December
17, 2000
"The
Lord's Prayer - Part I"
St. John Cassian
Previously, we have looked at the "Four
Kinds of Prayer," but in this issue we will begin a two-part study
of the greatest prayer of all -- The Lord's Prayer.
St. John Cassian lived from about 360 to 430 and
joined a monastery in Bethlehem early in his adulthood. With his
companion, Germanus, St. John Cassian made several trips from Palestine
to the deserts of Egypt where they studied the monastic life from the
great desert fathers of their time. "The Conferences" records
their twenty-four dialogues with fifteen abbas. Cassian then arranged
these dialogues collected over a period of years into a monastic
"primer" that has been studied ever since by generations of
the faithful seeking to advance in spiritual wisdom. As such, this
spiritual treasure is not just for monks, but for everyone seeking
spiritual growth.
Unlike some of the earlier conversations we
studied were between Germanus and Abba Joseph; the subject of prayer,
however, is from a conversation between Germanus and Abba Isaac. This
Isaac, incidentally, was a contemporary of St. Anthony the Great, and is
apparently the first of two "Isaacs" mentioned in
"Paradise of the Fathers."
BEGIN:
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ON THE LORD'S PRAYER
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XVIII.1. "And so a still more sublime and
exalted condition follows upon these kinds of prayer. It is fashioned by
the contemplation of God alone and by fervent charity, by which the
mind, having been dissolved and flung into love of Him, speaks most
familiarly and with particular devotion to God as to its own father.
2. "The schema of the Lord's prayer has
taught us that we must tirelessly seek this condition when it says: 'Our
Father." When, therefore, we confess with our own voice that the
God and Lord of the universe is our Father, we profess that we have in
fact been admitted from our servile condition into an adopted sonship.
"Then we add: 'Who art in heaven,' so that,
avoiding with utter horror the dwelling place of the present life,
wherein we sojourn on this earth as on a journey and are kept at a far
distance from our Father, we may instead hasten with great desire to
that region in which we say that our Father dwells and do nothing that
would make us unworthy of this profession of our and of the nobility of
so great an adoption, or that would deprive us as degenerate of our
paternal inheritance and cause us to incur the wrath of his justice and
severity.
3. "Having advanced to the rank and status
of sons, we shall from then on burn constantly with that devotion which
is found in good sons, so that we may no longer expend all our energies
for our own benefit but for the sake of our Father's glory, saying to
him: 'Hallowed be thy name.' Thus we testify that our desire and our joy
is the glory of our Father, since we have become imitators of him who
said: 'The one who speaks of himself seeks his own glory. But the one
who seeks the glory of Him who sent him is true, and there is no
unrighteousness in him.
"Finally, the vessel of election, filled
with this disposition, wished to become anathema from Christ if only a
household many times larger would be gained for him and the salvation of
the entire Israelite people would increase the glory of his Father.
4. "For he who knew that no one can die for
the sake of life could safely choose to perish for the sake of Christ.
And again he says: 'We rejoice when we are weak but you are strong.'
"But what is there so astonishing if the
vessel of election chooses to become anathema for the sake of Christ's
glory and for the sake of his brothers' conversion and the well-being of
the pagans, when the prophet Micah also wished to become a liar and to
be removed from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit if only the people of
the Jewish nation might avoid the plagues and the ruinous captivity that
he had predicted by his prophecy? As he says: 'Would that I were not a
man who had the Spirit, and I told a lie instead!' And let us pass over
the sentiment of the Lawgiver, who did not refuse to die with his
brothers, who were themselves going to die, when he said: 'I beseech
you, O Lord; this people has committed a great sin. Either forgive them
this evil or, if you do not, wipe me out from the book that you have
written.'
5. "The words, 'Hallowed be thy name' can
also be quite satisfactorily understood in this way -- namely, that the
hallowing of God is our perfection. And so when we say to him: 'Hallowed
be thy name,' we are saying in other words: Make us such, Father, that
we may deserve to understand and grasp how great your hallowing is and,
of course, that you may appear as hallowed in our spiritual way of life.
This is effectively fulfilled in us when 'people see our good works and
glorify our Father who is in heaven.'
XIX. "The second petition of a most pure
mind eagerly desires the kingdom of its Father to come immediately. This
means that in which Christ reigns daily in holy persons, which happens
when the rule of the devil has been cast out of our hearts by the
annihilation of the foul vices and God has begun to hold sway in us
through the good fragrance of the virtues; when chastity, peace, and
humility reign in our minds, and fornication has been conquered, rage
overcome, and pride trampled upon. And of course it means that which was
promised universally to all the perfect and to all the sons of God at
the appointed time, when it will be said to them by Christ: 'Come,
blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world.' Desiring and hoping for this with
intent and unwavering gaze, we tell him: 'Thy kingdom come.' For we know
by the witness of our own conscience that when he appears we shall soon
be his companions. No sinner dares to say this or to wish for it, since
a person who knows that at his coming he will at once be paid back for
his deserts not with a palm or rewards but with punishment has no desire
to see the Judge's tribunal.
XX.1."The third petition is of sons: 'Thy
will be done on earth as it is in heaven.' There cannot be a greater
prayer than to desire that earthly things should deserve to equal
heavenly ones. For what does it mean to say: 'Thy will be done on earth
as it is in heaven,' if not that human beings should be like angels and
that, just as God's will is fulfilled by them in heaven, so also all
those who are on earth should do not their own but his will? No one will
really be able to say this but him who believes that God regulates all
things that are seen, whether fortunate or unfortunate, for the sake of
our well- being, and that he is more provident and careful with regard
to the salvation and interests of those who are his own than we are for
ourselves.
2. "And of course it is to be understood in
this way -- namely, that the will of God is the salvation of all,
according to the text of blessed Paul: 'Who desires all to be saved and
to come to the knowledge of the truth.' Of this will the prophet Isaiah,
speaking in the person of God the Fathers, also says: 'All my will shall
be done.' When we tell him, then: 'Thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven,' we are praying in other words: Father, just as those who are in
heaven are saved by the knowledge of you, so also are those who are on
earth." END -- To be continued next week . . . .
from St. John Cassian (trans. Boniface Ramsey,
O.P.), "The Conferences," (New York: Newman Press, 1997), pp.
340 - 343
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