The prayer of the poor, of the son, of the child
of Mother Anna Maria Cánopi
«Our Father... give us our bread today...». Here is the prayer of the poor, the prayer of the son, of the child who does not yet know how to get bread and therefore asks his father for it, for himself and also for his brothers. Jesus, in fact, makes us say: give us - do not give me - our - not mine - daily bread.
The whole of sacred Scripture speaks of bread, of this elementary food that God himself provides to his creatures both freely and also by calling them to earn it a little by working in his field.
Before sin, working under the gaze of God, in Eden, must have been a pleasure for man rather than a burden, but after original sin, after man, becoming disobedient, had selfishly taken for himself food from the tree of life, God said to man:
« Cursed is the ground because of you!
With pain you will draw food from it
for all the days of your life.
Thorns and thistles will produce for you
and you will eat the grass of the fields.
With the sweat of your face
you will eat bread,
until you return to the earth,
because from it you were taken:
Dust you are and to dust you will return! (Gen 3,17:19-XNUMXa).
A terrible word, whose weight weighs on all of human history. But God's punishment is never inexorable: it imposes a deprivation in view of a greater generosity. The earth will not always produce only thistles and thorns, but also good fruit. Man will not always eat bread of tears. Sacred history reveals to us God's wonderful inventions to give man the bread of joy again. In fact, God himself decides to come to earth to be a farmer.
Jesus – says an ancient Father of the Church – came from heaven as a farmer, to work the land with the plow of his cross. Sent by the Father, he comes to do his day of hard work.
He comes as a seed and as a sower; he comes to plow the earth with his suffering, taking on the weakness of our humanity. He opens the furrow with the plow of the cross and then lets himself fall into it to produce an abundant harvest that will be enough to provide bread for the life of all men.
Only by accepting the law of the seed that falls to the ground and dies, can Christ rise again as an ear of corn and give himself as food to us all. He thus becomes the bread of the family of God gathered in his name.
The table to which the Lord calls us is in fact always a common table. The bread eaten there is always bread broken and shared. Eating it alone would be like stealing it from others and therefore not being enlivened by it.
Even simple material bread, if eaten alone, is not good. Human experience itself teaches that eating alone is always a very sad thing. This explains why all parties are normally held with a meal and many guests. When a good man is happy about some happy event, he calls relatives and friends to eat and drink with him.
Well, even God, wanting to make us participants in his festive banquet in the eternal home, begins right now while we are still on earth to get used to eating together at his table, to celebrating all together.
The Last Supper, with the institution of the Eucharist, took place in a family, Church context. Such was in fact the community of the apostles around the Master. Jesus took care to have a beautiful table prepared, even with festive ornaments: in a large room, with carpets according to Jewish use, and certainly also with green foliage, flowers and perfumes. Everything had to herald the dinner in the kingdom of heaven. Yet it was the eve of his passion!
The bread that we will eat at the banquet of the Kingdom will be the bread of joy, taken in deserved rest; but here while we are pilgrims, we have the bread of the journey, to eat standing up, a bread that can also become hard in the bag. This bread must cost us a little sweat and blood, because the Lord calls us to cultivate with him the arid land of our hearts, so that he himself, the Word of life, can germinate and bear fruit. Our effort, but also our human dignity, lies in this necessary contribution.
The hard bread of pilgrimage is often soaked in sweat and eaten with tears, but the presence of the Lord, who is with us every day until the end of the world, transforms everything into grace, even the daily difficulties and sorrows of life.
Today already has the eternal tomorrow within itself. However, he must be lived in fullness of faith and abandonment.
Give us today – we say – and for today our bread.
Woe to us if we let ourselves be tempted to ask for it also for the future, saying: «Give us a good quantity of food, of everything, to put in the warehouse or in the pantry so that we can have it for a long time, without having to worry; so if by chance you forgot about us tomorrow, we would still be in order, with our backs safe, with our bread guaranteed."
No, the Lord doesn't like it that way; he doesn't want insurance! He is a Father who is always close, therefore as true children we must continually turn to him, asking him day by day, hour by hour, for what is enough for us, so as to always feel a great, irrepressible need for him.
The Lord is like a father and a mother; these, when they have generated a child, must carry him in their arms, must feed him, dress him, help him walk, teach him to speak; in short, they must continually take care of him to make him a man. If they are good parents they will do all this with love and joy.
Our dependence on God is not mortifying; it is instead a reassuring relationship - like that of a child with his parents - which makes us feel the love that God has for us is more real and indispensable for our lives.
The bread that God gives us in this earthly life is therefore a bread of travel, a bread of love, free and at the same time also earned in sharing the effort and suffering, to enjoy consolation together. It is bread that unites us with God and with each other, making us all feel poor and needy, and binds us in ever greater solidarity, preparing us for the bliss of the communion of saints in heaven.
O God, good Father,
give us today our daily bread
and transform us into your Christ
living bread, substantial bread
cooked in a hot oven
of his passion of love,
made fragrant by the Holy Spirit
to fill every man's hunger.
Amen.