Our father

In his gospel, Matthew adds a possive adjective to the word Father: ours. Our Father, not just my Father. I must retreat to pray in the secret of my heart, live in a personal, unique and unrepeatable relationship with the Father, I must be in secret with him, and here, paradoxically, I discover that I am not alone. There is this word, our, which refers me to all the other brothers, refers me to the others.

This prayer which places me face to face with the fatherhood of God is also an immediate call to brotherhood. I cannot be a son if I am not also a brother, because he is my Father and the Father of others, and he makes us a world of brothers before him, who is the Father. A world of brothers, each of whom is a child through union with the Son, the Only Begotten.
On the other hand, was every encounter with God in the Bible just a personal encounter? God comes to meet Abraham, calls him and sends him to an unknown land, but why? In you all the families of the earth will say they are blessed (Gen 12,3). You meet God personally and find yourself responsible for others, God places others on your shoulders. Moses meets God in front of the burning bush, he meets a God who knows the suffering of his people and takes pity on them. God wants the meeting with Moses to be completely personal, but in this meeting he makes him responsible for his brothers: go! brings my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt (Ex 3:10).

This is how it is with the prophets: God meets the prophet, calls him, speaks to him and sends him to his brothers. The greater, the more intense our personal relationship with God, the more we are projected towards others, as happened to Jesus. If, aware of our sacramental union with Jesus, we strive to live remaining united to him (Jn 15,4) we find ourselves brought by Jesus simultaneously into the bosom of the Father and into the hearts of our brothers.

p. Mario Nascimbeni
by Progetto (now NP) October 1992
NP April 2024