A look at "daily bread" - Tomorrow's reading reflection

"daily bread"

The disciples ask Jesus what they should ask God for, and he gives them (and us) these five petitions, all related to the inauguration of God’s reign on earth. For four of them that connection is pretty obvious (“make holy your name”; “establish your reign”; “forgive our failings”; and “put us not to the test when your rule upsets the way we have ordered our world”). But “give us each day our daily bread” . . . how does that fit? 

This petition has challenged scholars since the early days of the Church. It is often interpreted to mean what it seems to say – that we should ask God for what we need to get by, day by day. And indeed we should ask, for doing so acknowledges both our ultimate dependence upon God and God’s own goodness. But that is probably not what was meant by Jesus when he told His disciples to ask for this bread, nor what was understood by the early Church. Otherwise Matthew, in assembling the Sermon on the Mount, would have had Jesus contradicting himself. Recall: Jesus told his disciples not to worry about food or clothing. “Your Father in heaven knows you need all those things.” So it would seem unlikely that, in the same sermon, Jesus would tell people to ask God for food.

But there is an even stronger, linguistic reason for rejecting this apparently obvious interpretation. The word the Latin Bible translates as “daily” was actually a made-up word, coined by the evangelists or their sources, and not otherwise in use outside the Bible. Its etymology suggests that it meant “super-essential”, clearly something more than ordinary bread. Most likely it referred to what, in St. John’s gospel, is termed the “bread of life” – Jesus’ own self. In Catholic Christianity that would be a reference to the Eucharist and to what it foreshadows, the messianic banquet when God’s reign/kingdom on earth is fully realized. 

As ordinary bread (or its equivalent) is essential for ordinary life, so this “super-ordinary” bread is essential for the Christ life, the “super-ordinary” life conferred on us at Baptism. With ordinary nutrition food not only serves as fuel, but many of its components are incorporated into our own body tissues. We actually do become, in a sense, what we eat. So, in the Eucharist, Christ’s own life is renewed in us, providing food for the journey, while at the same time Christ Himself is literally absorbed into our being. We become more and more Christ-like.

Surely that is an important thing to ask for, and just as surely it is necessary for God’s reign among us. That’s why Jesus tells us to ask for it.

(Adapted from Robert P. Heaney)

Wicked drug addicts - Sunday's reading reflection

"For the sake of those ten, I will not destroy it."

But ten he could not find.  They were all wicked.  So after Lot and his family left, it was destroyed.  At least, that is how it has been interpreted for us in the oral and written stories that combined to form the Book of Genesis from which we read today.
  

We hear about the wicked, too, in the Gospel today.  Jesus, speaking to his disciples said, "If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him."  And these were not those who were persecuting him but his disciples.

So we see there is a wickedness to man that is almost inherent. We have called in original sin and after Baptism, which we hear about in the second reading, concupiscence- the active and dynamic stain of original sin.

Let's look at the ones who society usually condemns as wicked. The drug addicts.  Criminals.  Ex-Catholics.  The list can go on forever before it reaches its origin and end- ourselves.  How should we treat them?  Should they be destroyed by the fire of Sodom and Gomorrah?  Should they be nailed to the Cross with the law that bound us to punishment and death?  

"If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him."  If the wicked know how to be kind to their own children, can't you see how much more our Heavenly Father, who is not wicked, can be kind to all his children?

Have you been watching the news about Pope Francis?  Did Fox report that he destroyed the imprisoned youth on Holy Thursday?  Did he destroy the drug addicts at St. Francis Hospital in Brazil?  Has he destroyed the ex-Catholics that have reached out to him in hope?  No!  He has embraced them!  Kissed them!  Listened to them!  Encouraged them!

And so our Holy Father has shown us the love of our Heavenly Father.  And in doing so, Pope Francis as become a living icon of the Lord's Pray that we hear Jesus himself teaching in the Gospel today.  Through his actions, Pope Francis becomes a living definition of the words "and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us."  Our modern translation, "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."  

Do not seek to destroy the wicked for you know not why they are "wicked". See to follow the Pope's example as he follows Jesus' example.  Embrace and kiss the wicked in loving mercy and forgiveness.