A hero of the church during the troubled fourth century was the archbishop of Constantinople, John, who was called Chrysostom (Golden-Mouth) because of his skills at preaching.
- Although John was exiled for his outspoken defense of the faith, his sermons were copied and handed down as classics of Christian thought.
His Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew included the following thoughts on the Lord’s Prayer:
“Our Father who art in heaven.
- See how Jesus immediately stirred up his listeners,
- reminding them of all God’s generosity in the beginning.
- For anyone who calls God ‘Father,’
- acknowledges by this single title that he has received forgiveness of sins,
- the removal of his punishment,
- and the gifts of righteousness, sanctification, redemption, adoption, inheritance, fellowship with the Only-Begotten, and the gift of the Spirit.
- For one cannot call God ‘Father’ without having received all those blessings. . . .
“When Jesus says, in Heaven,
- he speaks not as if to isolate God there,
- but to take us, who are praying, out of this earth and to fix us in the dwellings above.
- He teaches, moreover, to make our prayer common, to pray for our brothers and sisters.
- For Jesus did not say, ‘my Father who art in Heaven,’
- but, ‘our Father,’ offering up his prayers and petitions for the whole body. . . .
- And by praying in this way, he at once takes away hatred, quells pride, casts out envy . . . and shows how far equality reaches between rich and poor.
- At least in the things that are the greatest and most important, we are all equals. . . .
“After this, Jesus commands us to ask . . .
Hallowed be thy name.
- It is right for those who call God ‘Father’ in prayer to ask nothing before his glory.
- It is only right that we instead count all things secondary to the work of praising God.
- Jesus commands us to seek to glorify God by our lives. .
- to present before everyone a life so irreproachable that those who see it
- may also give the Lord the praise that belongs to him for what he has done.”
Let us take our rightful place today as the sons and daughters of our Father in heaven.
“Father, my home is in the heavens with you;
I want to live today
to glorify your name.”
