December
31, 2000
"The
Lord's Prayer - Part II"
St. John Cassian
In this issue we will complete our 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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XXI.1 "Then: 'Give us this day our "supersubstantial
bread," [NOTE: Cassian uses a Greek word here] which another
evangelist has referred to as 'daily.' The former indicates the noble
quality of this substance, which places it above all other substances
and which, in the sublimity of its magnificence and power to sanctify,
surpasses every creature, whereas the latter expresses the nature of its
use and its goodness. For when it says 'daily' it shows that we are
unable to attain the spiritual life on a day without it.
2. When it says 'this day' it shows that it must
be taken daily and that yesterday's supply of it is not enough if we
have not been given of it today as well. Our daily need for it warns us
that we should pour out this prayer constantly, because there is no day
on which it is not necessary for us to strengthen the heart of our inner
man by eating and receiving this. But the expression 'this day' can also
be understood with reference to the present life -- namely: Give us this
bread as long as we dwell in this world. For we know that it will also
be given in the world to come to those who have deserved it from you,
but we beg you to give it to us this day, because unless a person
deserves to receive it in this life he will be unable to partake of it
in that life.
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ON THE WORDS "FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES" AND SO FORTH
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XXII.1. "'And forgive us our trespasses as
we forgive those who trespass against us.' Oh, the unspeakable mercy of
God! It has not merely given us a form of prayer and taught us how to
act in a manner acceptable to him, uprooting both anger and sadness
through the requirements of the formula that he gave, by which he
ordered that we should always pray it. It has also conferred on those
who pray an opportunity by disclosing to them the way that they may
bring upon themselves the merciful and kind judgment of God, and it has
conferred a certain power by which we can moderate the sentence of our
Judge, persuading him to pardon our sins by the example of our own
forgiveness, when we tell him: 'Forgive us as we forgive.'
2. "And so, securely confident in this
prayer, a person who has been forgiving to his own debtors and not to
his Lord's will ask pardon for his offenses. For some of us -- which is
bad -- are accustomed to show ourselves mild and very merciful with
respect to things that are committed to God's disadvantage, although
they may be great crimes, but to be very harsh and inexorable exactors
with respect to the debts of even the slightest offenses committed
against ourselves.
3. Whoever, then, does not from his heart forgive
the brother who has offended him will, by this entreaty, be asking not
for pardon but for condemnation for himself, and by his own say-so he
will be requesting a harsher judgment for himself when he says: Forgive
me as I also have forgiven. And when he has been dealt with according to
his own petition, what else will the consequence be that that, following
his own example, he will be punished with an implacable anger and an
irremissible condemnation? Therefore, if we wish to be judged
mercifully, we must ourselves be merciful toward those who have offended
us. For we shall be forgiven to the degree that we have forgiven those
who have injured us by any wrongdoing whatsoever.
4. "Some people fear this, and when this
prayer is recited together in church by the whole congregation they pass
over this line in silence, lest by their own words they obligate rather
than excuse themselves. They do not understand that it is in vain that
they contrive to quibble in this way with the Judge of all, who wished
to show beforehand how he would judge his suppliants. For since he does
not wish to be harsh and inexorable toward them, he indicated the form
that his judgment would take. Thus, just as we want to be judged by him,
so also we should judge our brothers if they have offended us in
anything, 'because there is judgment without mercy for the one who has
not acted mercifully.'
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ON THE WORDS "SUBJECT US NOT TO THE TRIAL"
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XXIII.1. "Next there follows: 'And subject
us not to the trial. In this regard there arises a question of no small
importance. For if we pray not to be allowed to be tried, how will the
strength of our steadfastness be tested, according to the words:
'Whoever has not been tried has not been proven?' And again: 'Blessed is
the man who undergoes trial?' Therefore, the words 'Subject us not to
the trial' do not mean: Do not allow us ever to be tried, but rather: Do
not allow us to be overcome when we are tried.
2. For Job was tried, but he was not subjected to
the trial. For he did not ascribe folly to God, nor did he as a
blasphemer, with wicked tongue, accede to the will of the one trying
him, to which he was being drawn. Abraham was tried and Joseph was
tried, but neither of them was subjected to the trial, for neither of
them consented to the one trying them.
"Then there follows: 'But deliver us from
evil.' This means: Do not allow us to be tried by the devil 'beyond our
capacity, but with the trial also provide a way out, so that we may be
able to endure.'
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CONCERNING THE FACT THAT NOTHING ELSE
AT ALL SHOULD BE ASKED FOR EXCEPT WHAT
IS CONTAINED WITHIN THE LIMITS OF
THE LORD'S PRAYER
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XXIV "You see, then, what sort of measure
and form for prayer have been proposed to us by the Judge who is to be
prayed to by it. In it there is contained no request for riches, no
allusion to honors, no demand for power and strength, no mention of
bodily health or of temporal existence. For the Creator of eternal
things wishes nothing transitory, nothing base, nothing temporal to be
asked for from himself. And so, whoever neglects these sempiternal
petitions and chooses to ask for something transitory and passing from
him does very great injury to his grandeur and largesse, and he offends
rather than propitiates his Judge with the paltriness of his prayer. END
from St. John Cassian (trans. Boniface Ramsey,
O.P.), "The Conferences," (New York: Newman Press, 1997), pp.
343 - 345
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