Ongoing Reflection
Over the past few weeks The Fatima Center has been posting a series of articles by Matthew Plese on the meaning of the petitions in the Our Father.
As with all the great mysteries of our glorious Faith, the petitions of the Pater Noster are inexhaustible. We can never reflect upon them sufficiently. Man can never comprehensively explain them. Nevertheless, it is meritorious to ever deepen our consideration of them.
With that principle in mind, here are some further reflections which were prompted by Mr. Plese’s article, “What Does ‘Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread’ Mean?” posted earlier this week.
From the Garden of Eden
Here are just three powerful Scriptural passages which come to mind in reference to the daily bread we pray for are:
“In the sweat of thy face shall thou eat bread till thou return to the earth, out of which thou was taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return” (Genesis 3:19).
This reminds us that striving for our ‘daily bread’ requires effort, toil, and sacrifice. The good we find in this ‘vale of tears’ is intermingled with “thorns and thistles.”
From the beginning, God commanded Adam to “dress” and “keep” the garden of Eden (cf. Gen 2:15). Yet in succumbing to temptation and committing original sin, Adam failed in his duty. He did not protect (“keep”) the garden – or his wife – from the devil. As fitting reparation, God restores the right order of Adam’s duties but now decrees that they will necessarily involve suffering and death. Thus will man be purified in his trust, obedience, and love of God.
Our need for regular nourishment is also a constant reminder that we are mortal. Each time we take a meal we can recall the Four Last Things, including our inevitable death and judgment.
Priesthood and Sacrifice
Interestingly, the terms “dress” and “keep” should evoke for us the priesthood. The Latin Vulgate uses the terms ‘operare’ and ‘custodio’ and the Hebrew text uses “abad” and “shamar.” These terms describe priestly duties and are associated with the proper worship of God. Already in Eden, God was giving Adam a priestly role. Namely, Adam was to return (offer up) all of creation – including himself and Eve – to God in an act of loving adoration.
After the Fall, when God clothes Adam and Eve, He does so with animal skins (cf. Gn. 3:21). This indicates the death of an animal (the shedding of blood) and implies that God has instructed Adam in how he is to render sacrifice to God, knowledge which Adam passes on to his sons, Cain and Abel.
Given the reality of sin (disobedience to God’s law) our duty to sacrifice will now also be painful. In fact, it will require atonement through blood. It is Christ, the New Adam, Who takes on all our sins and offers the Perfect Sacrifice. Every Mass participates in Our Lord’s Eternal Sacrifice through the mystery of transubstantiation, whereby – at the hands of the priest, the alter Christus – the ‘daily bread’ becomes Jesus’ Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.
From the Gospels
“And the tempter coming said to Him: If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. Who answered and said: It is written, Not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:3-4).
The devil tempts all of us through our flesh. All the sins which have their root in the capital vices of gluttony, sloth, and lust are sins in which our rebellious passions inordinately seek pleasure. Many are God’s words which deal with prayer, fasting, penance, and mortification. These are the means by which we restore right order to the passions and undo the chaos caused by sin. In order to live rightly, man must ponder, meditate upon, and live by God’s word – that is, His divine revelation, which comes to us through Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture.
At the start of every Lent, the Church reads to us this Gospel passage at Mass (Gospel from the First Sunday of Lent). Lent calls us to a two-fold movement: a turning away from creatures (aversio a creaturis) so as to turn to God (conversio ad Deum). This is the precise response of Our Lord to satan’s temptation, and it is the interior disposition which should fuel all our Lenten penances. The more we reject sin and detach from the goods of this world, the more we free ourselves to be attached to God.
“Jesus saith to them: My meat [cibus] is to do the will of Him that sent Me, that I may perfect His work” (John 4:34).
The Latin ‘cibus’ can be translated as food or nourishment. Our Lord emphatically places the spiritual goods over natural goods. His very sustenance is to do His Father’s will. This divine saying naturally connects the fourth petition of the Pater Noster to the third petition. It is by pursuing spiritual goods that God’s work is perfected in an individual soul and the world at large.
Fatima Connection
In the third petition of the Pater Noster we pray for His Will to be done, and we see how this harmoniously links to the fourth petition. Both of these petitions call to our mind the Fatima event. But how?
In these times, we know that God’s Will was to send Our Lady to Fatima in 1917 with the only solution for our times. He has given the Rosary greater power and efficacy in these times, so that no problem – no matter how large – can’t be resolved by the prayer of the Rosary. It is Our Lady’s will, which is always perfectly united to God’s Will, that we pray the Rosary every day.
God desires to save many souls and pour down many graces upon mankind in response to the reparation we offer for the many offenses and blasphemies against His Mother’s Immaculate Heart. Thus, He has called for the widespread promotion and practice of the First Saturdays Devotion and the Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
God wills that throughout the entire Church devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary be established alongside devotion to His Sacred Heart. This will mark the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Thus, when we pray these petitions in the Pater Noster we should keep the Message of Fatima in mind. At the natural level, our daily bread can represent the period of peace we all long for and which Our Lady has promised will follow our obedient fulfillment of Her Message.
At the supernatural level, our daily bread is clearly the Holy Eucharist, which the Angel of Fatima insisted we adore and worship. He taught the children at Fatima to offer reparation for the many sacrileges, outrages, and indifferences committed against Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.
When the Holy Trinity appeared to Sister Lucia at Tuy (June 13, 1929), she saw the following highly Eucharistic image:
“Suddenly a supernatural light illumined the whole chapel and on the altar appeared a cross of light which reached to the ceiling. In a brighter part could be seen, on the upper part of the Cross, the face of a Man and His body to the waist. On His breast was an equally luminous Dove, and nailed to the Cross, the body of another Man.
“A little below the waist, suspended in mid-air, was to be seen a Chalice and a large Host onto which fell some drops of Blood from the face of the Crucified and from a wound in His breast. These drops ran down over the Host and fell into the Chalice.
“Under the right arm of the Cross was Our Lady … [In one hand She held Her Immaculate Heart and in the other She held a Rosary.]
“Under the left arm [of the Cross], some large letters, as if it were crystal-clear water running down over the altar, formed these words: ‘Grace and Mercy’.”
May God’s will be done on earth as it is in Heaven, may we receive our daily bread and render God fitting worship, and may the Immaculate Heart of Mary be rightly honored and triumphantly reign.