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442 before Peter’s confession of
him as ‘the Christ of God’, and again that the
faith of the chief of the apostles may not fail when
tempted. Jesus’ prayer before the events of salvation
that the Father has asked him to fulfil is a humble and
trusting commitment of his human will to the loving will of
the Father. 2601 ‘He was
praying in a certain place and when he had ceased, one of
his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to
pray.” In seeing the Master at prayer the disciple of
Christ also wants to pray. By contemplating and hearing
the Son, the master of prayer,
2602 Jesus often draws apart to pray
in solitude, on a mountain,
taken on humanity in his incarnation, and he
offers them to the Father when he offers himself. Jesus, the
Word who has become flesh, shares by his human prayer in all
that ‘his brethren’ experience; he sympathizes
with their weaknesses in order to free them.47 It was for
this that the Father sent him. His words and works are the
visible manifestation of his prayer in secret.
2603 The evangelists have preserved two more explicit
prayers offered by Christ during his
public ministry. Each begins with
and blesses him because he has hidden the
mysteries of the Kingdom from those who think themselves
learned and has revealed
‘Yes, Father!’ expresses the depth
of his heart, his adherence to the
his conception and prefiguring what he will
say to the Father in his agony. The whole prayer of Jesus
is contained in this loving adherence of his human heart to
the mystery of the will of the Father.49
2604 The second prayer, before the raising of Lazarus, is
recorded by St John.5° Thanksgiving precedes the
event: ‘Father, I thank you for having heard
me’, which implies that the Father always hears his
petitions. Jesus immediately adds: ‘I know that you
always hear me’, which implies that Jesus, on his part,
constantly made such petitions. Jesus’ prayer,
characterized by thanksgiving, reveals to us how to ask:
before the gift is given, Jesus commits |
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