Mt 6:7-15
[Jesus said to his disciples,] 7“In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
9“This is how you are to pray:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
11Give us today our daily bread;
12and forgive us our debts,
as we forgive our debtors;
13and do not subject us to the final test,
but deliver us from the evil one.
14If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. 15But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”
OUR FATHER: The designation “father” (Hebrew ab) appears in the Old Testament in the context of Israel’s creation and election as God’s very own people: “He (Yahweh) is your father, your creator, who formed you and set you up” (Dt 32:6). The prophets expanded on this image of God as “father” by citing examples of his acts of forgiving mercy: “Is not Ephraim my favored son, the child in whom I delight? Often have I threatened him, but I remember him, and my heart yearns for him. I must show him mercy” (Jer 31:20). But the designation was not definitive. Even in prayers, God was not invoked as “my father” or “our father.” Thus, when Jesus uses “Father” to refer to God and when he teaches the disciples to do the same, he is introducing something new, even revolutionary.
When Jesus addresses God as abba (“dear father”), he is revealing the kind of relationship he has with God: simple, intimate, secure, filial. More than any other image, that of the Son intimately united with the Father in prayer reveals who Jesus is. He alone can call God “Father” from his deepest being. He alone can reveal with finality another face of God. God is not only Lord, King, Judge, and Creator, as presented in the Old Testament. In the new age begun in Jesus, God is above all Father—one who cares for everyone and everything (Mt 6:26-32), one who shows mercy and grants forgiveness unconditionally (Lk 15:11-32) and therefore becomes our model in forgiving one another (Mt 6:14-15), one who is perfect in his way of loving and invites us to be his true children, loving one another to the full.