Let’s finish our reflection on the Lord’s Prayer with the final petition: “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.”
Someone once asked why we would have to ask God not to lead us into temptation as though He might. God is not going to lead us into temptation. It is like saying to someone: “Don’t let me forget the keys.” As though our friend would want to let us forget our keys. (All comparisons limp.)
Pope Benedict said: We ask God our Father not to leave us alone and in the power of temptation. We ask the Holy Spirit to help us know how to discern, on one hand, between being tempted and consenting to temptation. This petition unites us to Jesus who overcame his temptation by His prayer. It requests the grace and vigilance of final perseverance.
Jeus said: Watch and pray that you will not undergo the test. (Mt 26:41)
We ask God not to abandon us when we are tempted.
God wants to set us free from evil. We ask him to help us not to let us take the way that leads to sin. We ask for the discernment to unmask the lie of temptation whose object appears to be good and desirable when mainly its fruit is the death of sin. God is faithful and will not allow you to be tested beyond your strength. But in the temptation He will allow you a way of escape so that you can endure it…..sincere prayer to the Holy Spirit to walk in HIS ways. We pray especially for wisdom and fortitude.
We ask to be delivered from the evil of Satan the father of liars by the grace and prayer to the Holy Spirit since in Him we are born of God (Baptism-Confirmation).Delird, every evil, and grant us peace in our day. In your mercy keep
We elaborate this petition when the priest prays at Mass after the Our Father:
Deliver us, Lord, from every evil,
and grant us peace in our day.
In your mercy keep us free from sin
and protect us from all anxiety
as we wait in joyful hope
for the coming of our Savior,
Jesus Christ our Lord. For his kingdom and power will conquer all evil. The choice is ours in the Holy Spirit. If there is evil in the world, in a word, it is because it has been chosen and fallen into the trap of the Father of Lies. The kingdom, the power and the glory belong to God.
As he Catechism of the Catholic Church summarizes:
2857 In the Our Father, the object of the first three petitions is the glory of the Father: the sanctification of his name, the coming of the kingdom, and the fulfillment of his will. the four others present our wants to him: they ask that our lives be nourished, healed of sin, and made victorious in the struggle of good over evil.
2858 By asking “hallowed be thy name” we enter into God’s plan, the sanctification of his name – revealed first to Moses and then in Jesus – by us and in us, in every nation and in each man.
2859 By the second petition, the Church looks first to Christ’s return and the final coming of the Reign of God. It also prays for the growth of the Kingdom of God in the “today” of our own lives.
2860 In the third petition, we ask our Father to unite our will to that of his Son, so as to fulfill his plan of salvation in the life of the world.
2861 In the fourth petition, by saying “give us,” we express in communion with our brethren our filial trust in our heavenly Father. “Our daily bread” refers to the earthly nourishment necessary to everyone for subsistence, and also to the Bread of Life: the Word of God and the Body of Christ. It is received in God’s “today,” as the indispensable, (super – ) essential nourishment of the feast of the coming Kingdom anticipated in the Eucharist.
2862 The fifth petition begs God’s mercy for our offences, mercy which can penetrate our hearts only if we have learned to forgive our enemies, with the example and help of Christ.
2863 When we say “lead us not into temptation” we are asking God not to allow us to take the path that leads to sin. This petition implores the Spirit of discernment and strength; it requests the grace of vigilance and final perseverance.
2864 In the last petition, “but deliver us from evil,” Christians pray to God with the Church to show forth the victory, already won by Christ, over the “ruler of this world,” Satan, the angel personally opposed to God and to his plan of salvation.
2865 By the final “Amen,” we express our “fiat” concerning the seven petitions: “So be it”
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