[AI translation] I once read somewhere an interesting argument about the absolute need for modern man to have some kind of regular spiritual practice, like what religious people call prayer. The reason is that man today is so busy in so many ways, so many impressions: radio, television, work, so much stimulating noise around him that he is almost consumed. He loses himself if he does not consciously protect himself against the mass of impressions and demands. The best defence is to turn inwards from time to time and quiet down, to collect oneself, to concentrate on oneself. This state of introversion is undoubtedly similar to what believers call prayer. Of course, says the author, it is not as if in this introspective silence one were really talking to a God, as if one had to renounce the idea that there is an afterlife into which one's most confident words could penetrate, but rather that one must realise that one is now talking to oneself, and that in this meditation with oneself one is trying to clarify one's problems and to pull oneself together.Can you see how the modern man's longing to pray is expressed in this thought in a striking way? Man is like a child who has lost his father. Like a man who walks through the dark woods of life at night, surrounded by disturbing and frightening noises, haunted phenomena, all sorts of unknown dangers lurking. What he wouldn't give for someone to come with him, to walk with him through the forest, to take his hand and say to him reassuringly: "Don't be afraid, I'm here, I'll go with you, I know the dangers, you can trust me, I'll guide you. Oh, how good it would be if there were someone like that beside him, above him - somewhere! Today's man knows - or at least thinks he knows - that there is no such person, so he has to penetrate alone through that thick, dark forest: life. And so he acts like a child in the dark: he speaks to himself out loud, so that his own voice may reassure him, because he is afraid to be alone. I am not surprised that many, many people on this earth are of the opinion that there is no one beside them or above them to whom they can address themselves, to whom they can ask for help, and I even respect the honesty that says it outright: man is on his own and can only talk to himself. For the world in which man lives often seems to be a masterless, fatherless world.
So many incomprehensible tragedies often take place on this earth. So poignantly difficult a fate sometimes falls to one man or another. So many unexpected misfortunes, accidents and storms bring disaster to families, so many terrible diseases afflict people for years, so many young lives are sometimes inexorably snatched from us by death, so much malice and hurt sometimes afflict souls that one is amazed to ask: is there really a Father in this world, or is it at the mercy of blind fate? So fatherless, so painfully orphaned does this world often seem! The famous, great Goethe said in the twilight of his long life that, if he thought about it, he had little more than four weeks in his whole life that he could call truly happy. There are many people in whose lives the times of happiness are tiny little islands in an ocean of struggle, fatigue, pain and suffering. It would be so nice if we really had a Father, a Father-in-law! But is there? Really? Is the man who, in spite of everything, says in that certain inner silence: 'Our Father, who art in heaven' - is he not only talking to himself?
And even if one believes that there really is a divine being who hears the cry, is it so easy, so self-evident, to address this one always thus: 'Our Father'? Does not a rebellious feeling sometimes stir in your soul, "Is this what a Father is like? Is this the care of a father? Amidst the miseries of life, crumbling under the weight of gnawing cares, writhing in the anguish of grief, tormented by the incomprehensible mysteries of suffering, is it so easy to say this sincerely: 'Our Father'? My Father? Would it not be more honest and more sincere if we were to address him in a different way, if we were to address him already? Perhaps we should: O mighty and terrible God! O incomprehensible Lord in heaven! How can we be sure that we have a Father in heaven and that the one who is there is really our Father?
I believe that there is someone above us, but I would not dare to call that someone my Father if Jesus had not said, "But pray ye thus, Our Father, who art in heaven." (Mt 6,9a) That we have a Father, and that we have a Father, none of us could know for ourselves, or deduce from the state of human life. There is really only one guarantee of this: Jesus himself. All other ideas about God are illusions. But the person of Jesus, as he lived, died and rose again here on earth, is precisely that God has spoken to us, has given us authentic testimony of himself. He has let us know that he is with us in this dark forest, and that when we cry out to him, "Our Father", we are not falling prey to the illusions of our own desires.
The proof of the most decisive importance in our whole faith in God is that Jesus himself taught us to pray the Lord's Prayer. In all that Jesus said, and even more in all that he did, in all that happened to him, there is the warmth of a fatherly love, the pulsation of a fatherly heart. Jesus himself lived with us, among us, on this earth, a human life that is bleeding from a thousand wounds, full of sickness, war, evil, tragedy. He rejoiced with the rejoicing, wept with the weeping, suffered with the suffering, died with the dying. There is no human pain that does not pain Him, no disease that does not afflict Him, He became our comrade, our brother in our destiny. Do you feel that? When He thus walked among us, He said, "He who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9b), because "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30). It is as if he were saying: look, I am sent from heaven by the Father into this strange world of yours, often so incomprehensible and confused, so that through my anvil, as the earthly image of the heavenly Father, you may be convinced that God is in your destiny, that he has compassion on you, that he suffers with you, that he loves you so much. Look at me and be convinced that you have a Father in heaven and a Father in heaven. So pray with courage and confidence: "Our Father, who art in heaven!"
But if we really have a Father, and we really have a Father in heaven, why does He want His children, whom He loves, to be burdened with so many troubles in this life, and why did He make this world the way it is? God does not want all the evils that come to people in this life. No. There is a saying of Jesus that has been misunderstood by almost all people, even the editors of the Heidelberg Bible, due to incorrect Bible translation. When he says, "Can't you buy two sparrows for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father's will" (Mt 10:29) If you take out your Bible and look carefully, you will see that this important little word, will, is in italics. This refers to the fact that this word was not in the original Greek text, but was added by the translator as an explanatory note, as an addition. So Jesus' saying in its original form is: "Not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father" (and not without your Father's will).
Just think how many little people fall in a bombing, or in the ravages of cancer, or in an earthquake! God does not want that! Of course He does! Satan wants that. But none will fall without your heavenly Father! So what Jesus is saying is that when one of these unfortunate little sparrows falls, God is interested, God is not indifferent, God is involved, He is there with His love, His comfort, His grace, His saving arm. The other day I buried a 47-year-old man who died a horrible death after falling off a motorcycle. Did God want this misfortune? No. But I am sure he fell into God's fatherly hands. He caught the man falling to his death. This is what it means that "not one of them shall fall to the earth without your heavenly Father". So He does not will the evil, He does not send the evil, the misfortune, the calamity upon us, but He is there with us in the trouble, He encourages us in the calamity, He stands by us in the calamity. Like Jesus on the cross: there was the saviour, with his saving love, with the evildoer dying on the other cross.
Nor is it true that God made this world like a dark forest night, full of unexpected horrors. Once a group of German tourists were looking at a painting by Picasso, depicting the terrible horrors of war. The people were horrified by the confusion of horrors, the immense suffering, anguish and incomprehensibility that the war picture presented to them. They were almost shocked when they asked Picasso: Did you do that? Nein, das haben Sie gemacht. (Did you do that? No, said Picasso. You did that.) That's how we are in a way with this world, when we see something terrible. We are almost willing to ask God for an account: How could you do this, Lord? But God looks back at us and says: You did this! Your many sins of all kinds have opened the door to the evil that has come upon this world. You have transgressed the laws of eternal order, you have broken out of the guardrails of my commandments, you are guided by your own desires, that is why there is so much strife, warfare, fratricide, suffering and trouble on earth. All that physical misery, sickness and death are somehow a physical projection of the evil that is pouring into your own hearts in your lives. You did it. And see, I am not leaving you in this world, I have sent Jesus. Into this world I have put my heart for you... It is precisely from this confused, confused world that you can cry out to me, "Our Father, who art in heaven"!
One more disturbing question: if God did not will the evil, if He did not unleash the evil into the world, why does He let the evil so freely rampant in this world? If He is truly our Father, why does He not turn away all that evil from us? Well, brethren, here indeed we run into something that remains a mystery to us. But remember, Jesus taught us to address God this way: 'Our Father, who art in heaven'! In the plural: not in heaven, but in the heavens. In this way, He is showing us that He is so far above us that our intellect cannot penetrate His logic, His reasoning, even if our words and cries do. Yes, God is Father, but a Father who is in heaven, that is, God is Father in a very different way from the way we conceive of a God and a Father on earth. If we could understand and explain everything about God as Father, there would not be a God and Father in heaven, but some idol god and father in the earthly realm. He thinks and acts in different perspectives and dimensions than we do on this earth.
But Jesus is encouraging us with this very address to trust him even if we do not always understand him. One thing is certain: even if he does not turn away the evil that may befall us, he will always turn it to our advantage. I see the paternal love and power of the heavenly God precisely in the fact that whatever evil befalls us in this life, whether it is the evil of men, an unfortunate twist of fate, or an incurable disease, God somehow transforms the effect of that evil for us, so that the loss becomes gain. In this way, suffering becomes a test in the fire of which life is purified, darkness becomes an opportunity to know the reality of the good Shepherd's guiding love, gnawing sorrows become a gain from which trust and faith are forged, death becomes an open door through which a world of complete peace and happiness is revealed to us.
For our Father has already shown us this in Jesus, in His passion and terrible death on Calvary, where out of the greatest evil, the most flagrant wickedness and injustice, the most cruel human fate, He brought the greatest good: the grace of salvation for the world. The wonderful thing about God is that He beautifully fits even the troubles into the pattern of our lives that He ultimately weaves, resolving a dissonant chord of our fate in a quite unexpected, higher harmony. And even if you don't understand everything yet, you can already trust the hidden meaning of the whole work!
How rich is this invocation, "Our Father, who art in heaven"! It is a prayer in itself. The mere fact that you can address God in this way gives you strength and encouragement to pray.
Do not be afraid! We have a Father in heaven, we have a Father in heaven!
Let us give great thanks to God the Father,
Holy Maker of heaven and earth,
Our protector, our merciful sustainer,
our Sustainer.
(Canto 225, verse 1)
Amen
Date: 29 September 1968.
Lesson
Mt 6,25-34