XXXVIII.

OUR DAILY BREAD.

(De Sermone Domini in Monte, lib. ii. 25.)

THE fourth petition of the Lord's Prayer is, Give us this day our daily bread. Our daily bread stands either for all those things which go to support our physical life, and in teaching us concerning them Our Lord said, Be not solicitous for to-morrow, so that daily bread was added with a purpose; or for the sacrament of Christ's Body which we receive every day; or for spiritual food, of which the same Lord says, Labour not for the meat which perisheth, and again, I am the living bread which came down from heaven. We may examine which of these three is the more probable meaning. Some one, indeed, may be troubled at our praying for those things which are necessary for the support of this life, such as food and clothing, when the Lord Himself says, Be not solicitous what you shall eat, or what you shall put on. Or can a man not be solicitous about a thing which he is praying to obtain, when his prayer has to be made with so great a fervour that the whole of the passage relating to closing our chamber may be applied to it? And so may those other words, Seek first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you. He does not say, Seek first the kingdom of God, and then seek these things;" but,

66

all these things shall be added unto you, that is, even unto those who do not seek them. I know not if any one can explain how a man may be said not to seek a thing which he is imploring of God to grant him.

With regard to the sacrament of the Lord's Body, there are many in the East who do not partake of It every day. Whereas, in the Lord's Prayer our daily bread is spoken of, let them not raise a question here; let them keep silence, and not uphold the opinion which they act upon without scandal, perhaps by ecclesiastical authority itself. They are neither prohibited from so doing by those who govern the Church, nor condemned as disobedient when they do otherwise. Hence it is proved that in those parts this is not considered our daily bread, for those who do not receive it every day would thus be convicted of great sin. But, as I have said, not to make either custom a matter of discussion, this one thing must necessarily occur to our minds as we reflect, viz., that we have received from Our Lord a rule of prayer to which we must faithfully adhere, neither adding nor subtracting anything. This being so, who will dare to say that we may recite the Lord's Prayer only once a day, or that even if we may repeat it twice or thrice up to the hour of receiving the Lord's Body, we are not to use it at all during the rest of the day? We could not say, Gine us this day, if we had already received it, nor could any one force us to celebrate this sacrament in the latest part of the day.

It remains, therefore, for us to understand this daily bread in a spiritual sense, as signifying the divine counsels which we have each day to ponder and to act upon. It is of these that Our Lord says, Labour for the bread which does not perish. This food is called our daily bread during our mortal life, which is made up

of successive days. And in truth, as long as the mind is attracted now to higher, now to lower things, that is, now to spiritual, now to material things, after the fashion of one who is sometimes fed with food and sometimes suffering hunger, daily bread is requisite in order to refresh the hungry, and to fortify the man prone to fall. As in this life our body, before its transformation, is refreshed with food, because it is sensible of expenditure in the vital organs, so the soul, because suffering, as it were, the expenditure caused by temporal affections which draw it off from God, may be refreshed with the food of divine precepts. But give us this day is said as long as this day lasts, that is, during this mortal life. Thus, after this life we shall be so filled with spiritual food for all eternity, that it will not then be called daily bread, because the speediness of time which makes day succeed day, whence comes the expression to-day, will no more exist. As the words, This day, if you shall hear His voice, which the Apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrews interprets as long as to-day exists," so are we here to understand the expression give us this day. If any one wish also to interpret the words as applying to the necessary food of the body or to the sacrament of the Lord's Body, we must join the three together, asking, that is, at once for that daily bread which is requisite for our bodies, for that sacred and visible Bread of the altar, and for the invisible bread of the Word of God.

to mean

XXXIX.

MARTHA AND MARY.

(Sermo ciii. 2.)

MARTHA and Mary were two sisters, not only according to the flesh, but also according to the spirit; both of them adhered together to the Lord, both of them were at one in serving Our Lord in the flesh. Martha received Him in the way travellers are wont to be received, but it was a servant receiving her Lord, a sick woman her Saviour, a creature her Creator. She was to feed Him with material food, and to be herself fed according to the spirit; for Our Lord chose to take upon Himself the form of a servant, and in that form to be fed by His servants, not as one of them, but out of condescension. This condescension it was which made Him offer Himself as a guest at table. According to His human flesh, indeed, He could feel hunger and thirst, but do you not know that in the desert angels ministered to Him when He was hungry? His allowing Himself to be fed, then, was in itself a gift. What wonder was it that He granted to the widow the care of the holy Prophet Elias, whom He had previously fed by the ministry of a raven? Did He fail the Prophet when He sent him to the widow? By no means, but He held a blessing in reserve for the widow on account of her service to His servant. In like manner, therefore, Our Lord was received as a

guest, Who came unto His own, and His own received Him not; but to those who did receive Him He gave power to become the sons of God, adopting His servants and making them brothers, liberating captives and making them heirs. Let no one amongst you be tempted to say, "Oh, happy people, who deserved to receive Christ into their own house!" Do not be vexed and troubled because you live in times when you do not see Our Lord in the flesh. He has not withdrawn this privilege from you, for He says, "When you did this for the least of My creatures, you did it for Me." . . .

As Martha was preparing to feed Our Lord, she was occupied about many things. Her sister Mary chose rather to be fed by Our Lord. She left her sister, after a way, to her numerous material cares, and sat down herself at Our Lord's feet, with nothing else to do but to listen to His words. Her faithful ears had heard the Psalmist's call, Rest and see that I am God. The one was troubled, the other was feasting; Martha was ordering many things, Mary had eyes only for one. Both occupations were good, but which shall we say was the better? We know whom to ask about it; let us hear Him. . . . Martha questions her guest, referring her cause to Him as to a judge, that her sister left her alone and would not help her in her material cares. Mary does not answer, but she is there when Our Lord gives judgment. She preferred to leave her cause, as it were, to the judge, troubling not to answer for herself. For if she had attempted an answer, she would have defeated her purpose in listening. Our Lord, then, answers for her. He was at no loss for words, because He was the Word. What did He say? Martha! Martha! The repetition of the name is a sign of love or of a desire to move her. He called her twice