The fourth and following Petitions, in which we particularly and expressly
pray for the needs of soul and body, are subordinate to those which preceded.
According to the order of the Lord's Prayer we ask for what regards the body
and the preservation of life after we have prayed for the things which pertain
to God. For since man has God as his last end, the goods of human life should
be subordinated to those that are divine. These goods should be desired and
prayed for, either because the divine order so requires, or because we need
them to obtain divine blessings, that being assisted by these (temporal things)
we may reach our destined end, the kingdom and glory of our heavenly Father,
and the reverential observance of those commands which we know to emanate from
His holy will. In this Petition, therefore, we should refer all to God and His
glory. {a}
In the discharge of his duty towards the faithful the pastor,
therefore, should endeavor to make them understand that, in praying for the use
and enjoyment of temporal blessings, our minds and our desires are to be
directed in conformity with the law of God, from which we are not to swerve in
the least. By praying for the transient things of this world, we especially
transgress; for, as the Apostle says, We know not what we should pray for as
we ought. 1
These things, therefore, we should pray for as we ought, lest, praying for
anything as we ought not, we receive from God for answer, You know not what
you ask. 2
A sure standard for judging what petition is good, and what bad, is the
purpose and intention of the petitioner. Thus if a person prays for temporal
blessings under the impression that they constitute the sovereign good, and
rests in them as the ultimate end of his desires, wishing nothing else, he
unquestionably does not pray as he ought. As St. Augustine observes, we ask
not these temporal things as our goods, but as our necessaries. 3 The Apostle also in his
Epistle to the Corinthians teaches that whatever regards the necessary purposes
of life is to be referred to the glory of God: Whether you eat or drink, or
whatever else you do, do all to the glory of God. 4 {b}
In order that the faithful may see the importance of this Petition, the
pastor should remind them how much we stand in need of external things, in
order to support and maintain life; and this they will the more easily
understand, if he compares the wants of our first parent with those of his
posterity.
It is true that in that exalted state of innocence, from which he
himself, and, through his transgression, all his posterity fell, he had need of
food to recruit his strength; yet there is a great difference between his wants
and those to which we are subject. He stood not in need of clothes to cover
him, of a house to shelter him, of weapons to defend him, of medicine to
restore health, nor of many other things which are necessary to us for the
protection and preservation of our weak and frail bodies. To enjoy immortality,
it would have been sufficient for him to eat of the fruit which the blessed
tree of life yielded without any labor from him or his posterity.
Nevertheless, since he was placed in that habitation of pleasure in
order to be occupied, he was not, in the midst of these delights, to lead a
life of indolence. But to him no employment would have been troublesome, no
duty unpleasant. From the cultivation of those beautiful gardens he would
always have derived fruits the most delicious, and his labors and hopes would
never have been frustrated. {c}
His posterity, on the contrary, are not only deprived of the fruit of
the tree of life, but also condemned to this dreadful sentence: Cursed is
the earth in thy work; with labour and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days
of thy life; thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt
eat the herbs of the earth. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till
thou return to the earth, out of which thou wast taken; for dust thou art, and
into dust thou shalt return. 5
Our condition, therefore, is entirely different from what his and that
of his posterity would have been, had Adam listened to the voice of God. All
things have been thrown into disorder, and have changed sadly for the worse. Of
the resultant evils, this is not the least, that the heaviest cost, and labor,
and toil, are frequently expended in vain; either because the crops are
unproductive, or because the fruits of the earth are smothered by noxious weeds
that spring up about them, or perish when stricken and prostrated by heavy
rains, storms, hail, blight or blast. Thus is the entire labor of the year
quickly reduced to nothing by some calamity of air or soil, inflicted in
punishment of our crimes, which provoke the wrath of God and prevent Him from
blessing our efforts. The dreadful sentence pronounced against us in the
beginning remains. 6
Pastors, therefore, should apply themselves earnestly to the treatment
of this subject, in order that the faithful may know that men fall into these
perplexities and miseries through their own fault; that they may understand
that while they must sweat and toil to procure the necessaries of life, unless
God bless their labors, their hope must prove fallacious, and all their
exertions unavailing. For neither he that planteth is anything, nor he that
watereth, but God who giveth the increase; 7 unless the Lord build the house, they
labour in vain that build it. 8
Parish priests, therefore, should point out that the things necessary
to human existence, or, at least, to its comfort, are almost innumerable; for
by this knowledge of our wants and weaknesses, Christians will be compelled to
have recourse to their heavenly Father, and humbly to ask of Him both earthly
and spiritual blessings.
They will imitate the prodigal son, who, when he began to suffer want
in a far distant country, and could find no one to give him even husks in his
hunger, at length entering into himself, perceived that from the evils by which
he was oppressed, he could expect relief from no one but from his father. 9
Here the faithful will also have recourse more confidently to prayer,
if, in reflecting on the goodness of God, they recollect that His paternal ears
are ever open to the cries of His children. When He exhorts us to ask for
bread, He promises to bestow it on us abundantly, if we ask it as we ought;
for, by teaching us how to ask, He exhorts; by exhorting, He urges; by urging,
He promises; by promising, He puts us in hope of most certainly obtaining our
request.
When, therefore, the faithful are thus animated and encouraged, (the
pastor) should next proceed to declare the objects of this Petition; and first,
what that bread is which we ask.
It should then be known that, in the Sacred Scriptures, by the word bread,
are signified many things, but especially two: first, whatever we use for food
and for other corporal wants; secondly, whatever the divine bounty has bestowed
on us for the life and salvation of the soul.
In this Petition, then, according to the interpretation and authority of
the holy Fathers, we ask those helps of which we stand in need in this life on
earth.
Those, therefore, who say that it is unlawful for Christians to ask
from God the earthly goods of this life, are by no means to be listened to; for
not only the unanimous teaching of the Fathers, but also very many examples,
both in the Old and New Testaments, are opposed to this error.
Thus Jacob, making a vow, prayed as follows: If God shall be with
me, and shall keep me in the way, by which I walk, and shall give me bread to
eat, and raiment to put on, and I shall return prosperously to my father's
house, the Lord shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a
title, shall be called the house of God; and of all things thou shalt give to
me, I will offer up tithes to thee. 10. Solomon
also asked a certain means of subsistence in this life, when he prayed: Give
me neither beggary nor riches: give me only the necessaries of life. 11
Nay, the Saviour of mankind Himself commands us to pray for those
things which no one will dare deny appertain to the benefit of the body. Pray,
He says, that your flight be not in the winter, or on the sabbath. 12. St. James also says: Is any one of you sad? Let him pray. Is
he cheerful in mind? Let him, sing. 13 And the Apostle thus addressed himself to the
Romans: I beseech you, brethren, through our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the
charity of the Holy Ghost, that you assist me in your prayers for me to God,
that l may be delivered from the unbelievers that are in Judea. 14. As, then, the faithful are divinely permitted to ask these
temporal succors, and as this perfect form of prayer was given us by Christ the
Lord, there remains no doubt that such a request constitutes one of the seven Petitions.
We also ask our daily bread; that is, the things necessary for
sustenance, understanding by the word bread, what is sufficient for raiment
and for food, whether that food be bread, or flesh, or fish, or anything else.
In this sense we find Eliseus to have used the word when admonishing the king
to provide bread for the Assyrian soldiers, to whom was then given a large
quantity of various kinds of food. 15 We also know that of Christ the Lord it is written,
that He went into the house of a certain prince of the Pharisees on the
sabbath day to eat bread, 16 by which words we see are signified the things that constitute food
and drink.
To comprehend the full signification of this Petition, it is, moreover,
to be observed that by this word bread ought not to be understood an
abundant and exquisite profusion of food and clothing, but what is necessary
and simple, as the Apostle has written: Having food and wherewith to be
covered, with these we are content; 17 and Solomon, as said above: Give me only the
necessaries of life. 18
Of this frugality and moderation we are admonished in the next word;
for when we say our, we ask for bread sufficient to satisfy our
necessities, not to gratify luxury.
We do not say our in the sense that we are able of ourselves,
and independently of God, to procure bread; for we read in David: All expect
of thee that thou give them food in season: when thou givest to them they shall
gather up: when thou openest thy hand they shall all be filled with good; 19. and in another place, The eyes of all hope in thee, O Lord, and
thou givest them meat in due season. 20 (We say our bread, then), because it is necessary for us and is given
to us by God, the Father of all, who, by His providence, feeds all living
creatures.
It is also called our bread for this reason, that it is to be
acquired by us lawfully, not by injustice, fraud or theft. What we procure in
evil ways is not our own, but the property of another. Its acquisition or
possession, or, at least, its loss, is generally calamitous; while, on the
contrary, there is in the honest and laborious gains of good men peace and
great happiness, according to these words of the Prophet: For thou shalt eat
the labours of thy hands: blessed art thou, and it shall be well with thee.
21 Indeed to those who seek
subsistence by honest labor, God promises the fruit of His kindness in the
following passage: The Lord will send forth a blessing upon thy storehouses,
and upon all the works of thy hands, and will bless thee. 22
Not only do we beg of God to grant us to use, with the aid of His
goodness, the fruit of our virtuous toil and that is truly called ours
but we also pray for a good mind, that we may be able well and prudently to use
what we have honestly acquired.
By the word (daily) also is suggested the idea of frugality and
moderation, to which we referred a short time ago; for we pray not for variety
or delicacy of food, but for that which may satisfy the wants of nature. This
should bring the blush of shame to those who, disdaining ordinary food and
drink, look for the rarest viands and wines.
Nor by this word daily are they less censured to whom Isaias
holds out those awful threats: Woe to you that join house to house, and lay
field to field, even to the end of the place: shall you alone dwell in the
midst of the earth? 23 Indeed the cupidity of such men is insatiable, and it is of them that
Solomon has written: A covetous man shall not be satisfied with money. 24 To them also applies that
saying of the Apostle: They who would become rich fall into temptation, and
into the snare of the devil. 25
We also call it our daily bread, because we use it to recruit
the vital power that is daily consumed by the natural heat of the system.
Finally, another reason for the use of the word daily is the
necessity of continually praying to God, in order that we may be kept in the
practice of loving and serving Him, and that we may be thoroughly convinced of
the fact that on Him depend our life and salvation.
With regard to the two words give us, what ample matter they
supply for exhorting the faithful piously and holily to worship and revere the
infinite power of God, in whose hands are all things, and to detest that
abominable boast of Satan: To me all things are delivered, and to whom I
will I give them, 26 must be obvious to everyone. For it is by the sovereign will of God
alone that all things are dispensed, and preserved, and increased.
But what necessity, some one may say, is there imposed on the rich to
pray for their daily bread, seeing that they abound in all things? They are
under the necessity of praying thus, not that those things be given them which
by the goodness of God they have in abundance, but that they may not lose their
possessions. Hence the Apostle writes that the rich should learn from this not
to be highminded, nor to trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who
giveth us abundantly all things to enjoy. 27
St. Chrysostom adduces as a reason for the necessity of this Petition,
not only that we may be supplied with food, but that we be supplied with it
by the hand of the Lord, 28 which imparts to our daily bread so wholesome and salutary an influence
as to render the food profitable to the body, and the body subject to the soul.
But why say give us, in the plural number, and not give me?
Because it is the duty of Christian charity that each individual be not
solicitous for himself alone, but that he be also active in the cause of his
neighbour; and that, while he attends to his own interests, he forget not the
interests of others.
Moreover, the gifts which are bestowed by God on anyone are given, not
that he alone should possess them, or that he should live luxuriously in their
enjoyment, but that he should impart his superfluities to others. For, as St.
Basil and St. Ambrose say, It is the bread of the hungry that you withhold;
it is the clothes of the naked that you lock up; that money you bury under
ground is the redemption, the freedom of the wretched. 29
The words this day remind us of our common infirmity. For who is
there that, although he does not expect to be able by his own individual
exertions to provide for his maintenance during a considerable time does not
feel confident of having it in his power to procure necessary food for the day?
Yet even this confidence God will not permit us to entertain, but has commanded
us to ask Him for the food even of each successive day; and the necessary
reason is, that as we all stand in need of daily bread, each should also make
daily use of the Lord's Prayer.
So far we have spoken of the bread which we eat and which nourishes and
supports the body; which is common to believers and unbelievers, to pious and
impious, and is bestowed on all by the admirable bounty of God, Who maketh
his sun to rise on the good and the bad, and raineth upon the just and the
unjust. 30
It remains to speak of the spiritual bread which we also ask in this
Petition, by which are meant all things whatever that are required in this life
for the health and safety of the spirit and soul. For as the food by which the
body is nourished and supported is of various sorts, so is the food which
preserves the life of the spirit and soul not of one kind.
The Word of God is the food of the soul, as Wisdom says: Come, eat my
bread, and drink the wine which I have mingled for you. 31 And when God deprives men
of the means of hearing His Word, which He is wont to do when grievously
provoked by our crimes, He is said to visit the human race with famine; for we
thus read in Amos: I will send forth a famine into the land, not a famine of
bread, or a thirst of water, but of hearing the word of the Lord. 32
And as an incapability of taking food, or of retaining it when taken,
is a sure sign of approaching death, so is it a strong argument for their
hopelessness of salvation, when men either seek not the Word of God, or, having
it, endure it not, but utter against God the impious cry, Depart from us,
we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. 33 This is the spiritual folly and mental blindness
of those who, disregarding their lawful pastors, the Catholic Bishops and
priests, and, abandoning the Holy Roman Church, have transferred themselves to
the direction of heretics that corrupt the Word of God.
Now Christ the Lord is that bread which is the food of the soul. I
am, He says of Himself, the living bread which came down from heaven.
34. It is incredible with what pleasure and delight this bread fills
devout souls, even when they must contend with earthly troubles and disasters.
Of this we have an example in the Apostles, of whom it is written: They,
indeed, went into the presence of the council rejoicing. 35 The lives of the Saints are
full of similar examples; and of these inward joys of the good, God thus
speaks: To him that overcometh, I will give the hidden manna. 36
But Christ the Lord is especially our bread in the Sacrament of the
Eucharist, in which He is substantially contained. This ineffable pledge of His
love He gave us when about to return to the Father, and of it He said: He
that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him, 37 Take ye and eat: this is
my body. 38
For matter useful to the faithful on this subject the pastor should consult what
we have already said on the nature and efficacy of this Sacrament.
The Eucharist is called our bread, because it is the food of the
faithful only, that is to say, of those who, uniting charity to faith, wash
away the defilement of their sins in the Sacrament of Penance, and mindful that
they are the children of God, receive and adore this divine Sacrament with all
possible holiness and veneration.
The Eucharist is called daily (bread) for two reasons. The first
is that it is daily offered to God in the sacred mysteries of the Christian
Church and is given to those who seek it piously and holily. The second is that
it should be received daily, or, at least, that we should so live as to be
worthy, as far as possible, to receive it daily. Let those who hold the
contrary, and who say that we should not partake of this salutary banquet of
the soul but at distant intervals, hear what St. Ambrose says: If it is
daily bread, why do you receive it yearly? 39 {d}
In the explanation of this Petition the faithful are emphatically to be
exhorted that when they have honestly used their best judgment and industry to
procure the necessary means of subsistence, they leave the issue to God and
submit their own wish to the will of Him who shall not suffer the just to
waver for ever. 40 For God will either grant what
is asked, and thus they will obtain their wishes; or He will not grant it, and
that will be a most certain proof that what is denied the good by Him is not
conducive either to their interest or their salvation, since He is more
desirous of their eternal welfare than they themselves. This topic the pastor
will be able to amplify, by explaining the reasons admirably collected by St.
Augustine in his letter to Proba. 41
In concluding his explanation of this Petition the pastor should exhort
the rich to remember that they are to look upon their wealth and riches as
gifts of God, and to reflect that those goods are bestowed on them in order
that they may share them with the indigent. With this truth the words of the
Apostle, in his First Epistle to Timothy, 43 will be found to accord, and will supply parish
priests with an abundance of matter wherewith to elucidate this subject in a
useful and profitable manner.
Endnotes
– The Fourth Petition
1>
Rom.
viii. 26.
2>
Matt.
xx. 22.
3>
Serm.
Dom. in Monte, lib. ii. ii. c. 16.
4>
1
Cor. x. 31.
5>
Gen.
iii. 17-19.
6>
Gen.
iii. 17.
7>
1
Cor. iii. 7.
8>
Ps.
cxxvi. 1.
9>
Luke
xv. 14.
10> Gen. xxviii. 20-22.
11> Prov. xxx. 8.
12> Matt. xxiv. 20.
13> James v. 13.
14> Rom. xv. 30.
15> 4 Kings vi. 22.
16> Luke xiv. 1.
17> 1 Tim. vi. 8.
18> Prov. xxx. 8.
19> Ps. ciii. 27.
20> Ps. cxliv. 15.
21> Ps. cxxvii. 2.
22> Deut. xxviii. 8.
23> Isa. v. 8.
24> Eccles. v. 9.
25> 1 Tim. vi. 9.
26> Luke iv. 1.
27> 1 Tim. vi. 17.
28> Opus Imperf. in Matt. Hom.
xiv.
29> Bas., Hom. vi. Variorum Arg;
Ambr., Serm. lxxxi.
30> Matt. v. 45.
31> Prov. ix. 5.
32> Amos viii. 11.
33> Job xxi. 14.
34> John vi. 41.
35> Acts v. 41.
36> Apoc. ii. 17.
37> John vi. 56.
38> Matt. xxvi. 26; 1 Cor. xi.
24.
39> De Sac. lib. v. c. 4. It is generally
agreed that St. Ambrose is not the author of the “De Sacramentis” included in
his writings. The work, however, is a product of the fourth or fifth century.
40> Ps. liv. 23. Ep. cxxx. c.
14, n. 26.
41> 1 Tim. vi. 17.
{a}
On the order of the Petitions in the Lord’s Prayer see Summa Theol. 2a. 2æ.
lxxxiii. 9.
{b}
On prayer for temporal blessings see Summa Theol. 2a. 2æ. lxxxiii. 6.
{c}
On the condition of man in the state of innocence see Summa Theol 1a. xciv. ff.
{d}
On daily communion see Summa Theol. 3a. lxxx. 10.