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Every
time I say the Our
Father I
wonder what it means, “Lead us not into temptation.” Would God
be that mean to us to tempt us? I’ve never heard an explanation that
isn’t just a fancy cover up of what seems to be the obvious yet
shouldn’t be.
 any theologians through the ages
have offered their explanations of the Our Father, and these explanation
all have some merit. But since this is a website about Catholic psychology,
I will offer a psychological explanation—which, in its own way, will
lead us to the theological meaning.
So consider now what would happen
if I told you, “Don’t think of pink elephants in the next few
minutes.” Well, if you are as imaginative as most persons, as soon as
you hear the words “pink elephants” you will be visualizing, in
your imagination, a pink elephant.
This, then, points to a curious
psychological principle about a negative admonition: When told
not to do something, we immediately think of doing it.
In the case of the Our
Father, when we say, “Lead us not into temptation,” we can’t
avoid thinking of temptation. And that right there is the theological
point.
To begin to understand this,
let’s take a more simple example. Think of the many times that Christ
told the Apostles, “Do not be afraid.” Notice that He didn’t
just say, “Be at peace.” By saying, “Do not be afraid,”
He deliberately puts the thought of fear into the Apostle’s minds. Why?
Well, the reason is psychological: to remind the Apostles that they
are afraid, and to emphasize, therefore, that all they have in their
lives is fear—that is, without Christ all
they have is fear. But with Christ, He who is speaking, there is no fear.
Thus, by telling them what not to do, Christ reminds the Apostles of their
wretched reality while at the same time offering freedom from it
all.
And this, then, is the same dynamic
at work in the Our Father. When we say, “Lead us not into
temptation,” we can’t help but be reminded that we are surrounded
by temptation. It’s everywhere. The world is full of temptation. Temptation
is in the air like a fog dripping from dark clouds of deception.
So there’s our
reality.
And where is our freedom from
it all?
Well, by realizing the horror
of being surrounded by temptation, we can then be receptive to what God is
calling us to do: renounce the
world and its impious darkness
and follow Christ into the light. In other words, rather than muttering in
our hearts, “But I will die if I have to
give up the satisfactions of the world!” we find ourselves in the place
of begging God to lead us away from the world.
Therefore, when we pray the words
our Savior gave us—“Lead us not into temptation”—we find
ourselves essentially begging God the Father for a
detachment from the world that, left to ourselves,
we would never think of wanting.
But why then, we can ask in
conclusion, do we have so many Christians who, despite their praying the
Our Father, have swallowed temptation hook, line, and sinker? The
answer is simple. When reciting the Our Father, most persons don’t
look with deep contemplation into the darkness
of their hearts; instead, they say their prayers as just rote words, missing
the point of prayer itself. And what did Christ say about this sort of empty
piety? “I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the
scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven”
(Matthew 5:20). Think about that now. This is a straight-forward positive
admonition, not a negative admonition. So what does Christ
want you to do?
  
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