Copyright © 2006 By Doug Lawrence. All Rights Reserved.
Catechism Of The Catholic Church Reprinted With Permission.
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God’s Truth From The Catechism Of The Catholic Church – cont.
2823 "He has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set
forth in Christ . . . to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Christ we
have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who
accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will."
98
We ask insistently for this loving plan
to be fully realized on earth as it is already in heaven.
2824 In Christ, and through his human will, the will of the Father has been perfectly fulfilled once
for all. Jesus said on entering into this world: "Lo, I have come to do your will, O God."
99
Only Jesus
can say: "I always do what is pleasing to him."
100
In the prayer of his agony, he consents totally to
this will: "not my will, but yours be done."
101
For this reason Jesus "gave himself for our sins to
deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father."
102
"And by that
will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."
103
2825 "Although he was a Son, [Jesus] learned obedience through what he suffered."
104
How much
more reason have we sinful creatures to learn obedience - we who in him have become children of
adoption. We ask our Father to unite our will to his Son's, in order to fulfill his will, his plan of
salvation for the life of the world. We are radically incapable of this, but united with Jesus and with
the power of his Holy Spirit, we can surrender our will to him and decide to choose what his Son
has always chosen: to do what is pleasing to the Father.
105
In committing ourselves to [Christ], we can become one spirit with him, and thereby
accomplish his will, in such wise that it will be perfect on earth as it is in heaven.
106
Consider how Jesus Christ] teaches us to be humble, by making us see that our virtue
does not depend on our work alone but on grace from on high. He commands each of the
faithful who prays to do so universally, for the whole world. For he did not say "thy will be
done in me or in us," but "on earth," the whole earth, so that error may be banished from it,
truth take root in it, all vice be destroyed on it, virtue flourish on it, and earth no longer differ
from heaven.
107
2826 By prayer we can discern "what is the will of God" and obtain the endurance to do it.
108
Jesus
teaches us that one enters the kingdom of heaven not by speaking words, but by doing "the will of
my Father in heaven."
109
2827 "If any one is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him."
110
Such is the power
of the Church's prayer in the name of her Lord, above all in the Eucharist. Her prayer is also a
communion of intercession with the all-holy Mother of God
111
and all the saints who have been
pleasing to the Lord because they willed his will alone:
It would not be inconsistent with the truth to understand the words, "Thy will be done on
earth as it is in heaven," to mean: "in the Church as in our Lord Jesus Christ himself"; or "in
the Bride who has been betrothed, just as in the Bridegroom who has accomplished the
will of the Father."
112
IV. "GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD"
2828 "Give us": The trust of children who look to their Father for everything is beautiful. "He
makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust."
113
He
gives to all the living "their food in due season."
114
Jesus teaches us this petition, because it
glorifies our Father by acknowledging how good he is, beyond all goodness.
2829 "Give us" also expresses the covenant. We are his and he is ours, for our sake. But this "us"
also recognizes him as the Father of all men and we pray to him for them all, in solidarity with their
needs and sufferings.
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