Video Transcript
Emily: I’ve never liked endings. Like when a good movie ends, or the final song at a concert, or when you’re at a party with friends and everyone has to leave… it’s my least favorite part. At the end of a prayer, we often say “Amen.” But the end of the Lord’s Prayer is different…
Edmund: The origins of saying “Amen” at the end of prayers goes all the way back to ancient Hebrew practices. The Hebrew word used at the end of a prayer means something like “Truly” or “Let it be so” or “So be it.” So saying “Amen” at the end of a prayer is like saying “I believe and agree and want it to be so.”
Emily: It’s also interesting that the very end of the Bible—the end of the Book of Revelation—ends with “Amen.” And so does the Lord’s Prayer. And the Catechism also ends by mentioning the meaning of “Amen.”
Edmund: But the Catechism says something really interesting about “Amen” in paragraph 2865. It says: “By the final ‘Amen,’ we express our ‘fiat’ concerning the seven petitions: ‘So be it.’” But what does this mean?
Emily: “Fiat” means “Let it be done” in Latin. The Catechism is referencing Mary, who—at the Annunciation—speaks her “fiat” to the angel. The angel explains that she will bring Jesus into the world. She says “Let it be done to me according to your word.” This is her “yes”, “fiat”, and “Amen” to the message from the angel.
Edmund: This moment was so pivotal in human history. This was the moment Mary was given a choice. The salvation of all humanity hung in the balance as one person was told the “Good News”, which is God’s plan to save us by reconciling us to the Father through Jesus and in the Holy Spirit.
Emily: Mary listened to this “Good News;” this prayer, and responded at the end with her own simple prayer. And just as through one man and one woman in the Garden of Eden sin and death entered the world, so too through one man and one woman—Jesus and Mary—the saving work of the Gospel in Jesus Christ enters the world.
Edmund: Our God is a God of new beginnings! The conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer is known as the “final doxology.” The Catechism reminds us that we repeat the first three petitions at the end of the Lord’s Prayer.
Paragraph 2855 says: “The final doxology, ‘For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and forever,’ takes up again, by inclusion, the first three petitions to our Father: the glorification of his name, the coming of his reign, and the power of his saving will. But these prayers are now proclaimed as adoration and thanksgiving, as in the liturgy of heaven.”
Emily: The Lord’s Prayer is a summary of the “Good News,” the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s a summary of Jesus’ life and mission in the world. The first three petitions relate to the glory of our Father: His name, His kingdom, and His will. The other four represent what He wants for us: that we be nourished, healed of sin, and victorious in the struggle between good and evil.
Edmund: Jesus not only summarizes the “Good News,” He also gives us this beautiful opportunity to respond to this prayer from heaven with our own “Amen;” our own “fiat” as Mary did.
Emily: At the heart of Jesus’ mission and ministry is the revelation of the Father’s heart. Jesus reveals a Father who wants to restore our relationship with Him. And the Lord’s Prayer reveals what a relationship with the Father looks like in the life of a disciple.
Edmund:The Catechism is also a gift that beautifully summarizes God’s loving goodness and His plan to reconcile us to Himself. The Catechism summarizes the “Good News” of Jesus. It teaches us what we are given to believe in the Creed, how we participate and celebrate it in the Liturgy and Sacraments, how we live this out in the moral life in Christ, and the relationship of prayer that makes this all possible.
Emily: The Catechism is a summary of the Gospel and all of divine revelation fulfilled in Jesus and entrusted to the Body of Christ, the Church. And the Lord’s Prayer is still to this day a part of everything we do as Christians. It’s prayed at every Mass every day around the world.
Edmund: Whether it’s with the waters of Baptism, the chrism oil, the lighting of the Easter candle, or the offering of bread and wine, we pray the Lord’s Prayer before our simple offerings and before the Father, in the Holy Spirit. And God takes these simple offerings, and transforms them. They become an invitation to experience the life of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Emily: Every time we begin to pray, or experience the Liturgy, or recite the Lord’s Prayer, or read the Catechism—in a way—heaven and earth waits for the end. Because our God is a God who turns the end into new beginnings. He makes all things new. And at the end, the only thing left missing is our response.
Edmund: Now that we are at the end of the Lord’s Prayer—and at the end of the Catechism—it brings us all the way back to Mary and her response. Will we respond like Adam and Eve? Or like Mary and Jesus?
Emily: So the next time you’re praying the Lord’s Prayer, or reading the Catechism, or hearing the “Good News,” remember Mary and the God of the end and the beginning. Remember the Father and His plan of loving goodness in His Son, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. And remember what all of us are waiting for here in the end. What will your response be?
