Our Father Who Art in the Heavens
We speak to God in the name of the community, and not with an individual address. A prayer empty of “the ego” reminds us of the love of Moses and Paul. If God is our Father, then the Church is our mother. The love of God must not make us lose the reverence fitting to His majesty. Other kinds of heavens in a symbolic meaning.
We spoke in the previous issue about the Lord’s Prayer, and we explained the phrase “Our Father” and its meaning in relation to God and to us, what it carries of God’s love as a Father, and how it reminds us of our conduct as children, and also reminds us that in this prayer we ask for what pertains to God first before we ask for what pertains to us.
And today we would like to continue our meditations together on this prayer, so we mention as a very clear observation:
The one who prays speaks to God in the name of the community, and not as an individual.
He says “Our Father,” and not “My Father,” and thus all the petitions are in the same manner: “our bread… give us today… forgive us… lead us not into temptations… deliver us from the evil one.” He does not ask God to forgive him alone, but asks on behalf of all that God may forgive everyone. And likewise he does not ask only for himself that He may deliver him from the evil one, but says “deliver us.”
Here the one who prays feels that he is merely a member in a community, praying on behalf of all of it.
We are all members in one body; if one member suffers, the other members suffer with it. He is not a human being standing by himself, separated from his brothers and their needs. Rather, he senses what is necessary for all, and he speaks with God asking Him to give them what He gives him, and to keep away from them what He keeps away from him.
A prayer empty of “the ego” reminds us of the love of Moses and Paul..
Behold the apostle Saint Paul says about his concern for his brothers according to the flesh: “I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart, for I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh…” (Rom. 9:2–3).
How wondrous this is—that he prefers others to himself to such an extent.
It is the feeling of one who does not want to enter the kingdom alone… but with everyone.
It is the same feeling of the prophet Moses when the Lord informed him that He would destroy the rebellious sinful people and raise up a people for him instead. Moses cried out interceding for those sinners and said to the Lord: “Why, O Lord, does Your wrath burn hot against Your people?! And now, if You will forgive their sin—but if not, blot me out of Your book which You have written” (Ex. 32:11, 32). This is our feeling when we pray—that we are an inseparable part of the whole Church… and in our prayers we remember the whole world…
Not only in the Lord’s Prayer, but this is our manner in all our prayers.
The conclusion of every prayer in the Agpeya is like this: “Have mercy on us, O God, then have mercy on us… sanctify our souls, purify our bodies, straighten our thoughts… surround us with Your holy angels…” all in the name of all… And in the Three Holies we say: “Absolve, forgive, and remit us our transgressions.” And we say: “Remember, O Lord, the sick of Your people. Heal them for the sake of Your holy name. Our fathers and brethren who have fallen asleep, O Lord, repose their souls…” And in the Creed, the one praying does not say “I believe,” but says “Truly we believe in one God…” in the communal manner. I say this because many say about Christ that He is a Savior specifically for them, while He is the Savior of the whole world, forgetting their brothers…
The Lord in this prayer teaches us how to pray:
And in His teaching to us, we remember this—we remember all in our prayers. Truly, O Lord, You are my Father, but at the same time You are the Father of all with me. Therefore I address You saying “Our Father.” I do not merely remember that I am Your child, but rather I remember more that I am one of Your children and I have many brothers; I remember them before You like myself, or before myself.
And when we remember that God is our Father, we also remember that the Church is our mother…
We did not become children of God except through the motherhood of the Church to us. If you say you became a child of God in baptism, the Church is the one that baptized you. If you say you became a child of God through faith, the Church is the one that gave you this faith through preaching and the ministry of the word. You believed and were baptized and became a child of God—all of that through the Church. Therefore one of the saints said: No one can call God his Father unless he calls the Church his mother.
The Church is your mother because she is the Bride of Christ, and thus all her members are brothers to God. You pray for her and for them. Ask and say “Our Father.” And say on this occasion: Give us to be true children and not for sonship to be merely a title for us.
Give us to conduct ourselves as children, and do not be angry with us if we do not conduct ourselves thus, for You know the weakness of our nature.
If You say: “My son, give Me your heart,” I also say to You: “My Father, give me Your heart…”
Give me what is in this heart of love, compassion, and divine help; then You will see me as a true child to You. I cannot give You anything unless You give me how to give You. Our Father who art in the heavens.
What is the meaning of the phrase “who art in the heavens”?
First, for distinction between this Father who is in heaven and our father who is on earth; for each of us has a physical father on earth from whom he asks, and also has spiritual fathers. But the One to whom we pray is the divine Father, the Father who is in the heavens.
In the heavens, and not in the heaven…
Because there is more than one heaven to which human beings have ascended… There is the first heaven through whose air birds and planes travel… And there is the heaven of the firmament where the planets and stars and the sun and moon are. And there is the heaven to which Elijah and Enoch ascended, and the third heaven to which the apostle Paul was caught up—that is Paradise. But the “heavens” here are a higher height, which no one has reached before, as the Lord Christ said: “No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven” (John 3:13).
It is the heaven of heavens… meaning, if you considered all these heavens as our earth, this would be a heaven to them, the highest height, where the throne of God is. And as it is said: “Heaven is God’s throne, and the earth is His footstool.”
Here we remember the height of God and His greatness.
Perhaps a person may become careless, and while he remembers the love of God as a Father, he forgets His majesty as God. So in it we say with boldness “Our Father,” but we return and humble ourselves when we remember that He is in the heavens. Then our souls are crushed and we say: Who are we, the earthly ones, that we speak to the One who dwells in heaven and who created heaven, around whom are angels and archangels and the cherubim and seraphim and the innumerable multitude of the heavenly hosts.
Here our souls are humbled, and we remember that we are dust and ashes, and we remember that from God’s humility comes His allowing Himself to listen to us. I say this because many times it happens that the emotions of love and boldness carried in the word “Our Father” make us forget the greatness, majesty, and awe of God! And in the name of love we lose the fear of God and lose our reverence for Him, and our prayers lack the signs of fitting respect. But with the phrase “in the heavens” you say:
In the boldness with which I address my Father, I do not forget the awe with which I speak to my God.
Therefore with the phrase “in the heavens” we prostrate and our heads touch the ground, and we kneel and humble ourselves, and we have the proper fitting attire for prayer, and we remove our shoes because the place we stand on is holy. And when we stand, it is not with slackness, nor with wandering thoughts or wandering senses, but with focus and reverence, because we speak to a Father who is in the heavens. Even heaven is not pure before Him, and to His angels He attributes folly, as the Scripture says.
And we say “in the heavens” that our thoughts may rise above the level of the earth and earthly things.
For although God is everywhere, yet in prayer we lift our eyes upward, remembering the greatness and height of God, and also pulling ourselves away from earthly things, so that we may rise to where God is. And the lampstand in the church signifies that God is above, and that the one who reaches Him must rise above the earthly level and continue to rise and rise until he reaches the cross, and thus reaches God.
And in the phrase “the heavens” we also remember our eternal dwelling with God.
Christ will come in His second coming on the clouds, and we shall look upon Him as He is above in heaven, to be caught up with Him into the clouds, and so be always with the Lord.
We remember this, and we remember that we must rise and ascend above the level of matter and dust and earth, to be with the Lord in heaven.
And we remember that we must conduct ourselves as the people of heaven, in order to be with Him in heaven.
Where the angels and the spirits of the saints are. And we do not reach heaven unless we walk in the Spirit and are also like the angels. There are saints who rose to this level, and were given the title “angels,” like John the Baptist, and like our fathers the anchorites and hermits of whom it was said that they were heavenly humans or earthly angels. They did not live in heaven, but they turned the earth into heaven by the life of the spirit which they lived, and it was said of them that they were stars of the wilderness, because the wilderness became heaven… And God who is in the heavens is also in these holy places that became heavens by His dwelling in them.
And the church also resembles heaven.
And we build it in this form, and the lights in it remind us of the stars of heaven. And the ministers in it remind us of the angels of heaven. The church is heaven because it is the house of God, the house of the angels, and the dwelling of God with people. And God, while present in the churches and in the houses of worship, is in the heavens in this meaning.
And the Virgin was also called “Heaven.”
Because she also became a dwelling place for God. She is therefore a second heaven, a true heaven in every meaning of the word by the dwelling of God in her. And we also become heavens in a much simpler sense than this, when we become temples of the Holy Spirit. And as it was said in poetry: “In a heaven you truly are… every heart that lived in love has lifted you.” These also are heavens in which God dwells—I mean the pure hearts filled with His love. I ask your permission now, dear reader, to conclude our talk here, until we return to it later, because this paper can no longer hold more.
An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, published in Watani newspaper on 5-7-1981.
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