, my enemies, past generations and those to come. I am part of a whole, like you, and the whole is more than any one of us can grasp because the absolute wholeness of life is Love itself – God – the power of the future. We need to let go of trying to control life and wildly fling ourselves into the arms of divine Love. This is the only real way into the future of life. We have the power to create a new world, and we have the power to destroy this one. How we choose depends on how we grasp this moment as the kiss of God, impelling us to stand up and speak.”
Send your "Crazy Catholic Questions" Lisa Brown at dre@ctredeemer.org or read past columns at: http://crazycatholicquestions.blogspot.com.
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