(Isaiah 55: 10-11 / Psalm 34: 4-7, 16-19 / Matthew 6: 7-15)
What a short, but beautiful reading from the book of Isaiah we have today. God’s words are living words, written in the flesh of human hearts. His word gives seed to the one who sows and bread for the one who eats. God’s words shall not return to Him void, but will achieve the end for which He sent it.
Jesus Christ is the living word. Jesus Christ is the word made flesh among us. He is the living bread that we shall eat of and never die. His words are written in our hearts and give life to the whole world. The words Jesus taught us to pray to our Father with are timeless treasures that will never tarnish, but live forever in the hearts of every generation.
Sometimes we complicate things that are really quite simple, like the pagans did when they prayed. Jesus taught us that our faith in God is not very complicated at all.
When we pray we are to simply give our heavenly Father thanks and praise, ask for the necessities of life, ask forgiveness for our offenses, (with a reminder for us to do the same for others) and ask for God’s protection from sin and the evil one.
It’s that simple and yet, that complicated! Some of the saints and theologians in our church have reflected on every single word in the Our Father prayer and never grew tired of it. It’s kind of like the Catholic faith itself. This prayer and our Catholic faith as well, contain oceans of thought, or simple words that drop like rain, just like God spoke of in the old testament reading today. Just as the rain comes down and gives growth, so does the word of God.
