Our Father, Who art in Heaven! Look how He immediately encouraged the listener and at the very beginning remembered all the good deeds of God! In fact, the one who calls God Father already confesses by this name the forgiveness of sins, and liberation from punishment, and justification, and sanctification, and redemption, and sonship, and inheritance, and brotherhood with the Only Begotten, and the gift of the spirit, since one who has not received all these benefits cannot call God Father. So, Christ inspires His listeners in two ways: both by the dignity of what is called, and by the greatness of the benefits that they received.
When he speaks in Heaven, with this word he does not imprison God in heaven, but distracts the one praying from the earth and places him in the highest countries and in the mountain dwellings.
Further, with these words He teaches us to pray for all the brothers. He does not say: “My Father, who art in Heaven,” but “Our Father,” and thereby commands us to offer prayers for the entire human race and never have in mind our own benefits, but always try for the benefits of our neighbor. And in this way he destroys enmity, and overthrows pride, and destroys envy, and introduces love - the mother of all good things; destroys the inequality of human affairs and shows complete equality between the king and the poor, since we all have equal participation in the highest and most necessary matters. Indeed, what is the harm from low kinship, when by heavenly kinship we are all united and no one has anything more than the other: neither the rich more than the poor, nor the master more than the slave, nor the boss more than the subordinate, nor the king more than the warrior, nor the philosopher more than the barbarian, nor the wise more than the ignorant? God, who honored everyone equally to call Himself Father, through this gave everyone the same nobility.
So, having mentioned this nobility, this highest gift, the unity of honor and love between brothers, having taken the listeners away from earth and placed them in heaven, let’s see what Jesus finally commands to pray for. Of course, calling God Father contains a sufficient teaching about every virtue: whoever calls God Father, and the common Father, must necessarily live in such a way as not to be unworthy of this nobility and to show zeal equal to a gift. However, the Savior was not satisfied with this name, but added other sayings.
Hallowed be Thy name, He says. To ask for nothing before the glory of the Heavenly Father, but to consider everything lower than His praise—this is a prayer worthy of one who calls God Father! Let him be holy means let him be glorified. God has his own glory, full of all majesty and never changing. But the Savior commands the one who prays to ask that God may be glorified by our life. He said about this before: Let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16). And the Seraphim, glorifying God, cry out: Holy, Holy, Holy! (Isa.66:10). So, let him be holy means let him be glorified. Grant us, as the Savior teaches us to pray, to live so purely that through us everyone will glorify You. To display a blameless life before everyone, so that each of those who see it exalts praise to the Lord - this is a sign of perfect wisdom.
May your kingdom come. And these words are appropriate for a good son, who is not attached to what is visible and does not consider present blessings to be something great, but strives for the Father and desires future blessings. Such prayer comes from a good conscience and a soul free from everything earthly.
The Apostle Paul desired this every day, which is why he said: we ourselves, having the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption as sons, the redemption of our body (Rom. 8:23). He who has such love can neither become proud among the blessings of this life, nor despair among the sorrows, but, like one living in heaven, is free from both extremes.
Thy will be done as it is in heaven and on earth. Do you see the beautiful connection? He first commanded to desire the future and strive for one’s fatherland; but until this happens, those living here should try to lead the kind of life that is characteristic of the celestials. One must desire, He says, heaven and heavenly things. However, even before reaching heaven, He commanded us to make the earth heaven and, while living on it, to behave in everything as if we were in heaven, and to pray to the Lord about this. Indeed, the fact that we live on earth does not hinder us in the least from achieving the perfection of the heavenly Forces. But it is possible, even if we live here, to do everything as if we were living in heaven.
So, the meaning of the Savior’s words is this: just as in heaven everything happens without hindrance and it does not happen that the Angels obey in one thing and disobey in another, but in everything they obey and submit (because it is said: they who do His word are mighty in strength - Ps. 103:20) - so grant us, people, not to do Your will in half, but to do everything, as You wish.
Do you see? - Christ taught us to humble ourselves when he showed that virtue depends not only on our zeal, but also on heavenly grace, and at the same time he commanded each of us, during prayer, to take care of the universe. He did not say: “Thy will be done in me” or “in us,” but throughout the whole earth - that is, so that all error would be destroyed and the truth would be implanted, so that all malice would be driven out and virtue would return, and so that, thus, there would be no difference between heaven and earth. If this happens, He says, then what is above will not differ in anything from what is above, although they are different in properties; then the earth will show us other angels.
Give us this day our daily bread. What is daily bread? Everyday. Since Christ said: Thy will be done as it is in heaven and on earth, and He talked with people clothed in flesh, who are subject to the necessary laws of nature and cannot have angelic dispassion, then, although He commands us to fulfill the commandments in the same way as the Angels fulfill them, He nevertheless condescends to the weakness of nature and seems to say: “I demand from you an equal angelic severity of life, however, without demanding dispassion, since your nature, which has a necessary need for food, does not allow it.”
Look, however, how there is a lot of spirituality in the physical! The Savior commanded us to pray not for wealth, not for pleasures, not for valuable clothes, not for anything else like that - but only for bread, and, moreover, for everyday bread, so that we would not worry about tomorrow, which is why he added: daily bread, that is, everyday bread. He was not even satisfied with this word, but then added another: give it to us today, so that we do not overwhelm ourselves with worry about the coming day. In fact, if you don’t know whether you will see tomorrow, then why bother yourself with worrying about it? The Savior commanded this further in his sermon: “Do not worry,” he says, “about tomorrow (Matthew 6:34). He wants us to always be girded and inspired by faith and not yield more to nature than necessary needs require of us.
Further, since it happens to sin even after the font of rebirth (that is, the Sacrament of Baptism. - Comp.), the Savior, wanting in this case to show His great love for mankind, commands us to approach the man-loving God with a prayer for the forgiveness of our sins and say this: And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Do you see the abyss of God's mercy? After taking away so many evils and after the indescribably great gift of justification, He again honors those who sinned with forgiveness.<…>
By reminding us of sins, He inspires us with humility; by commanding to let others go, he destroys rancor in us, and by promising us forgiveness for this, he affirms good hopes in us and teaches us to reflect on the ineffable love of God for mankind.