“Who is in Heaven”

St. John Chrysostom. When the Lord says in the prayer “who is in heaven,” He does not by this word confine God to heaven, but draws the one praying away from the earth and places him in the highest regions and heavenly dwellings.

Wishing to teach us to leave behind the earth and earthly things and not to bow downward, but to take up the wings of faith and, soaring above the air and rising above the ether, to press toward the Father who is so named, He commanded us to say: “Our Father, who is in heaven”—not because God is to be found only in heaven, but in order to incline us, who creep along the ground, to strive toward heaven, and, having illumined us with the beauty of heavenly gifts, to turn all our desires in that direction.

Blessed Theophylact. In saying “in heaven,” the Lord does not confine God to heaven, but lifts the listener toward heaven and draws him away from earthly things.

With the word “in heaven” the Lord has pointed you to your homeland and to your Father’s house: therefore, if you wish to have God as Father, look to heaven and not to the earth, as irrational creatures do.

St. Tikhon of Zadonsk. It says “in heaven”—not as though God were confined to heaven, but to draw the one praying away from earth and lead him toward the heavenly dwellings, as St. Chrysostom says; and also (this word is said) because there is the homeland of the elect, and God shows Himself there in His glory, and gladdens the souls of His saints. Otherwise, God is essentially present in every place, both in heaven and on earth, as the Psalmist sings: “Our God is in heaven and on earth” (Ps. 113:11).

St. Cassian. We add to the prayer “who is in heaven,” so that, avoiding by every means the anxious thoughts about this present earthly life—as a life of wanderers, and one that leads us very far from our Father—we might with ardent longing press toward that realm in which, as we confess, our Father dwells, and admit nothing that, making us unworthy of our rank and of the nobility of such adoption, would deprive us, as those who have forfeited their birthright, of the paternal inheritance, and subject us to the full rigor of God’s righteous judgment.

St. Gregory of Nyssa. The words “who is in the heavens” remind us from what homeland we have fallen and of what nobility we have been deprived. In the account of the young man who left his father’s house and gave himself over to a swinish life, Scripture—by historically describing his departure and dissolute living—shows the wretched condition of mankind, and does not restore this young man to his original state until he has felt the weight of his present misery, when he came to himself and called to mind the words of repentance. And those words are somewhat in accord with the words of the prayer. For the young man said there: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you” (Luke 15:21); he would not have mentioned in his confession a sin “against heaven” if he had not been certain that heaven was his homeland, by abandoning which he fell into transgression. Therefore the recollection of such a confession makes his father accessible to him, who hastens to his son and greets him with a kiss. Just as there the occasion for the father’s loving-kindness shown to the young man was his return to his father’s house (and that house is “heaven,” against which he acknowledges his sin before the father); so, it seems to me, here also the Lord, by teaching us to call upon the Father “who is in the heavens,” makes a reminder to you of that good homeland, in order that, having stirred in you a stronger longing for the beautiful, He might set you on the path leading back to the homeland. The path that lifts human nature to heaven is nothing other than a departure and flight from earthly evils; and the means for fleeing from these evils is nothing other, I think, than likeness to God. To become like God means to become righteous, holy, good, and all that resembles these things. If someone impresses upon himself as clearly as possible the features of these perfections, then, as if by natural order and without effort, he will pass from earthly life into the heavenly realm; because there is no spatial distance between the Divinity and humanity such that we would need some instrument or contrivance to bring this heavy, burdensome, and earthly flesh into a mode of life that is not bodily but spiritual. Rather, by the rational separation of virtue from vice, it depends on human free will alone to be where one is inclined by desire. Therefore, since there is no difficulty in choosing the good, and acquisition follows upon the choice of what is chosen, it is possible to be in heaven immediately—even for you, if you encompass God with your mind. If, as Ecclesiastes says, “God is in heaven” (Eccl. 5:1), and you, in the words of the Prophet, “have drawn near to God” (Ps. 72:28): then of absolute necessity, one who is in union with God must be where God is.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem. Those who bear within themselves the “image of the heavenly” (1 Cor. 15:49) may also be called heavens—to whom God has promised: “I will dwell in them and walk among them” (2 Cor. 6:16).

Symeon of Thessalonica. “Who is in the heavens.” For God, as it is written, being holy, dwells among the holy. The angels who dwell in the heavens are holier than we, just as heaven is purer than earth. This is why it seems that God is more especially in the heavens.

Blessed Augustine. Thus the new people of the New Testament, called to an eternal inheritance, cry out: “Our Father, who is in the heavens”—that is, among the holy and the righteous. God is not confined to any particular locality. However bright the sky may appear, it is still a material, bounded place. If God dwelt only in the higher parts of the world, birds would be more blessed than we, because they fly closer to God. But it is not written that the Lord is near to those who have ascended high—very high—or to those who dwell on mountains; rather: “the Lord is near to the brokenhearted” (Ps. 33:19), which is the condition of the humble and lowly. Just as a sinner is called earth when it is said to him: “you are dust and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19), so by contrast the righteous person may be called heaven. To the righteous it is said: “the temple of God is holy, and that temple you are” (1 Cor. 3:17). Therefore, if God dwells in His own temple and the saints are His temple, it will rightly follow that the words “who is in the heavens” are to be understood as “who is” among the saints. Such an interpretation is all the more appropriate because in spiritual terms the righteous stand as far from sinners as heaven stands from earth. And we turn toward the east, where the sun rises, when we stand to pray—not because God dwells there, having abandoned the other parts of the world, for He is everywhere always and in the full majesty of His being—but so that we may incline our spirit to turn toward the highest Being, that is, God, while our body, earthly as it is, turns toward a body higher than itself, the celestial. This phrase “in the heavens” also corresponds more fittingly to the degrees of spiritual growth, so that in prayer the hearts of all may be filled, according to their capacity, with feelings worthy of God. For those who are still captivated by visible beauties and cannot think abstractly of the incorporeal—since they necessarily prefer heaven to earth—it is more within their grasp to think that God is more in the heavens than on earth, because they still know God in a bodily way. But when they come to understand that the soul in its dignity surpasses every heavenly body, they will begin to place Him more in the soul than in any body, even a heavenly one. And having understood how far the souls of sinners stand from the souls of the righteous, they will—just as formerly, when they thought according to the flesh, they did not dare to place God on earth but placed Him in the heavens—now, enlightened by better knowledge and a higher faith, place Him and seek Him in the souls of the righteous and not in those of sinners. Therefore it is right to understand the words “who is in the heavens” as though it were said: “who is in the hearts of the righteous as in His own temple.” One who pronounces these words in such a sense should desire that He whom he thus invokes may also dwell in him; and desiring this, he should lead a righteous life—for it is only in this way that God is drawn to dwell in the soul.