As I suggested in the last issue, the petition in the Our Father that asks that we not be led into temptation, is a prayer that we be liberated from the deceit and vanity of our minds and hearts, from the carnal lusts that dwell in our bodies. It is a prayer that God Himself would be man’s shelter and refuge (cf. Ps 91).

This brings us to the very last petition of the Our Father – deliver us from evil. This last petition is also included in Jesus’ prayer: “I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one” which is found in John’s Gospel (Chapter 17 of John’s Gospel). It touches each of us personally, but it is always “we” who pray, in communion with the whole Church, for the deliverance of the whole human family. The Lord’s Prayer continually opens us to the range of God’s economy of salvation. Our interdependence in the drama of sin and death is turned into solidarity in the Body of Christ, the “communion of saints.”

In this petition, evil is not an abstraction, but refers to a person, Satan, the Evil One, the angel who opposes God. The devil is the one who “throws himself across” God’s plan and his work of salvation accomplished in Christ. “A murderer from the beginning, … a liar and the father of lies,” Satan is “the deceiver of the whole world.” Through him sin and death entered the world and by his definitive defeat all creation will be “freed from the corruption of sin and death.” Now “we know that anyone born of God does not sin, but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world is in the power of the evil one.”

Deliver us, Lord, we beseech you, from every evil and grant us peace in our day, so that aided by your mercy we might be ever free from sin and protected from all anxiety, as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

The Our Father is truly the ultimate prayer of all humans since it is the prayer of our brother Jesus Who has invited us to join Him in worshipping the Father. Together with Jesus we address God as our ABBA – loving Father – and petition Him to help us come to a true understanding of the meaning and purpose of life and keep us focused on the task of life: becoming like Jesus, our Father’s revelation to us about how to be the human He created us to be.