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Day Fifteen: Read and meditate on Luke 11:1-4
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Bonaventure’s Commentary on Luke’s Gospel Thirty Days of Reflection and Prayer 36 Day Fifteen: Read and meditate on Luke 11:1-4 Luke 11:3: “Give us this day our daily bread.” Bonaventure tells us: Christ is teaching his disciples how to pray. In the Our Father verse 3 reads: “Give us this day our daily bread.” We are seeking whatever is necessary for the nourishment of this life, and that is what is meant by “this day.” Spiritual and bodily food is to be received from God’s hands daily, and therefore both are the objects of our daily petition. And this is what Bede says: “It says ‘daily’ bread, for it is necessary that soul and flesh be given this, whether spiritually or bodily or to be received in both ways.” Note that a fivefold bread is petitioned for. The first is nourishment for present existence, concerning which Sirach 29:28 says: “At the beginning of life water, bread, and clothing are necessary.” The second type of bread is an understanding of Sacred Scripture, about which Lamentations 4:4 has: “The little ones have asked for bread, but there was no one to break it for them.” The third type of bread is the Sacrament of the Eucharist, of which Wisdom 16:20 reads: “You gave them bread from heaven prepared without labor and which had in it all that is delicious and the sweetness of every taste.” And John 6:52 says: “The bread, which I will give, is my flesh for the life of the world.” The fourth is the assistance of grace, concerning which the Psalmist has: “Men and women ate the bread of angels.” And Luke 14:15 below reads: “Blessed is that person who will eat bread in the kingdom of God.” The fifth is the homage of obedience, about which it is said in John 4:34: “My food is to do the will of my Father, who is in the heavens.” Also with regard to this 1 Kings 19:6 and 8 have: “Elijah looked, and behold there was at his head a hearth cake,” by means of whose strength he walked and came “to the mountain of God, Horeb.” With these breads the Lord refreshes us. And this was designated in John 6:9-10, where it is said that from five loaves of bread 37 he satisfied 5,000 people. And for each of these, petition is always to be made, according to what is found a little later in John 6:34: “Lord, always give us this bread.” Reflection When I first translated Bonaventure’s commentary on the Our Father and encountered this verse, I thought to myself: This is nothing but spiritual exegesis. However, the more I contemplated the verse, the more I realized that I was a fundamentalist. Here I was restricting the meaning of “bread” to barley or wheat loaves. But what is bread but nourishment? Should I be limiting the meaning of bread to mere bodily nourishment? As I reflected more on the Scripture passages that Bonaventure used to interpret “bread” as five loaves, I realized that Bonaventure knew the Scriptures at far greater depth than I. In advance of contemporary New Testament methodologies, he was engaging in intertextuality , that is, how New Testament texts resonated with Old Testament texts. If Bonaventure’s interpretation of bread is right – and I believe that it is – then how much more dependent I am on God for my very existence as a creature and as a Christian! Prayer Our Father, who art in heaven … Give us today our daily bread. Help me to see how totally dependent I am on your goodness for the five loaves of your rich bread – daily. Make me ever grateful. Open my eyes that I might see how I may share these five loaves with others. ...