“Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread”
1. In the second part of the Lord’s Prayer we ask the universal Father,
on behalf of ourselves and of our brethren, for all things necessary
for soul and body. Since we have already paid homage to God, our Creator
and our Redeemer, and have prayed for the triumph of His kingdom and
for the accomplishment of His will in Heaven and on earth, Our Lord
does not forbid us to think now of ourselves and to pray for our own
needs. “Give us this day our daily bread,” we ask, intending to pray
both for our spiritual and material requirements.
We should not
delude ourselves into imagining that it is we who produce the fruits of
the earth. A grain of wheat dies beneath the soil, but God has infused
into it a mysterious force as a result of which, in dying, it generates
new life.
The moisture of the soil, the warmth of the air, and
the light of the sun combine to develop this mysterious life-force,
which produces the green stalk and then the flaxen ear of corn which
provides us with bread. It is God Who has given this vital power to this
tiny seed, as well as to all the other seeds of the soil. It is He Who
has endowed the soil with the nutritive elements from which the seeds
draw life, and it is He Who sends the dew, the rain, and the sunshine,
which cause the flowers to blossom and the plants to bear fruit.
We should ask God humbly, therefore, to “give us this day our daily
bread.” Our own labours would be futile without the intervention of the
all-powerful Creator. We are capable neither of producing nor of
destroying a single atom nor a single seedling. Without God we are
incapable of achieving anything either in the natural or in the
supernatural order. Therefore we must ask Him to provide us with what we
need. He is supremely good and loves us very much. His Providence will
not leave us in want, even if we are often obliged to work hard in
co-operation with Him to procure the necessaries of life. The birds have
no granary, yet they manage to find enough seed to keep them alive
because God is watching over them. How could we suppose that He will not
look after us if we turn to Him with trust and perseverance?
2. Note that each one of us prays for “our daily bread,” not for “my
daily bread.” We should not ask only for our own requirements, but for
those of all our fellow-men as well.
There are many
poverty-stricken people for whom bread is very scarce. We should pray
especially for them and should be prepared to share our bread with those
who have none. Both charity and justice demand this of us. Let us ask,
moreover, only for our necessary requirements, not for wealth and
luxury. Anything superfluous which we possess does not belong to us, but
to the poor. “Give that which remains,” the Gospel commands, “as alms.”
(Luke 11:41) Let us remember that, whether we are rich or poor, we are
all one great family. Our love for one another should not be merely
theoretical, but practical; otherwise we are not sincere Christians.
3. We should not ask only for food for the body, but for spiritual
nourishment. “Not by bread alone does man live,” says Holy Scripture,
“but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.” (Mt. 4:4;
cf. Deut. 8:3) The soul must be nourished as well as the body, for it
has its own life which is worn away by the daily conflict against sinful
inclinations and by the constant struggle to achieve sanctity. It needs
to be nourished by the word of God, by His grace, and especially by
receiving the Author of grace frequently in Holy Communion. We should
ask before anything else for the grace of God and for the true bread of
life which descends from Heaven. “Whoever eats this bread will live
forever.” Let us ask for this life-giving bread for ourselves and for
our unfortunate brothers who are living apart from Jesus in a state of
spiritual death. May daily Communion become once more the inexhaustible
source of the spiritual life and of Christian virtue which it was in the
early days of the Church.
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