This article was written for the Knight of Columbus newsletter, hence, the Catholic influence within it. However, I think it can apply to the faith traditions of many religions.
“Thy will be done” … let’s look at our prayer life. We will all acknowledge that it is important to pray. However, is the intent of our prayer to force, to coerce God to bend to our will, or, is our intent to open our lives up to God’s will? The pagan way of praying was to offer sacrifice to make the gods do the will of the one making the sacrifice. We can look at what the pagans did and criticize them, however, are we not guilty of the same? When we are very sick or undergoing some great trauma in our lives, do we not bargain with God to fulfill a favorable outcome in our lives by promising to pray or change our lives in some way? For example, it is a good thing to pray a novena. However, in praying a novena are we trying to bend God’s will to our own? The devotion to the Sacred Heart requires us to pray the rosary everyday and to receive communion on the first Friday of each month. If we do this, according to the St Margaret Mary Alocque, we will be assured of going to heaven at our death. Logically, if we are praying the rosary every day and receiving holy communion on the first Friday of every month, the likelihood of us murdering someone, robbing a bank, or committing some other mortal sin that might rob of us eternal life in heaven is very slim.
This is why the Lord’s Prayer is the most perfect of prayers. For what are we praying? It’s very simple, that God’s will be paramount in our lives, period! We see this modeled for us by Jesus in his agony in the garden when he prays to the Father to relieve him of the passion and execution that awaits him the next day. However, Jesus concludes the prayer by saying, “not my will but Your will be done.” As we pray, it is fine to ask God for that which we need, but let us always conclude our prayer with that of Jesus, “not my will but Your will be done.”
