Jesus in today's gospel references the "Father" in heaven through out the passage. In fact, the sermon on the mount is filled with references to the Father in heaven.
The sermon of the mount was an invitation and introduction to the attitude of the Father.
Pope Benedict exhorts us to the following truth,
"The man whose only desire is to be an adult makes himself a god thereby loses both God and his own self. But where he continues to say "Father", he realizes what sonship and knowledge and freedom mean. All these mean belonging to God, and that is our salvation."
In the sermon of the mount, Jesus shows us our place of belonging and this place is intimately wrapped up in God as Father and ourselves always seeking to remain sons. It is refusing to surrender our sonship, refusing to be adults, that we truly begin to experience redemption.
We must guard our hearts so that we remain children on earth thus children in heaven.
This is why Jesus teaches us to pray with the words and reality, "Our Father who are in heaven..." This is our beginning and our end, our hope and our life.
scripture for the day
"Am I God when I am near, and not God when I am far away? Can anyone hide in a dark corner without my seeing him? Do I not fill heaven and earth?" Jeremiah
"But when you pray, go to your inner room, close door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you." Matthew
Quote of the day
"above all, [Jesus] did not want us to pray by ourselves in private or for ourselves alone. We do not say "My Father, who art in heaven," not "Give me this day my daily bread." It is not for himself alone that each person asks to be forgiven, not to be led into temptation or to be delivered from evil. Rather, we pray in public as a community, and not for one individual but for all. For the people of God are all one." St. Cyprian
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