The Sermon on the Mount (Bossuet)/Day 22
Twenty-second Day
The Lord's Prayer: Our Father. — Matt. vi. 9.
ET an act of love be seen in each
petition.
'Our Father.' At the first word of the Lord’s Prayer our heart melts with love. God chooses to be our Father by a special adoption. He has an only Son Who is equal to Him, and in Whom He is well pleased, but He adopts sinners. Men adopt children only when they have none of their own; God, Who had such a Son as this, nevertheless adopts us. Adoption is an effect of love, for we choose whom we will adopt; Nature bestows other children, but love alone makes adopted ones. God, Who loves His only begotten Son with the whole of His love, and to infinity, extends to us the love He bears to Him. Jesus Christ tells us this in that marvellous prayer that He made for us to His Father: 'That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. [1] Let us, then, love such a Father. Let us say over and over again, Our Father, Our Father, Our Father! Shall we never love you? Shall we never be like true children, pierced to the heart by your fatherly tenderness?
Yet again, 'Our Father.' Why do we say our Father? Let us learn of St Paul. 'Because you are sons, God hath sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.' [2] It is the Holy Spirit, then, Who is in us; from Him proceeds that inward cry of the heart by which we call upon God, as upon a Father always ready to hear.
The same Apostle says elsewhere: — 'For whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.' For God gives us 'the spirit of adoption whereby we cry: Abba, Father!' [3] Here, again, it is clear that the Holy Ghost teaches us this filial cry with which we have recourse to God as to our Father.
Why call it a cry? Because a great need causes us to cry out. A child cries only when it is in pain or want; but for whom should it then cry but for father, mother, or nurse — for anyone, in short, who stands to it in a parental relation? Let us then cry out, for our needs are extreme: we are faltering — sin is gaining upon us — the joys of sense are carrying us away with them. Let us cry out, by all means, for we can do no less; but let it be to our Father. And let us not forget that what impels us to cry is the Holy Ghost, the God of love: — the Love itself of the Father and the Son, ‘ who pours forth the charity of God in our hearts;' and that therefore we may call out, with all the fervour of our very innermost being, ‘ O God, Thou art our Father!'
‘Abraham,' and the other Patriarchs from whom we spring according to the flesh, ‘have ignored us, and Israel has not known us.* But Thou, O God, our true parent, dost know us; and Thou dost Thyself send us, even from Thy own bosom, that Holy Spirit by whom we call upon Thee as Thy children.
St Paul says further that ‘the Spirit himself giveth testimony to our spirit that we are the sons of God.' [4] But who shall understand that Spirit, which testifies to us only when the conscience is at peace, and the heart has nought to reproach itself with that should keep it from God? Who shall hear that voice which whispers to us, in the inmost, silent recesses of the heart, 'God is your Father: you are His child? ’ Let us pass on: that voice is too sacred — too few people can hear it. Let us pass on: another time we may understand better — when we are more fully confirmed, more deeply rooted, in goodness. The Holy Ghost does not give this secret testimony to everyone. He would fain do so, on His own part, but all are not worthy. It is well for us to beg that we may receive it, and to pray 'O God, make us worthy!'; but He makes answer: ' act with me — do your own share of labour — open your hearts to me — silence all creatures, and often say to me in secret: our Father, our Father!'