Our Father Who Art in Heaven Our bread … give us
Our Father Who Art in Heaven
Our bread … give us¹
In the previous issue, we spoke about the petition “Your kingdom come.” We had also published an article dated 14–6–81 about the petition “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Today we shall contemplate the last part of this petition, and then move from it to the petition concerning the bread in the Lord’s Prayer.
Let Your will, O Lord, be carried out on earth as it is carried out by the angels and the spirits of the saints in heaven. And let this earth become as though it were heaven, and its inhabitants as though they were angels, and let life become spiritual, in accordance with the will of God in heaven. It has at least four characteristics:
It is carried out with complete precision, without argument, with speed and without delay, and continuously.
Do you act in this way with regard to God’s commandments? Do you carry them out continually with complete precision, or do you leave the will of God at times and carry out your own will or the wills of people?
Do you carry out or accept the will of God in faith and trust, like the angels, or do you object and grumble, argue, or postpone?
Your vows and your tithes, for example—do you offer them without delay, or do you postpone and delay, then bargain and try to change?
And repentance as well—do you carry out God’s will in it quickly, or do you postpone and become lax? And so it is with the rest of the means of grace.
The will of God is carried out with complete precision not only in heaven.
Rather, the will of God is also carried out on earth with complete precision by nature—“except for man.”
All the laws that God has set for nature proceed well without disturbance, because nature does not think; it only carries out.
Look, for example, at the story of the prophet Jonah: God commanded the sea and the waves to strike the ship, and His divine command was carried out with complete speed and precision. He commanded a great fish to swallow Jonah, and it did so; and He commanded it to cast him out safely, and it cast him out. He commanded the sun and the winds to strike the gourd, and it withered; and to strike Jonah, and he fainted. Nature in the story of Jonah was completely obedient to the will of God, whereas man, who enjoys freedom and thought, did not obey.
If only Jonah had carried out the will of God as it is carried out on earth by nature, and not as it is carried out in heaven, if he had not reached that level.
The phrase “as in heaven, so on earth” can also be applied to the two preceding petitions, and it would have in them a beautiful meaning.
That is: let Your name be hallowed, O Lord, as it is hallowed in heaven, so also let it be hallowed on earth. And let Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven as well, so that You may reign on earth exactly as You reign in heaven. Let the earth become heaven or like heaven in the hallowing of Your name, in submission to Your kingdom, and in the carrying out of Your will.
And let the Church be heaven to You.
Just as heaven is the throne of God, so let the Church be likewise, exactly like heaven. And just as there are lights in heaven, so the Church also is filled with lights; indeed, it is the light of the world. And just as there are angels in heaven, so the servants of the Church are also its angels, as it was said about the angels of the seven churches (Rev 2), and they wear white garments in service like the angels. And just as heaven is pure, so “holiness befits Your house, O Lord, forever” (Ps 94). And just as heaven is the dwelling place of God, so the Church is also the house of God. It is like the heavenly Jerusalem, “the dwelling of God with men.” You look at it and say: “as in heaven, so on earth.”
The Church is the place in which Your name is hallowed, Your kingdom comes, and Your will is carried out, as in heaven.
Therefore, sinners were excommunicated from the Church, outside the congregation, so that the Church might remain a gathering of saints, like heaven.
But in order for the Church to become heaven, grant us, O Lord, our spiritual bread.
If You grant us this spiritual bread, our souls will grow and become strong, and will be able to carry out Your will, as in heaven so also on earth.
And if we carry out Your will in this way, Your spiritual kingdom which we ask for in our prayers will have come.
And if Your kingdom comes in this way, then naturally Your name will be hallowed on earth through the spread of faith and righteousness in this spiritual kingdom.
Thus these four petitions are completely interconnected with one another. Each one leads to the other. And this cannot happen unless what is meant by the bread is spiritual bread.
So what are the proofs that establish that spiritual bread is what is meant?
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This is something natural that agrees with the teaching of the Lord Christ, who, when He became hungry at the end after fasting forty days and the devil presented to Him the temptation of material bread, rejected it and answered: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matt 4:4) (Deut 8:3).
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He is the One who commanded us in the Sermon on the Mount: “Do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ for all these things the Gentiles seek” (Matt 6:31–32). Does He then return and teach us in the Lord’s Prayer to worry about the very things the Gentiles seek?!
He says: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,” and He does not say, “then after that seek these material things.” God forbid. Rather, He says: “and all these things shall be added to you,” “for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things” (Matt 6:32–33), without your asking.
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He also says: “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life” (John 6:27). Does He after this command us to pray for this perishing food? There is no doubt, then, that by bread He means the food that endures to everlasting life, that is, for tomorrow.
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Is it reasonable that the first petition concerning us should be material bread?! It is known that the first three petitions concern God: “Hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done.” Then after that come four petitions concerning us. Is it reasonable that the first of these petitions would be material bread? Does the Lord teach us to ask for this bread before we ask for the forgiveness of our sins, and before we say: “Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one”? Is material bread more important than the forgiveness of sins, and more important than salvation from the evil one?!
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Is it reasonable that the Lord would ask us to repeat the petition for material bread every time we pray?! For He says: “When you pray, say: Our Father who is in heaven” (Luke 11:2). So if we repeat this Lord’s Prayer many times in a single day, do we also repeat the petition for material bread many times every day?! This does not agree with the spiritual teaching of the Lord Christ, where He says: “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink” (Matt 6:25), giving us the example of the birds of the air.
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This can also be confirmed by examining the Greek word specific to this petition, which is epiousios.
The Greek word encompasses three meanings: essential or exceedingly essential, or that which is for tomorrow, or sufficiency.
Why do we confine it to the meaning of sufficiency? And why do we take the term “sufficiency” to mean material bread?
If what is meant is the essential bread from the Greek word ousia, meaning essence, then it can never mean material bread.
And if the translation of the Greek word is “that which is for tomorrow,” as in the Coptic translations, then what is meant is the bread for eternal life, which is tomorrow in its broad sense.
And even if it is translated as sufficiency, it cannot mean bodily bread. Spiritually speaking—if we translate it this way, as some have rendered it—we are saying: we want You, our heavenly Father, to give us our spiritual bread that suffices us.
It does not fall short, so that we fall into lukewarmness, nor does it exceed, so that we fall into pride.
We want what suffices for the establishment of our spiritual life, and we do not want more, for the Apostle taught us not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought (Rom 12:3). And we do not want more lest we fall into vainglory or pride, or the enemy strike us with a right-handed blow.
Thus the expression “sufficiency” can also be said with a spiritual concept, specific to spiritual bread.
I do not want to enter into a linguistic study or a linguistic debate; my talk with you is purely spiritual. All that I want for you in your prayers is that you intend the spiritual bread for eternal life.
So what is this bread?
It is the word of God, as the Lord Christ said (Matt 4:4), and as stated in the Book of Deuteronomy (8:3); for the word of God is nourishment for hearts.
The spiritual bread is also the sacrament of the Eucharist; it is the holy mysteries, as the Lord explained in the Gospel of John: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven” (John 6:32–51). It is the bread of life.
Your nourishment is God Himself: “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.”
Your spiritual nourishment is everything that feeds you spiritually—prayer and contemplation, spiritual meetings, hymns and praises. You may also be nourished by divine love and by virtue.
And when you say to the Lord, “Give us,” what do you mean by this phrase?
You mean that you ask for your spiritual nourishment from God Himself, the source of all graces, who knows what you need.
And if God gives to you, do not hinder His gift by negligence in partaking of His nourishment.
Care for the nourishment of your soul as you care for the nourishment of your body—rather, more.
You give your body food every day in multiple meals, in sufficient quantities, and from all elements. Treat your soul in the same way.
If the body does not receive its nourishment, it becomes sick and weak; so also the soul.
Remember this every time you pray.
¹ An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, published in Watani newspaper on 2-8-1981.
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