Before starting his ministry, Jesus “filled with the Holy Spirit” was led to the desert, where he was put to the test by the devil, says Luke the evangelist (4.1). He did not eat or drink, and after forty days he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to turn into a loaf.” Jesus replied, “It is written, “Men live not on bread alone, but are sated with the Word of God.” (Luke 4.3–4).
The nourishment of the Lord’s prayer transforms the Christian to its supernatural constitution, to the Body of Christ in the reality of the Church. We pray every day to become more perfectly like the heavenly Father, to share fully the divine nature as true children.
The Father’s Only-Begotten Word is our daily bread, satisfying to the full our hunger, because what is the value of gaining the whole world if we fail to gain the eternal life of our soul?
We must be aware, however, that the measure established by Christ requires much more than a meager nourishment of spiritual grace for our souls. This bread is the Body of the New Covenant and the cup is the Blood. By taking this communion, the Christian must trans-substantiate into the Word of God and must carry that Word as a sacred repository.
The preaching of Jesus transforms our stony hearts into bread, into God’s Word. He wrote the Father’s law of love in our fleshy hearts, so that our faith may become anchored to the power of the Holy Spirit, and not to human wisdom (1 Corinthians 2.4–5). Our announcement of the kingdom of God comes forth from the Spirit of faith (2 Corinthians 4.13), making us true ambassadors of Christ (2 Corinthians 5.20).
The moment we become transformed to the words of the Lord’s prayer, we will start praying with our nature, with our very being. We will become the branches of the tree of eternal life and the Heavenly Father will prune us to bring forth abundant fruit to His glory (chapter 15 of the Gospel according to John). Only then will we be able to give the peace of Jesus, in the measure of divine abundance, and not in the barren material sound of a liturgical formula.
Our preaching must be founded not on our word but on that of God (1 Corinthians 14.36). The Word of the Heavenly Father will be our own nature in the reality of the Church, and the sap of the Holy Spirit will circulate in our arteries, giving divine dimension and life to our every motion (Galatians 5.25). We will be able to proclaim with Paul the Apostle that it is not I who lives, but Christ lives in me (Galatians 2.20). We will be able to give a living witness through our example not only that Christ resides in us in his royal glory, but we have been transfigured, consecrated into Christ (Galatians 4.19).
What can be said of all the human frailty and inadequacy and sinfulness in the Church? We are given our human shortcoming as a thorn in the flesh, a messenger from Satan to batter us to prevent us from getting above ourselves and getting filled up with pride. Our human frailty keeps us on the humble road of penance and constant conversion to the Father, as we bear in mind that the grace of the Lord is sufficient for us (2 Corinthians 12.7–9) to bring to life in our human nature the Word of the Father, that tree of everlasting life planted in the vineyard of God, His Kingdom.
