Daily Reading
First Reading
Galatians 2:1-2, 7-14
Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up in response to a revelation. Then I laid before them (though only in a private meeting with the acknowledged leaders) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure that I was not running, or had not run, in vain.
On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel for the circumcised (for he who worked through Peter making him an apostle to the circumcised also worked through me in sending me to the Gentiles), and when James and Cephas and John, who were acknowledged pillars, recognized the grace that had been given to me, they gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. They asked only one thing, that we remember the poor, which was actually what I was eager to do.
But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood self-condemned; for until certain people came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But after they came, he drew back and kept himself separate for fear of the circumcision faction. And the other Jews joined him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not acting consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?”
Psalm
Psalm 117:1bc, 2
Praise the Lord, all you nations!
Extol him, all you peoples!
For great is his steadfast love toward us,
and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.
Praise the Lord!
Gospel Reading
Luke 11:1-4
He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial.”
Reflection
Friends, our Gospel today gives us an opportunity to reflect on the Lord’s Prayer, the prayer for the Christian journey. I want to consider three of the prayer’s petitions.
“Father, hallowed be your name.” We’re not implying that God should make his name holy (as though it isn’t); we’re praying that we might make it holy for us, that God might be honored above all. Everything else in the spiritual life flows from this prioritization.
“Your Kingdom come.” God’s kingdom refers to God’s way of ordering things. Jesus’s teaching and his manner of life give us a very good idea of what this kingdom would look like: peace, nonviolence, forgiveness, healing, walking the path of compassion.
“Forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us.” How central to the teaching of Jesus is forgiveness. And how central to the suffering of the world is the incapacity to forgive, both on the smallest, most intimate level and on the grandest geopolitical scale.
How wonderful and how deeply challenging that at the very heart of the prayer that the Son of God taught us is a petition to be given the grace to forgive.