EVEN IN TEMPTATION WE CAN COUNT ON OUR FATHER NOT TO ABANDON US
Wednesday, May 1 marks International Labor Day in many parts of the world. It is also the feast day of St. Joseph the Worker. At the general audience in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis continued his weekly catechesis on the Our Father, focusing on the petition, “Lead us not into temptation.”
He also noted the May 1 holiday and called that the low employment rates that mark the current situation across the world as a “global tragedy”. At the end of his catechesis, in fact, Francis asked the patron saint of workers, St. Joseph, to intercede for those who have lost their jobs or are unable to find work.
In his teaching on the “Our Father,” the Pope reflected on the invocation: “Lead us not into temptation,” and pointed to recent discussions on a possible change in the wording of that petition to read “abandon us not when in temptation.”
The Holy Father said, “It is with this penultimate invocation that our dialogue with our heavenly Father enters, so to speak, in the midst of the drama of the battle between our freedom and the snares of the evil one. ”
He then pointed to translation issues and said, “it is not easy to accurately capture the exact meaning of the original Greek version of the (Our Father) prayer,” adding “all modern translations are a bit lame.”
However, said Francis, we know one thing for sure: God who loves His children “will not seek to put temptations in our way. …Let’s not forget, a father does not set traps for his children.”
He explained that even Jesus, in his earthly life, had trials and temptations, and said, “this experience of the Son of God makes him completely our brother.” One example would be the devil tempting Jesus during 40 days in the desert, and a second would be when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsamane and, knowing he was about to die for mankind’s salvation, nonetheless told His Father, “thy will be done.”
Such examples, said the Pope, show us that God never leaves His Son alone. A father does not abandon his children. And we can count on God, Our Father: “He is with us when he gives us life, during our lives, in moments of joy and of trouble, he is with us in sadness and in defeat, when we sin. He is always with us because a Father cannot abandon us. …He is a Father who always fights for us, and not against us.”
Thus, said Francis, “we pray to our Father ‘lead us from times of temptation’,
but when this time comes, ‘show us we are not alone, show us that Christ has already taken upon himself the weight of our cross, show us that Christ is calling on us to carry it with him, and help us to abandon ourselves to Your fatherly love.”
Here is the summary of the papal catechesis that was read to English-speaking pilgrims present at today’s audience:
Dear Brothers and Sisters: In our continuing catechesis on the “Our
Father,” we now consider the penultimate invocation: “Lead us not into
temptation.” Here our dialogue with God enters into the drama of the
battle between our freedom and the snares of the evil one. It is not
easy to accurately capture the exact meaning of the original Greek,
but we can certainly say that God does not seek to put temptations in
our way. Both tribulation and temptation, moreover, are mysteriously
present even in the life of Jesus, and this experience makes him
completely our brother. In the desert and in the garden of Gethsemane,
Jesus overcomes any temptation to abandon the Father’s will. When we
in turn are tempted, we know that we are not alone: for Christ has
already taken on himself the weight of our cross, calling us to carry
it with him and to entrust ourselves to the Father’s faithful love.
Joan's Rome 