Lately I’ve picked up the habit of meditating on a verse or phrase of Scripture all day and when I wake up at night. More recently I’ve been pondering each line of the Lord’s Prayer, aka the Our Father. There is one line in particular that has been resounding so strongly that I wondered when and how God was going bring it around, and here it is, in the Prayer After Communion for the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Made partakers of Christ through these Sacraments, we humbly implore your mercy, Lord, that, conformed to his image on earth, we may merit also to be his coheirs in heaven. Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.

Before we get to the aforementioned verse of scripture, we need to look at the opening phrase of the prayer, “made partakers of Christ through these Sacraments.”

When the word “Sacraments” is used as a plural, instead of thinking of each of the seven Sacraments, focus on the mysteries communicated to us in each Sacrament. The mysteries of the Sacraments are ways Christ is made present within us.

A partaker is defined as a sharer, one who partakes, or participates jointly. The Sacraments are not just God doing His work, we must join with it for His work to take effect in our lives. His work cannot work if we are not a partaker.

In this prayer, we don’t hear the usual verb “grant.” This week we are imploring. In the Latin form of the prayer, we find the word imploramus, which means to beg, or to invoke with tears. This is something we are desperate to have!

What is it that we want? We beg “that conformed to his image on earth, we may merit also to be his coheirs in heaven.” We also find this request in Matthew 6:10, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” 

To conform to His image on earth means that we renounce, or break up with, our selfish desires and our attachments to the world. Remember, as partakers, when we say yes, when we desire and take hold of what we are given, we carry a share of Christ’s life within us. Our interior spiritual life begins to conform, to look just like His - not ours. In fact, the prayer tells us that in order to be a co-heir in heaven, we must be conformed to His image while we are on earth.

As I prayed with this prayer and with “on earth as it is in heaven” I asked the Holy Spirit to show me examples of being on earth as it is in heaven. 

The first example that came to mind is that God’s will being done on earth as it is in heaven can be seen in Jesus. He came to earth with no complaint because He was completely conformed to the Father’s will. Being in His presence was being on earth as it is in heaven.

Also, if you have ever experienced a time of deep peaceful gratitude for all that God has done for you, knowing that you are loved and that everything is in His hands, that is being on earth as it is in heaven.

The Mass is another example. When we are at Mass, we are participating on earth as it is in heaven. However, there is something special about the closing words of the Mass. In Latin we would hear, “Ite, missa est,” which is translated to “Go, it is sent.”

Having been partakers in the celebration of the Eucharist, Christ’s life has been made present within us. We are called to be like Jesus, to go out and show the world what heaven is like. We don’t need to implore God to send heaven down, you and I can be His instruments that are already here: on earth as it is in heaven.