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expectations that draws down upon itself
the eyes of the Father of mercies. They go up from us
and concern us from this very moment, in our present world:
‘give us... forgive us... lead us not.. .
deliver us. . .‘ The fourth and fifth
petitions concern our life as such — to be fed and
to be healed of sin; the last two concern our battle for the
victory of life — that battle of prayer.
2806 By the three first petitions, we are strengthened in
faith,
sinners, we have to petition for us, for
that ‘us’ bound by the world and history, which we
offer to the boundless love of God. For through the name of
his Christ and the reign of his Holy Spirit our Father
accomplishes his plan of salvation, for us and for the whole
world.
2807 The term ‘to hallow’ is to
be understood here not primarily in its causative sense
(only God hallows, makes holy), but above all in an
evaluative sense: to recognize as holy, to treat in a holy
way.
praise and thanksgiving.66 But this petition
is here taught to us by Jesus as an optative: a petition, a
desire and an expectation in which God and man are involved.
Beginning with this first petition to our Father, we are
immersed in the innermost mystery of his Godhead and the
drama of the salvation of our humanity. Asking the Father
that his name be made holy draws us into his plan of loving
kindness for the fullness of time, ‘according to his
purpose which he set forth in Christ’, that we might
‘be holy and blameless before him in love’.6~
2808 In the decisive moments of his economy God
reveals his
is realized for us and in us only if his
name is hallowed by us and in us.
2809 The holiness of God is the inaccessible centre of his
eterna mystery. What is revealed of it in creation and
history, Scriptur
image and likeness, God ‘crowned him
with glory and honour’ but by sinning, man fell
‘short of the glory of God’.6~ From tha time on,
God was to manifest his holiness by revealing and givin
705 his name, in order to restore man to the image
of his Creator.7°
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