REV. DANIEL ROHAN The Lord's Prayer: the spiritual equalizer

A young boy is in trouble. His parents are frantic. They have tried to get help from their families, their friends, even the legal authorities. These people have tried to help, but nothing seems to work. There is only one place left for them to go: "The Equalizer."
Have you ever wished there really was an equalizer? Apparently many people have, because a TV program was written about one. Of course, that was fiction. There really isn't a person called "The Equalizer."
In our Christian life, too, we often get overwhelmed. We know how we should live, and we try so hard to live that way. But every time we turn around, things are pulling us away from God.
Even St. Paul seems to have experienced this. In Romans 7, he says, "For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish."
Why is it we seem unable to keep our Christian life running the way it should? What takes our spiritual eyes off the Holy Trinity? Each of us has a different set of reasons. In school we have peer pressure, countless hours of study, not to mention class time and worry about grades. A young parent has mounds of dirty diapers, dirty dishes piled to the ceiling and crying children. At the office we have irritable co-workers, unreasonable bosses, ringing telephones and overdue projects. Can anyone doubt our need for a spiritual equalizer?
Spiritual strategy
Fortunately, this equalizer is not fiction. It is something we can truly utilize to bring the Holy Trinity back into focus.
This equalizer is the Lord's Prayer. The Orthodox saint Maximus the Confessor tells us that this prayer contains the whole purpose and aim of our life. He says, "The prayer includes petitions for everything that the Divine Word effected through His self-emptying in the Incarnation, and it teaches us to strive for those blessings of which the true provider is God the Father alone through the natural mediation of the Son in the Holy Spirit."
He also says that of the mysteries God has granted to us, seven are of general significance. "And it is these whose power, as I have said, lies hidden within the Lord's Prayer."
First, the prayer speaks of the Father, his name and his kingdom, so that right from beginning we are taught to revere, invoke and worship the Trinity.
Second, the prayer shows us the person who prays is by grace a son of the Father.
Next is a petition that those in heaven and those on earth may be united in one will, the will of God.
The prayer then tells us to ask for our daily bread. This is a twofold request. Primarily this refers to spiritual food. The Lord allows us to participate in his divine life by making himself our food in the Eucharist. Of course, we are also asking for our daily needs.
Reconciliation and sin
Then we learn that people should be reconciled with one another through forgiveness. When we forgive and are forgiven, we are no longer split apart by differences of will and purpose but are united through reconciliation.
Now we pray that we do not enter into temptation, for to do so is the law of sin.
Then the prayer encourages us to ask for deliverance from the evil one.
St. Maximus says that through the words of the Lord's Prayer, God has revealed to us all the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge that exist in him. This in itself is a good reason to say this prayer, but he goes on to say, "in all who offer this prayer He kindles the desire to enjoy such treasures."
Now that we have emphasized we have a spiritual equalizer, the Lord's Prayer, the next question is, how does this equalizer keep our Christian life headed in the right direction?
Imagine a huge, immovable boulder on the edge of a lake. Out in the water is a small boat tied to the boulder by a rope. If someone in the boat pulls on the rope, what happens? The answer is obvious. Now God is the boulder and the Lord's Prayer is the rope. By pulling on this rope, so to speak, one can through faith pull himself toward God.
How often throughout the day should we utilize the equalizer? Church tradition encourages us to do so at least seven times a day. Does that sound easy? It's not. But this certainly should be our goal. The Lord's Prayer could be prayed before we go to sleep at night, when we wake up in the morning and before each meal. That's five times already!
I do not know how successful "The Equalizer" on TV would have been in the real world. I do know, however, how successful our spiritual equalizer can be. The lives of the saints show how well it works. We also have been instructed by our Lord to pray this way.
Do you need a spiritual equalizer? This one is a sure thing. We have God's promise on it!
XThe Rev. Daniel Rohan is pastor at St. Mark Orthodox Church in Liberty.