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On the Lord’s Prayer

St Gregory of Nyssa, tr. Graef, 1954

5. The Lord’s Prayer: Sermon 5

Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil

As our enquiry progresses, it comes to the very peak of virtue; for the words of the prayer outline what sort of a man one should be if one would approach God. Such man is almost no longer shown in terms of human nature, but, through virtue, is likened to God Himself, so that he seems to be another god, in that he does those things that God alone can do. For the forgiving of debts¹ is the special prerogative of God, since it is said, No man can forgive sins but God alone.² If therefore a man imitates in his own life the characteristics of the Divine Nature, he becomes somehow that which he visibly imitates. What therefore does the prayer teach? First that we should be conscious of our likeness to God through the liberty of our life,³ then to be bold to call God our Father, and to ask that our sins should no more be remembered. Not, indeed, as if it lay with him who asks to obtain his desire, but that his works have given him boldness to make this request.

This we are plainly told in the present passage. If we approach the Benefactor, we should ourselves be benefactors; if we go to Him who is good and just, we should ourselves be the same. Because He is forbearing and kind, we should also be forbearing and kind, and so with all the other things. For He is benign and gentle, He communicates good things and dispenses mercy to every one—to all these qualities, and whatever else we may see in the Divine Being, we should be assimilated by our free will. Thus a man should obtain the confidence presupposed by the prayer. It is impossible that a wicked man should be intimate with a good man, or that someone wallowing in impure thoughts should be friends with somebody who is perfectly pure. Thus too a callous man trying to approach God is far from the Divine charity. Hence someone who cruelly detains a man who is in his power on account of debts, separates himself from the Divine kindness by his very way of life. For what communion has kindness with cruelty, a loving character with ferocity?

And so it is with the other things; whatever is known as diametrically opposed to evil cannot be mixed with its opposite; whoever is in the power of the one is completely separated from its contrary. For he who is dead is not alive; and if he enjoys life he is separated from death. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that a man who approaches the charity of God should rid himself of all callousness. And if a man is free from everything that comes under the idea of evil he becomes, so to speak, a god by his very way of life, since he verifies in himself what reason finds in the Divine Nature.

Do you realize to what height the Lord raises His hearers through the words of the prayer, by which He somehow transforms human nature into what is Divine? For he lays down that those who approach God should themselves become gods. Why, He says, do you go to God crouching with fear like a slave because your conscience pricks you? Why do you shut out holy audacity which is inherent in the freedom of the soul because it has been joined to its very essence from the beginning? Why do you seek to flatter with words Him who brooks no flattery? Why do you offer language of abject servility to Him who regards only deeds? Yet you may lawfully say whatever is worthy of God, because your mind is free in its own right. Be yourself your own judge, give yourself the sentence of acquittal. Do you want your debts to be forgiven by God? Forgive them yourself, and God will ratify it. For your judgement of your neighbour which is in your power, whatever it may be, will call forth the corresponding sentence upon you. What you decide for yourself will be confirmed by the Divine judgement.

But how could anyone worthily expound the lofty character of the Divine utterance? The meaning surpasses the exegesis of the words, Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. It is rash to ponder in my mind the thoughts about it that come into my head, and even more so to reveal what I think in words.

What is actually being said? As to those who would achieve goodness, God is proposed for imitation according to the words of the Apostle, Be ye followers of me, as I also am of Christ,⁴ so conversely He wants your disposition to be a good example to God! The order is somehow reversed; just as in us the good is accomplished by imitating the Divine goodness, so we dare to hope that God will also imitate us when we accomplish anything good—so that you, too, may say to God: Do Thou the same as I have done. Imitate Thy servant, O Lord, though he be only a poor beggar and thou art the King of the universe. I have forgiven the debts, do not Thou demand them back; I have had regard to him who petitioned me, I have sent my debtor away rejoicing, may Thine be done to likewise. Do not sadden him who is under obligation to Thee; but let both give thanks equally to their creditors. May the same forgiveness be ratified by both for both parties, for my debtor and Thine. He is my debtor, I am Thy debtor; may the disposition which I have shown him also prevail with Thee. I have absolved, absolve Thou, too; I have forgiven, forgive Thou also! I have shown great mercy to my neighbour—imitate Thy servant’s charity, O Lord!

Yet my sins are graver than the ones he has committed against me. I admit that; but take into account how far Thou excellest all in goodness. For Thou art just, therefore Thou wilt give to us who have sinned the mercy that is proportioned to Thy exalted power. I have shown a little charity, for my nature did not contain more; but Thou canst show as much as Thou wilt, for Thy munificence is not hampered by lack of power.

But let us now consider the present clause of the prayer in greater detail, if perhaps through closer consideration we may find there also for ourselves guidance to the sublime life. We will therefore examine what debts human nature owes, and, on the other hand, what debts it is in our power to forgive. For from the knowledge of these a fair perception of the Divine goodness may be derived. Let us therefore start from an account of man’s debts towards God.

In the first place, man had to pay a penalty to God because he had separated himself from his Maker and deserted to the enemy, and thus become a runaway and apostate from his natural Master. Secondly, because he had exchanged for the liberty of his free will the wicked slavery of sin, he preferred the tyranny of the power of destruction to the companionship of God. But what greater evil is there than not to look at the beauty of the Creator, and to turn one’s eyes towards shameful sin instead? What kind of punishment ought to be assigned to the man who scorns the Divine goodness and prefers the baits of the evil one? Which treatise could enumerate all the sins? The defacing of the Image and the destruction of the Divine impress which was formed in us when we were first created? The loss of the groat,⁵ the departure from the table of the Father and the familiarity with the life of vile-smelling swine,⁶ the ruin of the precious treasure⁷ and whatever other sins both Scripture and our reason show us? Since because of all this mankind is liable to being punished by God, it seems to me that the Word teaches us through the prayer never to speak too boldly to God as if we had a pure conscience, however far from human sins a man might be. For perhaps someone who, like the rich young man, had made the Commandments the rule of his life, might make this an occasion to boast of his conduct and say to God: All these things have I kept from my youth.⁸ And he might assume that, because he has in no wise offended against the Commandments, the prayer about debts would not be suitable for him, being applicable only to those who have really sinned. He would say that such saying was fitting for someone polluted by adultery, or that a man who from covetousness committed idolatry⁹ needs the petition for forgiveness; in short, that for anyone whose conscience had been stained by sin it was right and proper to seek refuge in mercy. And if Elias was so great—or he among those born of women who came in the spirit and power of Elias,¹⁰ or Peter or Paul or John, or any other of those who are most approved by Divine Scripture—why should he use words that beg pardon for his sins? A man who had no debt of sin?

Let not him who is inclined to such an opinion speak impertinently like that Pharisee who did not even know his own nature. For had he known that he was a human being, he would have learned from Holy Scripture that his nature was by no means pure from defilement, for it says that there cannot be found among men one who lives without stain one day.¹¹ Let therefore no such thoughts come into the mind of the man who approaches God in prayer. The passage enjoins not to look at the things that have been accomplished but to call to mind the common debt of human nature in which everyone including himself has a share, because he participates in the common lot of man’s nature, and to beseech the Judge to grant forgiveness of sins.

For since Adam is, as it were, living in us, we see each and all these garments of skin¹² round our nature, and also the transitory fig leaves of this material life which we have badly sewn together for ourselves after being stripped of our own resplendent garments. For instead of the Divine garments we have put on luxuries and reputation, transitory honours and the quickly passing satisfactions of the flesh, at least as long as we look at this place of distress in which we have been condemned to sojourn. But whenever we turn towards the East¹³—not as if God were only there to be contemplated, for He who is everywhere is not particularly apprehended in any part, since He comprises all things equally, but because our first homeland is in the East; I mean our sojourn in Paradise from which we have fallen, for God planted a paradise in Eden towards the East¹⁴—when, therefore, we look to the East and recall to our memory how we were cast out from the bright regions of bliss in the East, we shall have reason to utter such prayer. For we live in the shadow of the evil fig tree of material life, and have been cast out from the sight of God. We have deserted to the serpent which eats earth and crawls on it, which moves on its chest and its belly and advises us to do the same—to be occupied with earthly delights, to let our heart be drawn to thoughts grovelling in the dust, and to go on our belly, that is to say, to be occupied with a life of pleasure. Having been wrapped up in these things, let us imitate the Prodigal Son after he had endured the long affliction of feeding the swine. When, like him, we return to ourselves and remember the Heavenly Father, we may rightly use these words: Forgive us our debts.

Hence, even though one be a Moses or a Samuel, or any other man of outstanding virtue, in so far as he is a man, he does not consider these words less fitting for himself, seeing that he shares Adam’s nature and participates in his exile. For since, as the Apostle says, in Adam we all die,¹⁵ the words that are suited to Adam’s penance are rightly applied to all who have died with him, so that after we have been granted the remission of our sins we may again be saved by the Lord through grace, as says the Apostle.¹⁶

Now this has been said so that after considering the more general meaning, one may reflect more closely on the matter before us. But if we seek for the true meaning of the passage, I do not think it necessary that we should refer the sense to what is common to human nature; rather, everyone’s conscience is sufficient to make the petition for mercy necessary by his own life. For as our life is lived in this world on many levels, partly in the sphere of soul and intellect, partly in that of the bodily senses, it is difficult, so it seems to me, or even altogether impossible, that one should not at least acquiesce in one sinful passion. For example: Since the life which the body enjoys is divided into our senses, but that of the soul is regarded as the impulse given by the mind and the movement of the free will—who is of so surpassingly noble character as to remain free from the stain of evil in both? Whose eye is without sin, whose sense of hearing without reproach? Who is a stranger to the brutish pleasure of gluttony, who is pure from the sins occasioned by touch? Who does not understand the symbolic sense of the Scriptural saying, Death is come in through the windows?¹⁷ What Scripture calls windows are the senses, through which the soul issues forth to the things outside and lays hold of those it likes; and thus these windows, as the passage says, make an entrance for death. Truly, the eye is often an entry for many a death. If it sees someone angry, it is incited to the same passion; if it observes one enjoying greater prosperity than he deserves, it burns with envy. It may see someone arrogant and rage with hatred, something of lovely colour or beautiful shape and be completely carried away with desire for the pleasing object. So the ear, too, opens windows to death. Through what it hears it admits many passions into the soul: fear, sorrow, wrath, pleasure, desire, bursts of laughter, and suchlike things. And the pleasure of taste is, one may well say, the mother of each individual evil. For who does not know that indulgence of the palate is pretty nearly the root of the sins committed in the physical life? For on this depend luxury and drunkenness, gluttony and prodigality of table, filling oneself up to satiety and revelling until one sinks into the depths of shameful passions like irrational brutes. Likewise the sense of touch is the last of the senses by which sin can be committed. For all things that pleasure-lovers practise on the body are diseases of the perception of touch, which it would take too long to enumerate in detail. Nor would it be seemly to get all the sins of touch entangled with our serious considerations.

But as to the swarm of sins of the soul and of free will, what sermon could enumerate them? From within, He says, proceed evil thoughts,¹⁸ and He adds a catalogue of thoughts that defile us. If, therefore, the nets of sin are thus spread around us on every side, through all the senses and through the interior movements of the soul, Who shall glory, as Wisdom says, that his heart is clean?¹⁹ Or, as Job testifies to the same, Who is clear from filth?²⁰ Filth on the purity of the soul is sensual pleasure,²¹ which is mixed up with human life in manifold ways, through soul and body, through thoughts and senses, through deliberate movements and bodily actions.

Whose soul, then, is pure from this stain? How has anyone not been struck by vanity or been trodden down by the foot of pride? Who has never been shaken by the sinning hand, or whose feet have never run to evil? Who has not been polluted by his roving eye nor been defiled by an undisciplined ear? Whose taste has never been preoccupied by its enjoyment, whose heart has remained unmoved by vain emotions?

Now it is true the things before us are much more grievous in more barbarous people and more moderated in those who are more cultivated; yet all those who share a nature most certainly also have a share in the faults of this nature; hence, when we approach God in prayer, we ask that our debts may be forgiven us. But such words are ineffectual and do not reach the Divine hearing unless our conscience cries in unison with us that it is good to impart mercy. For if a man really believes that it is worthy of God to love men—for unless he thought so he would not want to approach Him with something entirely unsuitable—he ought to confirm his judgement on what is good by his own works. Else he might hear from the just Judge words such as these, Physician, heal thyself.²² You ask me to love men, and yourself do not give love to your neighbour? You ask to have debts forgiven, how can you strangle your debtor? You pray that I may blot out what is written against you, and you preserve carefully the acknowledgements of those who owe you something? You ask to have your debts cancelled, but you increase what you have lent by taking interest? Your debtor is in prison, while you are in church?²³ He is in distress on account of his debts, but you think it right that your debt should be forgiven? Your prayer cannot be heard because the voice of him who suffers is drowning it. If you remit the material debt, the bonds of your soul will also be loosened; if you pardon, you will be pardoned. You must be your own judge, your own lawgiver. By the disposition you show to him who is under obligation to you you pronounce the judgement of Heaven on yourself.

It seems to me that the Lord teaches the same thing in another saying, where He presents this doctrine in a narrative. In the story there is a certain king who holds a formidable reckoning.²⁴ He brings his servants to trial, demanding an account from each of his administrators. Now one of the debtors was brought in and obtained charity, for he prostrated himself, and instead of paying the money proffered a humble petition. He then behaved with extreme harshness towards a fellow servant, because of a small debt, and this harshness against his fellow enraged the king. So he commanded the torturers to remove him altogether from the king’s house and to prolong his punishment until he had fully paid the appropriate penalty. For truly some few obols are worth very little compared with thousands of talents, that is to say, the debts owed to us compared with our sins against God.

You are no doubt hurt by somebody’s arrogant behaviour, or by the wickedness of a servant, or even a plot against your life. Then, in the fury of your heart, you are roused to take revenge for these things, and you think out all sorts of devices to punish those who have caused you pain. You do not consider, when you are burning with anger against your servant, that it is not nature, but power that has divided mankind into servants and masters. For the Lord of the universe has ordained that only the irrational nature should serve man, as the Prophet says: Thou hast subjected all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, the birds and the beasts and the fishes.²⁵ He even calls them servants, as is stated in the Prophet’s words elsewhere: Who giveth to beasts their food, and herbs for the service of men.²⁶ But man He has adorned with the gift of free will. Therefore he who is subject to you by custom and law is yet equal to you in dignity of nature. He is neither made by you, nor does he live through you, nor has he received from you his qualities of body and soul. Why, then, do you get so much worked up to anger against him if he has been lazy, or run away, or perhaps shown you contempt to your face? You ought to look to yourself instead, how you have behaved to your Lord who has made you and caused you to be born, and has given you a share in the marvels of the world.

He set the sun before you for your delight, and gave you all the necessities of life through the elements, through earth and fire and air and water. He bestowed on you the gift of thought, sense perception, and the understanding that is capable of distinguishing between good and evil. How obedient and blameless are you before such a Lord? Have you not revolted against His sovereignty? Have you not run away to sin and exchanged it for the sovereignty of evil? Have you not as far as you were concerned left desolate the house of the Lord and run away from the place where you were appointed to work and keep guard? Moreover, do you not commit the sins mentioned, either by deed, word, or thought, things that ought not to be, of which God who is everywhere and who sees all things, is a witness? As you are such a man, guilty in so many ways, do you really think that you bestow a great gift on your fellow servant if you overlook some of the faults he commits against you? When therefore we are about to offer to God the petition for mercy and forgiveness, we ought to give holy confidence to our conscience by putting forward our life as an advocate of our words, so that we can truly say, as we forgive our debtors.

What means the addition that follows immediately after these words? I think that we ought not to pass this over without considering it. We should know for what we are praying, and proffer the petition with our soul rather than with our lips: Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. What, my brethren, do these words mean? It seems to me that the Lord calls the evil one by many different names according to the distinctions between the evil actions. He names him variously devil, Beelzebub, Mammon, prince of this world, murderer of man, evil one, father of lies, and other such things. Perhaps, therefore, here again one of the names devised for him is “temptation,” and the juxtaposition of clauses confirms this assumption. For after saying, Lead us not into temptation, He adds that we should be delivered from evil, as if both words meant the same. For if a man who does not enter into temptation is quite removed from evil, and if one who has fallen into temptation is necessarily mixed up with evil, then temptation and the evil one mean one and the same thing. What therefore does the exhortation of the prayer teach us? That we should be separated from the things that belong to this world; as somewhere else He says to the disciples: The whole world is seated in wickedness.²⁷ Therefore if a man desires to be free from wickedness, he will necessarily separate himself from the world. For temptation finds no opportunity for touching the soul unless this preoccupation with worldly things be held out to greedy men like a bait on the hook of evil.

But perhaps our meaning may become clearer through other examples. The sea is often dangerous on account of its mighty waves, but not to those who are far removed from it. Fire destroys, but only if inflammable matter is near it. War is full of danger, but only to those who take part in the battle. As, therefore, a man who wants to escape the terrible calamities of war prays not to become involved in it, and another one who fears fire asks not to find himself in such; as a third one who abhors the sea prays that he may not be obliged to go on a voyage; so also he who fears the assault of the evil one should pray that he may not fall into it. But since, as we have said before, Scripture says that the world is seated in wickedness, and as the occasions for temptation arise from worldly preoccupations, therefore if a man prays truly to be delivered from evil, he asks that he may be far from temptation. For no one would swallow the hook unless he had first gulped down the bait in his greed. But let us rise and say to God, Lead us not into temptation—that is to say, into the evils of the world—but deliver us from evil which holds sway in this world; from which may we be delivered by the grace of Christ, for His is the power and glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and always, and for ever and ever. Amen.

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