The Religion of the Word

Gospel:  Matthew 6: 7-15

It stands to reason that the religion of the Word should have few words in its prayer and teachings, an ironic truth for many of us who have sat through many a long-winded sermon or plodded through many a theological tome.  Yet, that is precisely what Jesus says to us in today's reading, noting the futility and egoism of prayers and liturgies of verbal excess.  The Christian message is fundamentally a simple one, and simple too should be our prayer and teaching.

So Jesus provides us with a simple prayer, and if that were not enough he provides us with the core message of that prayer - the core message that should inform all our prayer and teaching.  That core is one word, the Word - mercy.  We are to beg for God's mercy each day as we are ever in need of God's forgiveness and healing.  And we are to show mercy to other people, having received mercy from God.  That is the core of Christian prayer and teaching.  That is the Christian life.  

If today is the first time we have heard this fact, it is an indictment on what has passed for Christian faith for a very long time.  Yet, the message of Jesus is clear: our only fundamental duty as Christians is to pray for God's mercy and to show mercy to others.  Everything else is either a help to that fundamental duty or a distraction from it.