Tuesday, October 15, 2013

583. How is it possible to address God as “Father”? (part 2 continuation)



583. How is it possible to address God as “Father”?  (part 2 continuation)         

(Comp 583 repetition) We can invoke the “Father” because the Son of God made man has revealed him to us and because his Spirit makes him known to us. The invocation, Father, lets us enter into his mystery with an ever new sense of wonder and awakens in us the desire to act as his children. When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we are therefore aware of our being sons of the Father in the Son.
“In brief”
(CCC 2799) The Lord's Prayer brings us into communion with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. At the same time it reveals us to ourselves (cf. GS 22 § 1).   
To deepen and explain
(CCC 2781) When we pray to the Father, we are in communion with him and with his Son, Jesus Christ (Cf. 1 Jn 1:3). Then we know and recognize him with an ever new sense of wonder. The first phrase of the Our Father is a blessing of adoration before it is a supplication. For it is the glory of God that we should recognize him as "Father," the true God. We give him thanks for having revealed his name to us, for the gift of believing in it, and for the indwelling of his Presence in us.   
Reflection
(CCC 2782) We can adore the Father because he has caused us to be reborn to his life by adopting us as his children in his only Son: by Baptism, he incorporates us into the Body of his Christ; through the anointing of his Spirit who flows from the head to the members, he makes us other "Christs." God, indeed, who has predestined us to adoption as his sons, has conformed us to the glorious Body of Christ. So then you who have become sharers in Christ are appropriately called "Christs" (St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catech. myst. 3, 1: PG 33, 1088A). The new man, reborn and restored to his God by grace, says first of all, "Father!" because he has now begun to be a son (St. Cyprian, De Dom. orat. 9: PL 4, 525A). [IT CONTINUES]   

(The question: How is it possible to address God as “Father”? continues)

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