430th Meditation
“My children, it is true that you love Me and honour Me when you say the first part of the Our Father, but go on with the other petitions and you will see: “Hallowed be Thy Name! Is My Name blessed?” (Father’s message to Sister Eugenia Ravasio).
Just as there is salvation in the Name of Jesus (cf. Acts 4:12) and the powers of hell tremble at the sound of it, so it is when we invoke God as our Father.
In the Eastern Church it is common to practice the so-called “heart prayer”, in which the name of the Lord Jesus is invoked over and over again. Some spiritual masters exhort their disciples to always have the Name of Jesus on their lips and in their hearts; that great and wonderful Name in which salvation is contained. In the Catholic sphere we know the Litany of the Most Holy Name of Jesus.
Perhaps this background serves as a bridge to understand why the First Person of the Blessed Trinity wants us to address Him by the name of Father. Indeed, by calling Him “Father”, we bear witness to what God is really like. He is not a distant and absent God; He is not a harsh ruler, let alone a tyrant. No!
The Creator of heaven and earth, the One who has no beginning and no end, the One before whom the heavens and the faithful on earth bow, is different: He is a Father full of love. When we call on His Name and enter into the relationship of trust and intimacy that the name “Father” implies, we break through the web of lies and deception that the devil has woven over humanity to prevent it from entering into this intimate relationship with God.
Every time we call on our Father in faith, the reality between heaven and earth is restored and we help to detoxify the world from the poison that the enemy of the human race has sown in our hearts and in the hearts of all human beings. The layer of ice that surrounds the hearts of people must melt when they hear of their most loving Father, whom they know so little or ignore altogether.
May the Father’s Name be sanctified by us as we call Him thus and bear witness to His Fatherhood!