(continued)
Since the Lord’s Prayer was taught by Jesus himself it is considered in Tradition a most perfect prayer that in the words of St Augustine “if we pray rightly and fittingly, we can say nothing else but what is contained in this prayer of our Lord” and which Tertullian called a compendium of the gospel. In other words, the petitions in the Lord’s Prayer are universal and so this petition concerning temptations includes every kind of temptation that may present itself to us daily.
Accordingly, the changes being introduced into the Our Father in the liturgical celebrations of the Church that follow the meaning of ‘lead us not into temptation’ the CCC gives as “and do not allow us to enter into temptation” such as ‘do not abandon us to temptation’ or ‘do not let us fall into temptation’ are not accurate or desirable in my opinion. This is like praying that God spare us temptations which is not biblical, not what happened to Christ whom we follow as our example, and not what a christian is going to experience who is earnest in following Christ and the way of the cross which Jesus was certainly aware of who composed this most beautiful prayer. The devil is most active against earnest Christians as St Peter says “your opponent, the devil, is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour”. And St James calls blessed the man who endures trial or temptation “Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him” (James 1: 12). Why would Jesus have us petition the Father to spare us temptations when both he and the Father said in Sirach 2:1 “My son, if you come forward to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for temptation”? And the Catechism of the Council of Trent explains that we do not ask to be totally exempt from temptations in this petition from either of the two kinds the catechism mentions (which I mentioned above) and which are to our own advantage.
Obviously, the interpretations ‘do not abandon us to temptation’ or ‘do not let us fall into temptation’ are going to need explaining similar to a catechesis on ‘and lead us not into temptation’. I mean, when a christian experiences temptation, are they going to think that God has abandoned them? On the contrary, this is when we especially as it were need God and his assistance which is precisely what the Church has traditionally understood and taught in this petition. Accordingly, it could be argued what’s the point in changing a translation that is linguistically and literally correct to something else that is linguistically or grammatically questionable from what I understand as well as having biblical and explanatory problems in various ways as I have noted.
The interpretations ‘do not abandon us to temptation’ or ‘do not let us fall into temptation’ would make more sense I believe if they read ‘do not abandon us in temptation’ and ‘do not let us fall in temptation’. This would carry the traditional understanding of this petition as well as that meaning the CCC gives as ‘do not let us yield to temptation’. Ultimately, we can’t improve Christ’s own words.