Vol. II November 1999

"On A Roman Bus"

I cannot remember exactly where I was going, it might have been to St. Peter's, or maybe it was down to St. Patrick's, the Irish Church run by the Augustinians in Rome. I waited with about a dozen other passengers at a bus stop on the Via Nomentana. Our bus finally came along. As we climbed onto the bus I noticed there was a young lady sitting down blocking half of the entrance. Normally there would be space enough for two to get on at the one time, but our young friend, sitting there with a box of cigarettes and matches in her hand, was making sure that this would not happen. I must confess that I allowed myself to judge and interiorly criticize her.

I made my way to the ticket machine and canceled my ticket. As I turned away from the machine there she was looking me straight in the face. She spoke to me in Italian: "Could you teach me the Base Prayer?" she asked. I thought for a moment and then, in my best Italian, replied, "you mean the Our Father". "Yes", she said. I then felt a moment of unease: was I going to try teach it to her in Italian? I had prayed the Our Father that morning in Italian, but that was at our community Mass, would I manage it on my own? I feared not, so I asked, "can it be in English?" She replied in the positive.

Once again I hesitated: "was I going to teach her the Our Father aloud on a crowded Roman bus?" Well that's exactly what she wanted. She had already shown courage by asking, I must now be courageous and try doing what Christ did for His disciples 2000 years previously. I began to pray the Lord's Prayer in a moderately loud and clear voice, enough to be heard over the sound of the bus's engine. I prayed slowly in the hope that the words of this most powerful prayer would sink deep into her memory.

After I had finished I realized that she couldn't have managed to memorize it all at the one go. I asked when she was getting off the bus. "Next stop", was the reply. I agreed to get off with her and offered to write out the Our Father. She gladly accepted and produced a sheet of paper. After having fulfilled this little task I asked did she understand the "Thee" and the "Thou". She replied that these words presented no difficulty to her. I then offered to add the Hail Mary. She was not too keen. She was happy with the Lord's Prayer. She thanked me and we parted.

At first I was a little sad that she had not accepted the Hail Mary, but then I thought to myself that if God had moved her to learn and pray the Our Father, I should be happy with that. God's ways are not our ways. His ways are most perfect. The grace that God had given her that particular day was to seek the Our Father, and if she would but meditate that Prayer, which is the greatest of all prayers, if she would but sound its incredible riches, she would undoubtedly make great progress in her friendship with God.

"Sounding the riches of the Lord's Prayer": let that be our aim, and we will slowly but surely begin to understand what the New Testament tells us about God Our Father.

Intimacy with the Father

You might or might not believe it, but the great Greek philosopher, Aristotle, stated that we cannot be friends of God. What brought him to such a conclusion? He affirmed very simply that the distance was too great. Would it be possible for a beggar to have a true friendship with Queen Elizabeth II? Such is unheard of. The distance between a man of the road and the head of state is too great, it makes friendship impossible. If such is true between two human persons after all, the Queen and the beggar are both human beings how much truer is it between a man or a woman and God Himself? The sad conclusion seems to be that we cannot be friends of God!

Aristotle was wise, but on this issue we trust that you, the Christian reader of this little writing, are even wiser. We can be friends of God. Christ has built the bridge. Or maybe it would be better to say that Christ is the bridge. He is God, but He became man, and by becoming man He has bridged the infinite distance that existed between God and ourselves. Christ is our bridge. He is our friend, and He introduces us to friendship with His Father.

Through Jesus Christ we have become friendly with the Father. Christ went to the extent of calling us His brothers: "go and tell my brothers that they must leave for Galilee; they will see me there" (Mt 28,10). We are the brothers and sisters of Jesus, as His Father has become Our Father; we are the brothers and sisters of Jesus, if we do the will of the Father who is in heaven (cf. Mt 12,50).

To help understand the Father's closeness to us we could use a little comparison: The Prime Minister of Great Britain, Mr. Tony Blair, is married and has three children. Let us imagine that, as he is driving through the poorest part of London in his state Mercedes, he sees a poor orphan. He stops the car, jumps out and approaches this young boy. Considering that this lad has little or no education the Prime Minister introduces himself. At first the young boy is frightened: "what can this possibly mean, the Prime Minister talking to me?" As he notices the kind expression on the face of the country's most important politician his apprehension wanes and is substituted by joy. The Prime Minister orders him: "jump into the car, you're coming home with me today". The young lad can hardly believe his luck. At least he'll have a good meal before nightfall. The car moved through the streets of London until it finally came to a stop outside No. 10 Downing Street. For the first time in his life little Tommy set foot inside such a beautiful house. The Prime Minister showed him into the family room and there, in the presence of his wife and three children, invited Tommy to become their adoptive son. The young lad was flabbergasted: Is it really possible that he was going to be treated as a son of the Prime Minister? He enjoyed his first meal with his new family, and then passed an entire evening with them, during the course of which, he began to realize that he had not only gained a father but also a mother.

Doubts, however, still lingered in his mind! Will he really treat me as his son? Can I really take the liberties of a natural child? These doubts lead him to a certain clumsiness in his dealing with the Prime Minister. When addressing him he used such language as "Your Excellency", "Mister", and even "Your Lordship". The Prime Minister took him aside and said: "Tommy, I'll have none of that kind of talk here at home, just call me Dad". Tommy threw himself into the arms of the Prime Minister and cried, he cried for pure joy. He was truly the son of the nation's most important person.

My friend, as you have well guessed, the above account is the product of an imagination, but of a Christian imagination: We do not expect such "loving and sincere condescendence" of our politicians, but we can, nay we must learn to accept that God has come to visit us from on high. He, Our Father, stoops down and listens to each one of us as if we were an only son or daughter.

The attention of God is not divided between His many, many children. He treats you as if you were His favorite son or daughter. But do you treat Him as He deserves to be treated?

From nothing He created us, out of pure love He saved us, He continues day in and day out to think of us and to protect us. But we pass most of our time as if He did not exist. Let us make the sincere effort to love Our Father. Let us pray the Prayer of all prayers with greater attention, and let us spend some time in intimate conversation with God our Father. In the silence of prayer grows the form of new life in God.