17 June, Thursday – Our Divine Parent

Thursday of Week 11 in Ordinary Time

2 Cor 11:1-11
Mt 6:7-15

“…your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

In today’s Gospel readings, Jesus continues to teach us how to pray. But while He told us what not to do in yesterday’s readings, today He has given us the very specific manual to prayer that is the Lord’s Prayer.

The Lord’s Prayer is perhaps the most fundamental prayer in our Christian faith. At the heart, it is a child’s call to his Father, a simply request for our ‘daily bread’ and a seeking of forgiveness from our transgressions. How often have we, who are parents, received such simple requests from our children?

“Daddy, can I have one more piece of bread? Mummy, can I have a drink of water? Daddy, I’m sorry I broke the vase. Mummy, please forgive me for being naughty in school yesterday”.

And how often have we, faced with these requests and pleas for forgiveness, felt our anger and hardness of heart melt away? That a child can, in his or her innocence and complete dependence on us, seek our aid and forgiveness, reminding us of the awesome responsibility that is parenthood. 

And if we, as earthly parents, can feel this way, then it stands to reason that God must somehow feel the pangs of parental love every time we ask Him for help or forgiveness. Especially when we ask Him through the Lord’s Prayer, the very prayer that His Son has come to teach us.

Yes, surely our Father in Heaven must know what we want and need, without us having to ask Him. He is God after all – telepathy is well within His abilities.

But more than that, He is our Heavenly Parent. And like any parent, He desires our love and feels that tender feeling that you get in the left side of your chest when your child looks up to you with those puppy eyes and asks you for a new toy. And so we must not refrain from asking Him for His love, favour and forgiveness. Not only because we hope to have these requests fulfilled, but also because we acknowledge and cherish His divine Parenthood whenever we do that.

(Today’s OXYGEN by Jacob Woo)

Prayer: Lord, we pray for Your continued love and providence, that You will always provide us with all that we need and save us from the things that lead us away from You.  

Thanksgiving: We are thankful for our Heavenly Father and our Holy Mother, who in their Divine Parenthood, have allowed us to humbly enter the Holy Family as little children of God.