The Lord’s Prayer and an Ethics of Virtue: Continuing a History of Commentary

Abstract

The Thomist 73 (2009): 279-312 THE LORD'S PRAYER AND AN ETHICS OF VIRTUE: CONTINUING A HISTORY OF COMMENTARY WILLIAM C. MATIISON III The Catholic University ofAmerica Washington, D.C. MORAL THEOLOGY HAS SEEN an explosion of interest in virtue over the past several decades. This trend is generally presented as a return to a traditional focus on virtue that has been lost in modernity. The prominence of virtue in classical ethics and patristic and medieval moral theology is obvious. Despite the relatively infrequent appearance of the term "virtue" or lists of virtues in Scripture,1 one concern among those contributing to the recent resurgence of virtue ethics has been establishing how themes central to an ethics of virtue are indeed at the heart of Scripture.2 This essay is part of the larger endeavor to demonstrate how the virtues and the concerns prompting the recent turn to an ethics of virtue are indeed prominent in Scripture, and in particular the Sermon on the Mount, which has 1 There are well-known passages which do indeed use the term, or provide a list of virtues, such as Phil 4:8; 1Cor13:13; 1Thess5:8; and Wis 8:7. 2 One theologian who has written on this topic, perhaps more than any other contemporary theologian, is Fr. Servais Pinckaers, O.P. See especially his Sources ofChristian Ethics (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1995), esp. 104-67; "Scripture and the Renewal of Moral Theology," in John Berkman and Craig Steven Titus, eds., The Pinckaers Reader: Renewing Thomistic Moral Theology (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University ofAmerica Press, 2005), 46-63; "The Sources of the Ethics of St. Thomas Aquinas," pp. 17-29 in Stephen J. Pope, ed., The Ethics of Aquinas (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2002), 17-29, esp. 16-17. Pope John Paul II's encyclical Veritatis splendor is a perfect example of approaching moral theology from the starting point of a primary concern ofvirtue ethics, namely, happiness. See especially the reflection on Mark 10:17-31 in the first part of the encyclical. 279 280 WILLIAM C. MATTISON III been called "the charter of the Christian life" and the written text of the new law in Christ.3 Right at the center of the Sermon on the Mount is Jesus' instruction to his disciples on how to pray, the Lord's Prayer (Matt 6:9-13).4 This prayer is absolutely foundational in the history of Christian life, in liturgy, commentary, sacramental preparation and catechesis, preaching, etc. Tertullian famously called the prayer a "summary of the whole gospel."5 Augustine audaciously claimed that "if you go over all the words of holy prayers, you will, I believe, find nothing which cannot be comprised and summed up in the petitions of the Lord's Prayer."6 Aquinas called it "the most perfect of prayers,"7 and Bonaventure said that despite its brevity it "contains in itself all prayer and everything to be asked for. "8 The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls it the quintessential prayer of the Church, and uses it to structure the fourth pillar on prayer.9 Due to its importance, there is an immense tradition of interpretation of the Lord's Prayer. The central claim of this paper is that the Lord's Prayer can be accurately understood as a request 3 The former description is from Augustine, De sermone domini in monte (CCSL 35:1): "perfectum uitae christianae modum." See also the English translation The Lord's Sermon on the Mount (Westminster, Md.: Newman Press, 1965), 1.1. Augustine's recognition of the importance of the Sermon is evidenced by his being the only one of the Fathers to compose a commentary on it alone (distinct from a commentary on Matthew's Gospel). For the second description see Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I-II, q. 108, a. 3; Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) 1965-66. See also Servais Pinckaers, O.P., Sources ofChristian Ethics, 134-35, 142, and 144-45. 4 For an example from contemporary Biblical scholarship of the centrality of the Lord's Prayer in the Sermon on the Mount, see IBrich Luz, Matthew 1-7...