Article 183 - Catechism of the Catholic Church Series
Paragraphs 2807-2815
What is your idea of God? Christian art and symbolism use imagery to aid the human mind in forming a concept of God. For example, painters portray God as wise and dignified, while some artists symbolize God as a giant eye in stained glass windows in churches. To form a true notion of the infinite majesty of God, however, we need to expand our horizons with a more complete and balanced idea of Him. Otherwise, we become like those who say that there is no God, that our world has no Maker because we cannot imagine anyone big enough or magnificent enough to make it!
This is partly why we invoke the words “hallowed be Thy name” in the Lord’s Prayer as a way “to recognize as holy, to treat in a holy way” (CCC 2807) the very name of God. In fact, “this invocation is sometimes understood as praise and thanksgiving” (CCC 2807).
It is important for us to know, too, that, “beginning with this first petition to our Father, we are immersed in the innermost mystery of His Godhead and the drama of the salvation of our humanity” (CCC 2807). Our request in “asking the Father that His name be made holy draws us into His plan of loving kindness … according to His purpose which He set forth in Christ“ (CCC 2807). This sets us on the path, as Saint Paul says it, to becoming “holy and blameless before Him in love” (Ephesians 1:9). How is this made possible? Because, as Paul explains: “[God] makes known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth (Ephesians1:9-10).
The next paragraph teaches: “In the decisive moments of His economy God reveals His name, but He does so by accomplishing His work. This work, then, is realized for us and in us only if His name is hallowed by us and in us” (CCC 2808). This self-disclosure and making known to us His will is fundamentally Christ-centered. Why? Because in the fullness of time, “the Word of God became flesh and made His dwelling among us” (John 1:14). Therefore, Jesus provides the answer for all of us when asked: “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” (John 6:28). “Jesus answered … ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in the one He sent’” (John 6:29). In other words, God’s self-revelation is made known to us through the work of God in Christ Jesus. His name is made holy (hallowed) “by us” through our words and deeds and “in us” by our Christ-filled interior lives. Thus, when we say, “hallowed be Thy name,” we are not only praying that God Our Father may be known and honored by all people, but we are resolved to do our part toward sincerely making God better known and loved.
Although “the holiness of God is the inaccessible center of His eternal mystery” (CCC 2809), God chose to reveal or share “the radiance of His majesty” or “glory” with us by making us “in His image and likeness.” By sinning, however, we “fell short of the glory of God” and in order to restore us to His image, God manifested His holiness by revealing and giving His name to us. We learn from Jesus that God is “Father.” In addition to the Lord’s Prayer, another tender scene in which Jesus invokes the name of God as “Father” is in the Garden of Gethsemane, when He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible to you; remove this chalice from me; yet not what I will, but what You will” (Mark 14:36). Throughout the Gospels, Jesus refers to God as Father more than 165 times.
Reverence for God’s holy name is discerned in the Second Commandment. The Commandment not only forbids us to take God’s name in vain, but it also commands us to venerate God’s name. No wonder Christ’s first petition in the Lord’s Prayer, the most perfect of prayers, is “hallowed be Thy name.” We hallow God’s name by using it in prayer to lift people up and not as a form of cursing another. If we sincerely desire to hallow God’s name, we must do our best to make it known, loved, glorified and honored. In fact, “from the covenant of Sinai onwards, this people is ‘His own’ and it is to be a ‘holy nation,’ because the name of God dwells in it” (CCC 2810). Later, “because He ‘sanctifies’ His own name, Jesus reveals to us the name of the Father. At the end of Christ’s Passover, the Father gives Him the name that is above all names: ‘Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father’” (CCC 2812). Finally, “in His priestly prayer, Jesus asks: ‘Holy Father, protect in Your name those whom You have given me’” (CCC 2815).
When we pray the words “hallowed be Thy name,” we are speaking not only on our own behalf, but on behalf of all people who are grateful to God for His many blessings. As such, we cannot utter this part of the Our Father with real sincerity unless we are resolved to do our part in joining others to make God’s name better known and loved.
In this digital age, a familiar television commercial advertising the Catholic APP named “Hallow” is presently being aired on various channels. The actor who plays Jesus on “The Chosen” speaks about the importance of prayer and tells viewers to go to the APP for more information on how to become better pray-ers.
Father Hillier is director, diocesan Office of Pontifical Mission Societies, the Office for Persons with Disabilities and Censor Luborum.