Pope Francis addresses the crowd from the window of the apostolic palace overlooking St Peter's square
Photo credit: ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP/Getty Images) Hannah Brockhaus
The ‘daily bread’ asked of God in the ‘Our Father’ is for everyone, and Christians will be judged by how well they shared their gifts with those in need, Pope Francis said yesterday.
“Let’s get this in our heads: food is not private property, but providence to be shared with the grace of God,” the Pope said on March 27.
He reflected during the general audience on a line in the Lord’s Prayer, which says, “give us this day our daily bread”. Pope Francis explained that one day this “daily bread” could be the cause of one’s condemnation, if he or she did not share it with others.
“It was bread given for humanity, and instead it was eaten only by somebody,” he said. “Love cannot bear this. Our love cannot stand it; nor can the love of God bear this egoism of not sharing bread.”
Francis asked those present to stop and think about those who pray this prayer and are really in need of basic necessities, such as food and water. He urged people to consider the many parents who go to bed at night anxious about how they will feed their kids the next day and the many hungry children, especially in countries at war.
Think of “the starving children of Yemen”, he said, “the hungry children in Syria, the hungry children in many countries where there is no bread, in South Sudan”.
“We think of these children and thinking of them we say together, aloud, the prayer: ‘Father, give us this day our daily bread,’” he said. This is because “the bread that the Christian asks for in prayer is not ‘mine’ but ‘our’ bread”, he explained. “This is what Jesus wants.”
Jesus, Pope Francis stated, teaches his followers to pray not only for their own needs, but for the needs of the whole world, because “if God is our Father, how can we present ourselves to Him without joining hands?”
Catholic News Agency