In your prayers do not babble as the pagans do
In today's gospel Jesus reacts against a contemporary situation of his time. Yesterday we heard him warn his disciples against praying the way the hypocrites do, standing in synagogues or at street corners so that everyone can see that they are praying. Today he warns them against praying like the pagans who use so many words thinking that this way they will be understood. They remind us of the contest between Elijah and the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:20-40). We too must not copy contemporary practices of prayer for their sake.
To understand today's gospel reading better it is good to contrast it with another teaching of Christ about prayer. He does tell us to pray without tiring. He himself spent entire nights in prayer when he could. He urged his disciples to pester God into giving them what they needed like the friend who went to his friend for bread at night, and like a widow who pestered the unjust judge into executing justice in her favor. Yet when his disciples ask him to teach them how to pray, he teaches them a prayer than can be said in less than 30 seconds.
The clue to understanding the teaching is first of all in the phrase: "do not babble". The word sounds like its meaning: babbling is talking without thinking much about what you are talking: making noise like a baby who has not learnt a language. It is talking "bla, bla bla..." Jesus is teaching us to think about what we are saying; to let the meaning of very word sink into our mind. You may even take as long as a full hour praying the Our Father. Secondly, from the words sinking into the mind they should also sink into the heart. Feel what you are saying: relish the fact that Our Father is the God who is in heaven... Praying that way makes the Our Father ever meaningful, ever new, for whereas the words are the same, each his will is expressed in new challenges. Each day we have different needs for which we ask. Each day we have different trespasses we present to him to forgive. Thirdly, meaningful prayer must be lived. This we gather in the last phrase. "unless you forgive each other offences your heavenly Father will not forgive you yours either. That applies to everything we assert in the Our Father: we should live what we have understood and taken to heart.
