Eucharist

Eternal light

The 7th day, dome of Genesis. Basilica of San Marco, Venice (13th century). Christ is the creative Word of God, and with his angels he leads humanity out of darkness into the light of the 7th day, which he blesses.

After the stage of the sixth day, on the seventh day there is no longer any passage from darkness to light; everything is accomplished and humanity can dwell eternally in the light of divine contemplation, in the fullness of his love:
“Night will disappear, they will no longer need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illuminate them; they will reign for ever and ever.” (Revelation 22:5).
To be in this light means to know the extent of God’s love for every creature, means to experience this love for each and every one ourselves, means to see every creature in a light different from earthly light. Indeed, what is hidden will come to light, and once our faults have been forgiven, only our most beautiful aspirations will remain. There will be perfect harmony between spirit and body. The body, the transformed and resurrected flesh, will be the perfect expression of the spirit that animates it. Let’s look at the words the apostles use to tell us about this:
“Beloved, even now we are children of God, but what we will be has not yet been manifested. We know: when it is manifested, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2-3)
And also Saint Paul, tells us that we shall know how I have been known by God, how he has loved me:
“At present we see confusedly, as in a mirror; on that day we shall see face to face. At present, my knowledge is partial; on that day, I shall know perfectly, as I have been known. What remains today is faith, hope and love (agápē in Greek); but the greatest of the three is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:12-13).
We will, therefore, love every human being with the same love that God has for them. Indeed, Jesus himself tells us that we will be like angels. Angels don’t gain knowledge of this world through the senses, as we do, for they have no body, but they perceive the spiritual reality, the innermost being of each of us, because they contemplate the face of God, and in his light, in the gaze of his love, they know each of his creatures, they contemplate them in God, through the gaze of God:
“But those who have been judged worthy to share in the world to come and in the resurrection from the dead take neither wife nor husband, for they can die no more: they are like the angels, they are children of God and children of the resurrection.” (Luke 20:35-36).

Saint Paul was lifted up to the third heaven, he had a vision of heavenly, divine reality, and he tells us this of the transformation of our being, our body and spirit:
“But someone might say, “How do the dead rise? With what kind of body do they go?” – Think about it! What you sow cannot come back to life without first dying; and what you sow is not the body of the plant that will grow, but a simple seed: wheat, for example, or something else. And God gives it a body as he has willed: to each seed a particular body. There are many kinds of flesh: one is that of man, another that of beast, another that of bird, another that of fish. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but other is the brightness of the heavenly, other that of the earthly; other is the brightness of the sun, other the brightness of the moon, other the brightness of the stars; and each star even has a different brightness. So it is with the resurrection of the dead. That which is sown perishable rises imperishable; that which is sown without honor rises in glory; that which is sown weak rises in power; that which is sown body animated by the soul (psykhḗ) rises spiritual body; for if there is a body animated by the soul (psykhḗ), there is also a spiritual body. Scripture says: The first man, Adam, became a living soul (psykhḗ); the last Adam – Christ – became life-giving Spirit (pneũma). What comes first is not what is of the Spirit (pneumatikón), but what is of the soul (psykhikón); only then comes what is of the Spirit (pneumatikón).” (1 Corinthians 15:35-46).
This text also tells us about the constitution of our own bodies: the animal body is moved by the soul, i.e. the center that receives and elaborates the perceptions of the senses, everything that animates the human being and the animal (the word animal comes from the Latin anima and means that which has a soul). The text of Genesis calls the human being a living soul: “Then the Lord God fashioned man from the dust of the earth; he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul (nephesh ḥayyah נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה) .” (Genesis 2, 7). Now, this living soul requires, for the human being, to be guided by the Spirit, who leads him to seek the heavenly realities, from above, eternal, for it is to these realities that the human being is destined. It is the reality of the Spirit that he is called to seek, where he will dwell and find rest. The seven stages, from darkness to light, show us how the human being can be established permanently and eternally in this peace, in this unification of his will, which one day will no longer divided between the pursuit of earthly goods and heavenly realities; only love will remain. Today, faith and hope direct our lives towards the eternal good that is love, but one day, only love will remain. (For more on the seven stages, see the article Genesis 1:1 – 2:3 The seven days, stages of love).
In Saint Paul’s text above, the various stages mentioned in the previous days are made explicit by mentioning the different elements of creation, of nature. The human being, in fact, goes through several stages: first he is seed, then there are the animals that represent his tendencies, his actions, then he is led to become a celestial body, luminous like the stars of heaven. And then, in the last stage, he is led to share in the definitive victory over evil, this triumph of light, of life according to the Spirit of God, in the full love of God, that is the seventh day.
Then our body will be perfectly conformed to our spirit, a spiritual body that will be able to manifest in all clarity the love that animates us, that gives us life, the love we have for others. Saint Paul invites us to seek spiritual realities, that is to say, that God’s Spirit of love be the one who guides us in our lives, in our actions.
“I tell you: walk under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and you will not be in danger of satisfying the lusts of the flesh. For the tendencies of the flesh are opposed to the Spirit, and the tendencies of the Spirit are opposed to the flesh. Indeed, these are opposed to one another so that you don’t do the things you want to do.” (Galatians 5:16-17). These are the steps we can take with God’s help, and the meaning of the seven sacraments, which help us share in the victory of light over darkness.
Here is the continuation of St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians:
“The first man was from the earth, earthly; the second man, from heaven. As was the earthly one, so also are the earthly, and as is the heavenly one, so also are the heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of the earthly one, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one. This I declare, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed, in an instant, in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For that which is corruptible must clothe itself with incorruptibility, and that which is mortal must clothe itself with immortality. And when this which is corruptible clothes itself with incorruptibility and this which is mortal clothes itself with immortality, then the word that is written shall come about: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” (1 Corinthians 15:47-54).

Here, too, in St. Paul’s words, are the terms of the first days, the first stages, where the word earth refers to the human being, this earth which dries up if it does not receive the water from above, the heavenly spirit of God, which animates it and brings it back to life, making it a new creation. Thus, the earthly man, led by the Spirit, becomes heavenly, and when he is resurrected, then the light will have dispelled all darkness and the spiritual body will be the perfect expression of the Spirit. (For more on the seventh day, see Genesis 1:1 – 2:3 The seven days, stages of love).

Easter

The heavenly Jerusalem, baptistery of the basilica of Saint-Maurice, Switzerland. Mosaic by Madeline Diener. According to St. John’s vision in the Book of Revelation, from the victorious slaughtered lamb flow rivers of living water that give life to the heavenly Jerusalem, where love reigns eternally in the hearts of reconciled humanity. The lamb wears a nimbus inscribed with the cross, for the lamb is Christ. It is he who heals the sick (left) and it is he who is contemplated by Saint Stephen when he is stoned (right). It is Christ’s love, his life, his Spirit, offered on the cross, that are victorious over evil and death.

Now we come to the day of the resurrection, and if the sixth day was a Friday, the resurrection at thé dawn of the third day since Jesus’ death is celebrated on Sunday. It’s important to understand the relationship between the seventh day of creation, the day on which all the work of salvation for mankind is accomplished, the day of rest with God, and the day on which Christians celebrate their participation in the eternal feast of God’s peace. Indeed, the Friday on which Christ manifests God’s love to mankind, enables human beings to enter into a filial and trusting relationship with God. The faithful enter into an eternal relationship with God, and those who celebrate and proclaim their faith in baptism enter into eternal life, for they have died and risen with Christ, in the words of St. Paul:“In baptism you were buried with him, and with him you were raised through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.” (Colossians 2:12). Eternal life means being in the Kingdom of God, but this Kingdom of God, as Jesus tells us, is within us: “No one will announce: “Here it is!” or, “There it is!” For behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”” (Luke 17:21). It is when in our hearts we can welcome in every human being a brother and a sister, it is when we welcome life as a gift from God in all its forms that the Kingdom of heaven is within us.
It was through his death that Jesus conquered evil, and it was then that he offered God’s forgiveness to all lost humanity. And we too can share in this victory over evil by accepting God’s forgiveness. In this way, we enter God’s rest. This is the true meaning of the seventh day, when God is said to have rested from his work of bringing mankind into the light. Then we can rest in him, and he in us. That’s why, when Jesus talks about his friend Lazarus, who has been dead for four days, or about other dead people he is going to raise, he always says that they are resting. People tell him they’re dead, but Jesus insists: they’re resting. Yet there are also living people who, while in possession of vital faculties, are dead, because dead to the life of the Spirit, dead to the bond of love with God and with their neighbor. So Christians believe that entering into a filial relationship with God means entering into eternal life, and it also means entering the dimension of the spirit, where time is no longer measured in days or weeks. So, once the last stage has been completed, we enter into God’s eternity, which explains why the day in which God completed his work, the day on which he finally led his creature to contemplate the light of his face, is the seventh day, called in Hebrew shabbat, which means “he rested” or “he stopped” (see the 7th day in the article Genesis 1,1 – 2, 3 The seven days, stages of love).
But the 7th day in the Holy Week, on earth, corresponds to the day when Jesus was laid in the tomb, the day when he joins all the dead, past and future, to lead them to God. So how can we speak of this reality, which we will know only after our death? It consists in announcing the day of the resurrection, the day of Sunday as if it were an eighth day, a day outside this earthly time, a day on which we live as if we were already in heaven. It is on this day that Christians celebrate the heavenly banquet, the wedding feast of the Lamb, a marriage between God and humanity, a meal where the two become one, a meal through which divine life gives itself to humanity as true nourishment. To show that the seventh day marks our entry into eternal life, Christians have called the following day, that of the resurrection, the eighth day. That’s why ancient baptisteries have an octagonal shape, to remind us of this heavenly reality. It is then that the victory over evil proclaimed on the seventh day is realized on earth, on the eighth day when the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk and the prisoners are set free. It is in the vision of God through faith that human beings find their true nature as children of God, children of light. It is when they can contemplate the work and presence of God that their eyes truly see; it is when they can have faith in God’s word and put it into practice that they hear and walk towards him, meeting and serving their neighbor; it is when they have freed themselves from the chain of violence by forgiving the offence received that they are no longer prisoners. This is why the prophets announced that, after counting seven times seven years, they would proclaim a sabbatical year, the fiftieth year in which human beings would be able to feed on the produce of the earth without working, regain their property and be freed from slavery. It is this year that Jesus came to bring to earth in the hearts of men, it is the Kingdom of God that has approached us. So, when he reads the words of the prophet Isaiah that speak of the Sabbatical year, he says that it is fulfilled today:
“The book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. He opened the book and found the passage where it is written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the Good News to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim a favorable year granted by the Lord.” (Luke 4:17-19).

And when he healed illnesses, it was to signify that he could heal us of our spiritual ills and bring us this deliverance from all evil, this victory over the death that holds us captive:
“At that hour Jesus healed many of their diseases, their infirmities and the evil spirits with which they were afflicted, and he gave sight to many who were blind. Then he said to the messengers, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor receive the Good News.” (Luke 7:21-22).

The Eucharistic meal

Christ blesses the Eucharistic meal. Mosaic from Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna (6th century). As at the last supper on Holy Thursday, after Judas’ departure, only the eleven apostles are arranged on a “stibadium” or “sigma table” (according to ancient Greek-Roman custom) in a semicircle around the Eucharistic meal. The loaves and fishes are placed on the table, as at the multiplication of the loaves and fishes and at the appearance of the resurrected Jesus to the apostles at Lake Tiberias. Indeed, the significance of this meal was foretold in the miracle of multiplication and the reality of communion with the risen Christ and his presence with us accomplished after his death and resurrection.

The joy of eternal life, the happiness of the Kingdom of Heaven, is represented by a wedding feast. St. John, in his vision of eternal divine realities, tells us this:
“Let us rejoice and give glory to God! For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and for him his bride has put on her finery. A garment of fine linen has been given to her, splendid and pure.” For linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. Then the angel said to me, “Write: Blessed are those invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb!” He added: “These are the true words of God.” (Revelation 19:7-9).
The innocent lamb that was slain is Jesus, and in dying he offered forgiveness to the multitude, i.e. he opened up access to a life-giving relationship with God. As children of God, we share his Spirit, we live and are enlivened, led by his Spirit. This is a true communion between God and the humanity that has become one with him. In this communion, God helps us through the trials to which humanity has exposed itself by turning away from him. By losing connection with the common source of life, human beings lose the bond of brotherhood that unites them and become divided. Their trials will then be caused by rivalries, jealousies and divisions. Humanity stumbles, limps, fails to find its way in the darkness. Letting ourselves be guided by God also means recognizing our missteps, our mistakes, our sins, and accepting his forgiveness. It also means continuing our journey, learning from our mistakes, seeing more clearly. Even if our journey on earth will always be shaky and full of pitfalls and trials, we can count on the One who will lead us all the way, despite our weaknesses, into the full light. So God becomes one with the one who trusts in him, and his Spirit dwells within him. This profound communion is achieved through a meal in which his word nourishes us like bread and wine, which we can incorporate, assimilate and live from. It’s a wedding feast, for humanity is united with God as a drop of water is united with wine to become one, as a bride is united with her groom, sharing his joys and sorrows. It’s a meal with a multitude of guests, all united by the bonds of the love we’re celebrating, the love that has finally reunited us with God. These guests are dressed in festive garments, as the Book of Revelation says, for righteous deeds are an adornment and testimony to our union with God, are a reflection of the love of God that dwells within us, that we have put on. (See also the article Matthew 22:1-14 The Wedding Garment).
Now, we need to know that Jesus tells us about this wedding feast in many parables, and that one of the central points in these stories is that all the places should be filled, for there are a multitude of places in the heavenly feast. Didn’t Jesus say to his apostles: “I am going to prepare a place for you, and there are many places in my Father’s dwelling”? Of course, there is a place for every one of his children, not a single one of them can be excluded. The problem in Jesus’ parables, and in real life, is that some guests do not respond positively to the invitation. That’s why Jesus is the good shepherd who seeks out the lost sheep and is prepared to risk his life for them. He will have no peace as long as places remain empty. He will send servants to seek out all the outcasts, to invite the beggars, the cripples and all kinds of poor people. It’s our wounded humanity he wants to invite, to care for and heal (see the article Luke 14:15-24 The guests invited at the Meal).
Once at table, Jesus prepares us to enter into communion with one another, in communion with him, with God, the source of love who brings us together. So parables are also about a wedding garment, the image of the good works, the works of justice that are necessary to truly live love, to put it into practice. It’s a question of being at the service of one another, as members of the same body, and that’s where we’ll find the source of life, deep joy and peace. But we need to have tried to put this into practice, to discover the joy of true communion with our neighbor, to discover the presence of God’s Spirit of love that fills us with a joy beyond our expectations, beyond our imagination. But it’s true that it’s not easy to achieve this communion between human beings, which is why Jesus first invited the apostles to have their feet washed by him, because to agree to have one’s feet washed is to admit to one another that we need to be washed, purified and forgiven. As long as we accuse one another, this communion is not possible. But acknowledging to one another that we too are responsible for our divisions, asking forgiveness for the wrongs we may have done to our neighbors, is the premise for entering into communion with one another. Jesus tells us:
“Therefore, when you go to present your offering at the altar, if there you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, go first to be reconciled with your brother, and then come and present your offering.” (Matthew 5:23-24).
So, once we’ve acknowledged our faults, once we’ve recognized that we too have a share in the divisions of this world, we’re ready to enter into a deeper communion with one another. First we let our feet be washed, that is, we ask forgiveness for what we trample on every day, for our daily lack of love, and then we can sit down at table. Indeed, there can be no communion between human beings if one believes himself to be superior to the others, and we cannot love our neighbor as ourselves if we do not consider him a member of our own body. And so, having done our part to reconcile with one another by acknowledging our wrongs, we can present the offering of bread and wine. In this offering, we are the seeds of wheat that will be gathered into a single dough, we are the seeds of grapes that will form a single wine. Indeed, Jesus declares that the bread and wine of this meal are his own body and blood. And we can be members of Christ’s body if we are brought together by his love, united with God in the same trusting filial relationship, and united with one another by the same love of divine life. The food Jesus gives is the divine life that unites us to him, that we can assimilate as real food, and that brings us together with one another, for we all become parts and members of the same body, if we all feed on the body of Christ. It is the bond of love with God that is thus restored, and it is the bond of brotherly love that reigns between human beings if, like members of the same body, we are all at each other’s service. But it won’t be easy to live this out in our daily lives, which is why we need to nourish our love and ask God to help us achieve this union, this communion. The very act of agreeing to share the same food, the same table, is a gesture that brings us together over and above our divisions and enmities. Already in this assembly we can experience a moment of peace, taste the joy of heaven, participating in this wedding feast where we celebrate the love that unites us to God and to one another. This is the seventh day, when we want to live on earth as we live in heaven, when the kingdom of heaven descends upon us. On this day, we abstain from evil deeds and try to reach out to our neighbors. We listen to God’s word, we read the Bible and feed on it, and this invites us to reach out to our neighbors. We present ourselves to God so that he can purify us, wash away our sins and divisions, and then welcome us as bread, as seeds that will become members of his own body, unified by his love. Once the offering has been presented, we say the prayer he has passed on to us, recognizing that we all, all humanity, have one Father, and we ask him to help us manifest his holiness through our actions, doing his will on earth as it is in heaven, loving one another as brothers and sisters. And so his Kingdom is established, coming into our hearts where we become one, into our hearts where we welcome the whole of humanity. Then he will be our daily bread, then he can be our food, he can dwell in us and we in him. He will forgive us all our trespasses, and we will do the same with our neighbor, so that evil will be vanquished and we will be delivered. (See Matthew 6:9-13 Our Father).
After saying the Our Father, we are ready to offer each other this peace, this love that comes from God, we embrace each other, we reconcile and then we welcome this nourishment that will make us grow in love and give us the strength to love our neighbor in our daily lives.
(For a fuller account of the covenant meal in the Bible and its links with Jesus’ Eucharistic meal, see the article The Eucharistic meal).

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

The transfiguration. Mosaic from Sant’Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna (6th century). A glimpse of the resurrection, of Christ’s victory over evil and death, is given to the apostles before they enter Jerusalem, where Christ is about to be put to death. On the summit of Mount Tabor, they contemplate Christ’s face, now shining like the sun, and his garments like light. Jesus speaks with Moses and Elijah and the apostles experience a great happiness. This mosaic shows us the world reconciled by Christ, a vision of eternal peace, of the victory of light over darkness, through the cross of Christ, above which is written: “Salus mundi”, salvation of the world.

Having asked God to nourish us with the bread of his Word, to nourish us by uniting us to the body of Christ who is the Word of God made flesh, once united to his own body, we can share in his filial relationship with the Father, filled with the love that the Father has for his Son. Filled with the same love for him, like Jesus who came to do his will, confident in the benevolence of the one who leads us to live the greatest love, to lay down our lives for our neighbor. Nourished by the bread that came down from heaven, we assimilate his presence in us, just as the members of the body are animated by the same spirit, are united to the same head. Then we can have the same regard for one another as Jesus has for each one of us: full of benevolence, ready to forgive faults and offenses, having first asked God and our neighbor for forgiveness for our own faults, having taken a step towards reconciliation ourselves. Thus, united with God, we participate in this wedding feast, this marriage, not only as guests, all united in and by the love we celebrate, but also as the bride who is united with the bridegroom. We become one with him, eating the bread of his body and drinking from the cup of the covenant, the cup of his blood. In his blood we accept his love, his forgiveness, for he shed this blood to prove his love for us by forgiving us: “And this righteousness of God, given through faith in Jesus Christ, is offered to all who believe. For there is no difference: all men have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and he freely makes them righteous through his grace, by virtue of the redemption accomplished in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:22-24).
The forgiveness we receive from God enables us to offer the same forgiveness to others. Knowing we are loved first by God, his love fills us with love for others too. Thus, all united in the same love, in the same body, we ask God not to let us enter into division, not to be separated from him, nor from our neighbor. When the Lord’s Prayer speaks of temptation, it’s not referring to all our daily lack of love, to all our selfishness, for which we’ll still need his forgiveness every day, and for which we’ll need the forgiveness of others whom we’ve also offended. This is our human condition, and the humility to acknowledge our faults and weaknesses is part of what brings us together, and makes us recognize that we are members of the same body, not superior to one another. We will have these temptations and weaknesses every day of our lives, and every day of our lives it will be important to recognize them and ask God and those we have offended for forgiveness. But when we ask God not to lead us into temptation, we’re asking him to keep us from anything that might separate us from him. If we commit a fault, but then seek forgiveness, we are still in a filial relationship with God and a fraternal relationship with our neighbor. To be separated from God, from the love of our neighbor, is something other than the temptations of our daily lives, than the weaknesses of our human condition. The day of the great temptation that the Bible tells us about was when the Hebrew people, who had received God’s help in freeing them from the slavery of Egypt, asked themselves: “Is the Lord among us, yes or no?” (Exodus 17:7). It ‘s when the link, the relationship, the dialogue with God breaks down, stops, that we are separated from him, cut off from the source of life. Even if we don’t understand God’s will, even if we’re rebellious and angry with him, the important thing is not to cut off the relationship, the dialogue. In the Bible, we have the book of Job, a man who was not a Jew, but who was in constant dialogue with God, thanking him for what life offered him and for what it took away, saying: “The Lord has given, the Lord has taken away: blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).
Then he suffered many disasters, losing his property, his health, his children, and his own wife told him he would have done better to curse God: “You still persist in your integrity! Curse God and die” (Job 2:9). Then Job, exasperated by life and by those around him, became angry and addressed violent reproaches to God. Then God answered him. True, he couldn’t understand the mystery of this world’s existence, and perhaps he wasn’t yet able to see and contemplate the victory of light over darkness, and how God is at work to lift us out of that darkness, out of evil, out of death. Job, however, did not interrupt the relationship, the dialogue with God; even angry, he attacked him, reproached him, but did not turn away from him. He was thus gratified by God’s presence and word, which reassured him and gave him a glimpse of this victory over evil. Of course, Job was not yet able to contemplate Christ’s victory in all its clarity, but God reminded him that he is the origin of all things, and it is to him that we go, and through his power we shall be victorious over all evil and death. Jesus revealed this victory to his apostles, who witnessed it with their lives. And the faithful see and contemplate this victory with the eyes of faith, enlightened by the word of the Gospel handed down to us by the apostles, enlightened by the witness of thousands of men and women who, like Jesus, have dared to risk their lives for love of neighbor, for justice, trusting in love, in its victory over evil and death. Confident in the eternal relationship that unites us to God and to one another. “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that can do no more”. (Luke 12:4), Jesus reminds us. The real danger would be to be deprived of eternal love. Those who have been faithful to the end, those who have been preserved from the temptation to deny God, to turn away from him, have received his help in trial, and evil: hatred and desire of vengeance against their enemies have not won their hearts. Beyond their death, they bore fruit, like stars, they shone in the darkness and illuminate our lives, encouraging us to seek the heavenly, eternal realities, the love that will never pass away. Thus St. Paul, persecuted but persevering in loving even his enemies, testifies: “[Love] bears all things, trusts all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love will never pass away.” (Corinthians 13:7-8).

And the bride of the Song of Songs also asks that love set her ablaze forever, stronger than death, eternal:
“Set me like a seal on your heart, like a seal on your arm. For love is strong like Death, its ardor, tenacious like the afterlife: its flames are flames of fire, divine furnace. Great waters cannot quench love, nor rivers wash it away.” (Song of Songs 8:6-7).
So Jesus exhorts us: “I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may truly be sons of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you deserve? Do not even the publicans do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what extraordinary thing do you do? Do not the people of other nations do the same? You, then, will be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:44-48).
So, the Our Father traces the whole journey of faith throughout our lives, and in the end, having forgiven those who have offended us, we are preserved from the temptation to give in to hatred and vengeance, the temptation to turn away from God. Then, by humbly remaining in dialogue, despite our powerlessness, despite our lack of understanding, we will be victorious over evil, we will share Christ’s victory over death, we will be delivered from evil (see also the article Matthew 6:9-13 Our Father).