- Matthew 6:7-15
The last part of the Our Father ("do not subject us to the final test") deserves a careful look.
The "final test" is not just a regular temptation. It's the big one, the whole thing: Is there really a God? Is everything we believe just an illusion?
All human beings experience this temptation. Jesus, as a human being, had to deal with it too.
In Luke's Gospel, this is what Jesus faced at the beginning of his ministry during the temptation in the desert. Luke ends that story by saying, "When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time."
The "time" came at the end of Jesus' ministry. The devil was back again. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus went off alone and prayed fervently to the Father. When he returned to the disciples and found them sleeping, he said: "Pray that you may not undergo the test." This indicates what Jesus himself had been dealing with: The big one.
How does one deal with this temptation? The same way Jesus did - by turning to the Father.
Every time you pray the Our Father, you ask God to see you through "the big one." It helps to know that Jesus dealt with it too, more than once.
- Little Black Book, Diocese of Saginaw