Cepeda Anthology

Conversation About an Indefatigable Theme: Our Daily Bread

Last Updated (Wednesday, 22 February 2012 20:01) Written by John Walter Sunday, 20 February 2011 19:14

El tiempo y las palabras: artículos y mensajes, 1947-1997    Rafael Cepeda

Translation by John Walter
First draft: 2008
Second edit: 7.25.2011


A conversation on an inexhaustible theme: our daily bread.   

First published in the Christian Herald
Havana XV (2):6-8
1947

Jesus was a poor man. There are reasons to suppose that Maria, his mother, became widowed
with seven children to support. Jesus knew what it represented for a widow to offer her last two
coins in the temple; and the tremendous disaster a lost drachma meant to a head of household.
He knew the necessity of using mended clothes. He knew from his own experience that people
could, when they chose to, live modestly with little money. He also knew what a piece of bread
meant in a poor household. He emphatically declared that God recognizes our urgent need for
bread; and taught his disciples to pray thusly:

Our Father who art in Heaven, […] give us today our daily bread. (Matthew 6: 9-11) 

     
There have been many who have pretended to “Spiritualize” this declaration, basing their claims
on the previous supplications of the Lord’s Prayer which refer to the Glory of God and the coming
of the Kingdom. They believe it out of place to think of material needs in Jesus’ prayer, and that
which we are commenting on refers to spiritual food.


The truth to me is that such an interpretation seems unnecessary. What’s natural, as Peter said,
comes first. In this life our souls reside and are jailed in a body. In this body there are bones,
blood, tissues, muscles, glands, organs, and skin. One needs to feed and maintain the body,
otherwise it perishes. If the most imminent scientist, or the saintliest man were to stop nourishing
the body in the same fashion that they provide for their mind or soul, they would inevitably die.


It’s a logical question: if man doesn’t sustain his body with the bread he eats, there will be no
house for his soul; and accordingly, there will be no prayers, hymns, sermons, nor church.
What good are these things when there are no bodies to house the soul?  All of humanity’s
spiritual structure rises from the mortal body, and this body must be sustained until God
returns it to the dust from which it came. Here then is the deep significance and tremendous
importance of the request: “Give us today our daily bread”.

There is an inescapable truth implied every time we raise this prayer: that we recognize God as
the Author and Giver of all things; therefore we confess our entire dependence on Him and on
his providence. Despite our complicated financial and industrial systems, and despite the economic
and social organization of the world, we do well to remember that man will always depend on the
constancy of natural law for his earthly existence, and these are subject to the omnipotent decision
of God.


This idea is beautifully expressed by the author of Psalm 104

They all look to you, to give them their food in due season;  when you give to them, they gather
it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things, Hide your face, they are
dismayed; take away their spirit, they die and return to dust. (Psalm 104: 27-29)

Nevertheless, we shouldn’t forget that God uses the human hand in his effort to provide
abundance for all. In this way, man becomes God’s helper, an assistant in the noble task of
providing the essential for each being on the face of the earth; and it’s only when we realize
this that we will understand how much we owe each other, and how closely the relationship
must be between us if it’s our desire that this rhythm remain unbroken.


Think about how easily this immense system, coordinated and arranged in such a way all may have
what’s sufficient to live, could be broken, interrupted, or destroyed completely. War has already done
this in Greece, India, and China. We’re already aware of the results this imbalance has produced: an
endless caravan of hungry children, starving women, anemia, infection, death by slow torturing
starvation, of destruction and pain.

One general workers’ strike could do it. A complete paralysis in industry could accomplish it as well.
We can easily imagine a situation in which men - even the wealthy - can’t eat, because there is
nothing to eat. Therefore, when we look at the complicated organization of human society, and
we observe how fragile it is, we have to recognize that the only thing between us and hunger and
misery is our absolute dependence on God. From the most eminent millionaire to the humblest
worker, all men can and should repeat each day in humility and faith the prayer that Jesus taught:
“Give us today our daily bread”.   


Pay close attention:  Give us today our daily bread is not a question of praying for enough bread for
one hundred days, a whole year or ten years, rather bread for today. By this we give a simple showing
of our faith in the Lord. But don’t misinterpret it: it doesn’t mean that man is justified acting as a
parasite by living off other men or by deceitful or dishonest negotiations.


You’ll recall the mana incident in the desert. The instruction given to the Israelites was this: that they
should gather enough for daily subsistence and not another scrap more.  Those who dared to gather
more than necessary had the sad experience of seeing it turn to nothing in their hands, This is a
parable applicable to our own lives: How much disaster, pain and bitterness does the whole world
suffer due to this insane passion to gather more than what’s needed in a rush to become rich, many
times trampling the rights of others and poisoning their own souls as well while completely forgetting
God?!

The true attitude of a Christian in respect to God is one of entire and absolute trust: Confidence
during he present, confidence for the future. Perhaps worry is the most universal sin, the most
wearing, the most absurd and useless. To fret about problems and begin worrying about them
before they arrive is one of the greatest stupidities the human race commits.

     
One more thing: You’ve already will have noticed that the request doesn’t state: Give me today
my daily bread, rather, Give us today our bread. Thus, the prayer makes us think about others.
The question is that we pray not only that we receive what’s necessary for daily life, but also that
others have the same privilege. An egotistical man cannot pray in this way. He who prays sincerely
does so because he suffers  the anxieties, pains, and necessities of the rest of humanity.

Every good Christian will have to recognize a norm for life that’s decent and comfortable for all
humanity; not only to satisfy material needs, but also to satisfy those of the spirit. To have bread
is a reason to give thanks; it’s the understanding that the same opportunity can exist for everyone
in the world through cooperation and love. Not to have bread, to live in a pigsty, to be denied all
modest comforts is the first step in believing that virtues like piety, mercy, and compassion do not
exist in the world .


A world that denies equality of opportunities, condemning millions of human beings to live without
hope, is destined to live constantly tormented. The three horses of the Apocalypse have again broken
the reins and are galloping as one across the plains of the world in force, knocking down and
evastating all before them. These are: the red house and its rider, War; the black horse and its rider,
Hunger; the yellow horse and its rider, Death. (Revelations 6:4-6,8) Think about the devastated cities,
the millions starving in the fields of Europe and Asia, and do not withhold sharing your bread with
them. They will be like the rider of the white horse, who, arrow in hand exterminates the sources
where evil begins.

Several centuries ago a wise man spoke these words:  Throw your bread upon the waters, and after
many days you will gather it up. (Ecclesiastes 11:1)  For a Christian, the true enjoyment of material
possessions lies in the opportunity to give them to those without, to share and distribute them in
such a way that everyone achieves a measure of happiness.


In praying for our daily bread we’re not merely asking for the body and the soul be kept together
as an indivisible whole, but also that with this body and soul that we may be prepared to serve God,
and serve in partnership to all peoples.  He who casts his bread upon the waters may rest assured
that although it drifts away for a time, it will return to the place from where it left. It will return in
the blessings of the poor and the needy; it will return in the peace and the approval of conscience
itself; it will return in the words of agreement of the one who called himself, “the Bread of Life”.


I was hungry, and you fed me; I was thirsty and you gave me drink… I was in prison, and you
visited me…  Doing so for the least of these is doing so to me… (Matthew 25: 35-36, 40)