“Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
As I have explored my Catholic faith with ever greater intensity I have reflected many times on this simple, yet significant supplication. The words “Give us this day our daily bread” are generally understood to refer to our material necessities such as food, water, clothing, and shelter, but as Catholics we also have a Eucharistic understanding of this phrase.
Jesus is the self-proclaimed “bread of life” as he tells his disciples in John 6. As Catholics we understand Jesus’ words in the Bread of Life Discourse and the Last Supper as the institution of the Sacrament of the Eucharist. It is through the Eucharist that we achieve a personal relationship with Jesus.
I am blessed to say that I attend Mass every Sunday and through the Eucharist Jesus Christ comes into me and becomes one with me and I one with him. But the words “Give us this day our daily bread” have taken on a new meaning for me. This passage has awakened a calling in my heart, a hunger for Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.
“You ought to know what you have received, what you are going to receive, and what you ought to receive daily. That Bread which you see on the altar, having been sanctified by the word of God, is the Body of Christ. That chalice, or rather, what is in the chalice, having been sanctified by the word of God, is the Blood of Christ. Through that bread and wine the Lord Christ willed to command His Body and Blood, which He poured out for us unto the forgiveness of sins. If you receive worthily, you are what you have received.”
~ St. Augustine, Sermon from A.D. 391-430
Since this realization my wife and I have made a strong effort to attend daily Mass. Some weeks we make it every day, and some weeks we don’t. But the hunger is always there and it grows stronger and more intense the longer I am away from Him. The days that I do go to daily Mass I find that the Lord brings me a greater peace through His real presence in me. I have also found that on the days that I don’t receive the Lord, I am easily distracted, less productive, less patient, more irritable, and overall less able to resist the temptations of this world.
Jesus Christ must be the center of our lives and when He isn’t, we begin to stray from the path and sometimes we don’t even realize it. It can be a struggle in a country where we taught that financial stability, success, physical pleasure, and our outward appearance are the most important things in our lives. In fact, these same things can become false gods when we live every day of our lives in pursuit of these earthly treasures.
The Lord has given Himself to us in the Eucharist. The Son of God has humbled Himself enough to come to us, not in a glorious display of power, but as a piece of unleavened bread. For after a priest says those words “this is my body” and “this is my blood,” that bread is no longer bread, but the body, blood, soul, and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. So how can we know and believe this truth, yet be unwilling to partake in this glorious sacrament? How can we ask God to “give us this day our daily bread,” yet not go to Mass and receive Him who is our daily bread, Jesus Christ?