20 October, Antonio Cardinal Bacci: Meditations For Each Day

“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.