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The expression God the Father had never
been revealed to anyone. When Moses
himself asked God who he was, he heard another name.
The Father’s name has been revealed to us in the Son,
for the name ‘Son’ implies
the new name ‘Father’.3’ 2780 We can invoke God as ‘Father’ because
he is revealed to us by his Son become man and because
his Spirit makes him known to s. The personal relation of
the Son to the Father is something that an cannot conceive
of nor the angelic powers even dimly see:
nd yet, the Spirit of the Son grants a participation in that
very elation to us who believe that Jesus is the Christ and
that we are orn of God.32 781 When
we pray to the Father, we are in communion with him d
with his Son, Jesus Christ.33 Then we know and recognize
2665 im with an ever new sense of
wonder. The first phrase of the Our
ather is a blessing of adoration before it is a
supplication. For it is e glory of God
that we should recognize him as ‘Father’, the true
e gift of believing in it, and for the
indwelling of his Presence in s.
782 We can adore the Father because he has caused us to
be born to his life by adopting us
as his children in his only Son: by
aptism, he incorporates us into the Body of his Christ;
through 1267 e anointing of his
Spirit who flows from the Head to the mcmrs, he makes us
other ‘Christs’. God,
indeed, who has predestined us to adoption as his sons, has
conformed us to the glorious Body of Christ. So then you who
have become sharers in Christ are appropriately called
‘Christs’.34 The new man,
reborn and restored to his God by grace, says first of all,
‘Father!’ because he has now begun to be a son.35
783 Thus the Lord’s Prayer reveals us to
ourselves at the same time
O man, you did not dare to raise your
face to heaven, you lowered your eyes to the earth, and
suddenly you have received the grace of Christ: all your
sins have been forgiven. From being a wicked servant you
have become a good son... Then raise your eyes to the Father
who has begotten you through Baptism, to the Father who has
redeemed you through his Son, and
say: ‘Our Father. . .‘ But do not claim any
privilege. He is the Father in a
special way only of Christ, but he is the common Father of
us all, because while he has begotten only Christ, he has
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