2018-09-07 Cincinnati
Pater Noster – Capitulum Tertium
Continued from 2018-09-06
Who art in Heaven:
Heaven is not a place “up there,” “beyond the clouds,” “beyond the sky.” Duh, double duh. Then what is it?
Heaven is the place – not geographic or physical, but setting – where Love rules. Can we have heaven on earth? Oh yes. Whenever Love conquers selfishness: there’s heaven. Whenever I focus on giving rather than getting: there’s heaven. Whenever Lawson forgives me: there’s heaven. When I forgive Lawson: there’s heaven.
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Hallowed be thy Name:
With fewer than 20 phrases in The Lord’s Prayer, it’s surprising that “hallowed be thy name” would make the cut. What does this mean to me? I’ve similarly wondered why “Thou shalt not take the Lord’s name in vain,” would make the top ten,[1] either.
The most I can figure out from this is that we humans shouldn’t be overly confident that we have it all figured out. Have an openness, even a respect, for that which you don’t know or don’t understand.
Thy kingdom come:
I interpret this as a plea. I’m saying, “Please, bring your kingdom to me.” God’s kingdom = heaven.
Thy will be done:
This reminds me that I have very little control over my life, although I wish I had control of some big things – like who would win the congressional seat in Ohio’s 2nd District in 2006. Obviously, I didn’t win. Was my loss God’s will? Perhaps. I am not sure that there is an “intervening” God that decides certain things and “does” them. For me, I’m reassured that my job on Earth is to do the best I can with the hands[2] I’m dealt.
I believe I have countless choices every day; I am not a puppet being controlled by an external Being. From the small (should I turn off the lamp so I can see the night sky over the North Channel better?) to the large (should Lawson & I attend my college roommate’s daughter’s wedding in Hawaii?) to the huge (should I work fulltime and volunteer less for SOTENI?), I have the power. I can extinguish the light, I can buy airplane tickets, I can teach SOTENI’s brand new Director to execute my current assignments and work fulltime at UC.
But, more significantly, I do not have the power to create a pleasing view of the channel, to ensure that the airplane lands safely in Honolulu, or to guarantee that SOTENI’s Director will adequately fulfill her duties. I do not have the power to promise to wake up healthy tomorrow, much less live ‘til 94 like Mom.
Earlier today I was bemoaning the fact that I’m not Barack Obama, and then added, “But at least I wasn’t born Adolf Hitler.”
An expansion of the theme is often called the Serenity Prayer: May I have the courage to change things for the better, the patience to accept things that I cannot change, and the wisdom to know the difference.
On Earth as it is in heaven:
This explicitly says that we can have heaven right here, right now.
Give us this day our daily bread:
For millions of years, homo sapiens and our forebearers spent almost all their time gathering, farming, and hunting for food. Most of us now gather our food from a grocery store. We pay for it with our labor, which has been transmogrified into money through our paid work – our jobs.
But, if we needed only food – and a safe, secure, and warm abode – for survival, how many hours would we have to work to survive? I am not suggesting a return to a hunter-gatherer or subsistence-farming existence. Oh no. But I do advocate our recognizing that all we really need can be obtained in just a fraction of our time-space allotment. And, to the extent we have excess resources, we can choose how to spend them.
***
…to be continued…
[1] An aside:
Moses came down from Mt. Sinai carrying the two tablets of commandments dictated by Yahweh. He greets the awaiting Jews saying, “Well, I’ve got some good news and some bad news.”
“The good news first!” the Jews clamored.
“The good news is I got Him down to 10,” boasted Moses.
“Then what’s the bad news?” asked the crowd.
“He [sic] wouldn’t delete ‘adultery.’”
[2] Every day I am dealt a new hand, or at least a few new cards, from God. The Big Determining Hand obviously arrived on Planet Earth October 27, 1953. But every day my “birth-hand” has modifiers. Today? Lawson is sick, so I will be late for our retreat on racism and implicit [sic] bias so I can stop by the drugstore and get some loperamide to slow down his diarrhea.
VicWulsin 