Expositio super orationem Dominicam

Our Father who art in heaven.

This gathering of words is indeed part of the body of this whole prayer, but not part of the number of the seven petitions, rather it is a certain winning of goodwill. For the heavenly Master renders his hearers well disposed when he says Father; teachable when he says our; attentive when he says who art in heaven.

There are three fathers: the first begets man, the second seizes him unto the punishment of death, the third summons him unto the joy of eternity. Under the first we exist, under the second we exist wickedly, under the third we live blessedly. Under the first we live carnally, under the second we sin mortally, under the third we reign happily. The first father is man, the second is the devil, the third is God. The first is noted here: increase and multiply¹. Since this could not come about without the union of man and woman, it is certain that God instituted marriage. By this certain heretics are refuted who say that intercourse cannot occur without sin. The second father is noted here: you are of your father the devil², the third in this place: our Father, etc.

When Father is said, let us think upon our adoption, so that we may render affection back to the Father. And since adoption is common to all, no one ought to say "my own." This properly belongs to the Son, since he is Father by nature. This passage admonishes us not to be proud against our inferiors. For we are all brothers, and there is one Father of us from whom are all things³. We are all, then, from God the Father as from an efficient cause. The Son, however, is of the substance of the Father, as from a Father who begets.

Note the difference between human and divine generation. In human generation two things are weighed: namely a cutting off, and the withdrawal of what is cut off into another person. For example, something was cut off from the loins of Adam which withdrew into the person of Abel. Nor did the whole substance of the begetter become the substance of the begotten. But it is far otherwise in divine generation. For since the substance of the Father is altogether simple, necessarily either the whole of it, or none of it, is the substance of the Father. Human generation, therefore, is speakable and defective. Divine generation, however, is ineffable and eternal.

Whence the Father says to the Son: today I have begotten you⁴, that is, eternally. Lest, then, the generation of the Son from the Father be thought to have been and not to be, or to be and not to have been, he therefore set down the past tense I have begotten and the present today. The Son, then, is begotten of the substance of the Father, so that this preposition "of" signifies not a cutting off but a fullness. We, however, are sons not by the nature of generation but by the grace of adoption. God, then, is Father of the Son alone in a special way, because he begot him, but of us in common, because he created us.

Our first generation, or condition, was from the earth, the second from the side of a man, the third from man and woman, the fourth from woman without man. In the first and second we fell, in the third we are born from the ruin, in the fourth we are raised up from the ruin.

In four ways are sons and likewise fathers spoken of in divine Scripture: by imitation, by adoption, by nature, by teaching. By imitation, all the good are sons of Abraham, but the wicked are sons of the devil. Whence it is said: you are of your father the devil⁵. By adoption, all the peacemakers shall be called sons of God⁶. By nature are fathers and sons, as James and John. By teaching, however, are fathers and sons, according to that word of Paul: in Christ Jesus, through the gospel, I have begotten you⁷.

Likewise brothers are spoken of in four ways: by nature, as Jacob and Esau; by race, as all Jews are called brothers among themselves. Whence Moses says: if you buy your Hebrew brother, he shall serve you six years⁸, etc. By kinship all are called brothers who are of the same family. Whence James the Less is called the brother of the Lord, because he was born of Mary of Cleophas, sister of the Lord's mother. Likewise brothers are called so by affection, which is twofold: namely common, according to which all men are called brothers because they are born of one father, and spiritual, according to which all Christians are called brothers. Whence it is written: behold how good and how pleasant, etc.⁹. Such brothers, then, of whom there is one spirit, one faith (one, I say, not in number but in kind), boldly dare to say: our Father who art in heaven.

Observe, prudent reader, that everywhere there is something that exists from God, for no place is empty, as John Scotus says, but wherever there is an effect of a cause, the cause which makes the thing exist is present. Since, then, God is the universal cause of things, it is necessarily concluded that God is essentially everywhere. For just as the soul is essentially whole through all the parts of the body, neither lesser in the lesser parts nor greater in the greater, yet operates more slackly in some and more intensely in others, so too God, although he is essentially in every thing, is nevertheless more fully in the heavens, that is, in the saints, in whom he dwells. For wherever God dwells, there he is, but not the reverse. Since, then, God is everywhere essentially, potentially, presentially, yet he is in Christ excellently, in the saints mercifully, everywhere ineffably. It must be presumed, then, not on the basis of our merits but of Christ's grace, and it must be said: Our Father who art in heaven.