Gospel: Matthew 6: 7-15
Over the centuries a countless number of treatises on The Lord's Prayer have been written. Each line of the prayer receives an endless theological explication, and in the process the forest is lost amid the trees. For Jesus himself summarizes the entire prayer by focusing on the need for all of us to show mercy to others in order to receive mercy from God.
It makes little sense to ask for mercy if we ourselves are unwilling to show mercy to others. The entire heart of the prayer and the Christian life itself is the extension of mercy to others. Jesus himself is the mercy of God sent to the world. He lived his entire life extending mercy to everyone he met. No one was refused mercy or a seat at the table. Even when his disciples would seek to exclude others from the Lord's presence, Jesus rebuffed those who would withhold mercy and offered care to the one before him.
Rather than reading one of the many treatises on the Lord's prayer, it may be better for us to reflect on the Lord's own summary of it, to make a resolution to live this life of mercy a little better each day. As we individuals grow in mercy, perhaps the Church and society may also grow in the mercy institutions are called to extend as much as individuals.
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