Of course, dispensing candy was not always at the top of my grandmother's priorities, so sometimes the offer was not immediately forthcoming. Since we were told not to ask for candy, we sometimes had to resort to fervent looks toward the candy bowl and outright loosely-veiled hints. Eventually the offer would be made and the desire for candy fulfilled. I learned at that young age that it was not polite to ask for what I want. I would not want to second-guess my parents, who did a wonderful job raising me and were very supportive parents in every way, but some would wonder if that was the right lesson to learn. The theme of today's Gospel is prayer. Jesus returned from praying in a "certain place." (I love that; even Jesus had a special place to pray, which was not disclosed publically so that it—well—remained a good place to pray.) Someone asked Him to teach His disciples to pray, so he did. And the Lord’s Prayer was spelled out for all eternity. Nowhere in the Lord’s Prayer is the explicit permission to ask for what you want. So my parents were correct after all. To a point. “Give us each day our daily bread.” Now there’s a line worth meditating on. That sounds like asking for something to me. Just not candy. Well, not exactly. What, exactly, is our daily bread? Well in other Gospel accounts, Jesus promises the Bread of Life that is much better than ordinary bread. Some might interpret that line as asking for the Bread of Life. Others might interpret it as a pre-cursor to daily Holy Communion, which starts out as bread. Others, most people likely, would interpret it simply as what it says: daily bread. We need food to survive, and a daily source of food to remain healthy. Sadly, a large proportion of the world’s population does not have this basic need met. I believe that this line of the Lord’s Prayer invites us to pray about what it is we really need in order to focus on the other lines of the prayer, and to pray it honestly and completely. If we are truly honest with ourselves (a required condition when we are praying before and with our Lord), we will most likely find that we need much less than we are accustomed to having. So my personal mission lately has been to appropriately discard things I really do not need. There are always the poor that will happily take my gently-used items off my hands. Internet-based sales lists are also easy ways to re-distribute my excess items, but with a twist: How about turning around and donating that money to an organization that works to feed the hungry, helping to give each person world-wide their daily bread? That one is still under consideration, because getting rid of unwanted stuff is easy, but getting rid of money – “bread” as the beatnik generation called it here in the US in the nineteen fifties, now that’s a much more difficult mission. And the candy? My grandmother has passed on, now, but I can still remember exactly where that candy bowl sat and how it sparkled like Shangri-La and the sweet smell that greeted us when we lifted that heavy glass lid. Remembering those times, and her love for us, and what we learned around that candy dish about self-discipline and gratitude, are all part of my daily bread. Thanks, Grandma! |