Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread
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“Our Daily Bread” refers primarily to the Eucharist, the Bread of Life - that God provides in Daily Mass.
In the original Greek, the word “Daily” (epiousios) means “super-essential” or “super-substantial.” This refers directly to the Eucharist which the medicine of immortality without which we have no life within us. (see CCC 2837)
For Jesus said: I tell you most solemnly, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will have no life in you. Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. John 6:53-56
With this petition we ask Our Father to give us the Eucharist every day. He hears our prayer and answers by giving us the Eucharist in daily Mass.
I wonder how Our Father feels by providing a meal for His children every day and so few come to eat?
St Faustina writes: “If the angels were capable of envy, they would envy us for two things: one is the receiving of Holy Communion, and the other is suffering.”
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Our Daily Bread refers secondly to the earthly things we need to live with dignity.
God Our Father wants us to pray to Him, asking Him to provide what we need to live with dignity.
Then He wants us to use our freedom and initiative, to work and be responsible to provide for our needs and the needs of others.
But He does not want His children to worry.
He wants us to have a childlike trust in His Providential Care.
St. Paul tells us that as long as we have food and clothing, let us be content with that.
I think we worry about a lot of things that are not necessary to live with dignity.
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Yet some people still lack bread.
This fact does not prove there is no God. It highlights the fact that God created a world in which we were supposed to take care of one another with the blessings and gifts he has given us. The problem is not with God, but with human sin and selfishness.
CCC 2831 “The drama of hunger in the world calls Christians…to exercise responsibility toward their brethren.”
With live in a global economy with instantaneous global communication, we are all connected by the goods produced that we consume. We have access to lots of poor. So, we have the responsibility to help them. If people can help Ukrainian civilians by Venmo and Air B and B, we can all certainly find a way to take care of someone’s earthly needs at home and abroad.
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As bad as it is, material poverty is not the worst thing.
Spiritual Poverty is worse. No one goes to Hell because they lack food; people can go to Hell if they reject God. That is why the CCC (2835) says this petition, (give us this day our daily bread)…also applies to another hunger from which men are perishing: Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God…Christians must make every effort to proclaim the Good News…There is a famine on earth, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.
The Catechism is clear – people are dying of spiritual hunger. And I would say we are spiritually hungry for two things: friendship with God and friendship with others.
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On Christmas Eve of 1969 Cardinal Ratzinger who became Pope Benedict XVI looked into the future and said:
“Men in a totally planned world will find themselves unspeakably lonely. If they have completely lost sight of God, they will feel the whole horror of their poverty. Then they will discover the little flock of believers as something wholly new. They will discover it as a hope that is meant for them, an answer for which they have always been searching in secret.”
We have got to be that “the little flock of believers.”
We must be the people gathered in their homes with families and friends, sharing life, praying the Rosary and having good conversation.
This is the place we invite people who are searching for God even if they don’t know it yet.
For by our joy, our invitation and hospitality, and by our friendships they will be attracted to Christ!
The world needs us to stop trying to live our faith alone. It desperately needs us to form our teams, live our faith together, and invite them in.
What are you waiting for?