“Give us today our daily bread.” We can spiritualize this prayer, or we can offer it simply and concretely. Give us today what we need to live, Lord. We ask for nothing more.

But we do.

We ask for much more than daily bread, more than the basic necessities. We petition the Lord to make us successful, loved, secure. Jesus promised us none of these in this world. Success is for the those Satan owns; to be loved is to grasp and demand; to feel secure is to believe a lie.

Jesus taught us to ask for only what we need. “Our daily bread” is basic. It is not our daily croissant. It is not our daily mochachino double latte. It is the basic bread, both the physical bread that feeds the body and the spiritual bread which is Christ Himself. Nothing more. Not enlightment, not luxurious dining. Not ecstatic experiences nor gourmet extravangances.

It is enough to receive today’s bread. We a e not given assurances about tomorrow’s bread. We are told to have no anxiety, for the Father knows our need. I realize that we don’t do that. We save for a rainy day, or our retirement. We stockpile favorite prepared foods when they are on sale. We buy ahead just in case. We tie up our income in many ways; we have nothing left for the poor. We spent it on ourselves, and not on just the bread we needed today, but the bottles of shampoo and jars of caramel sauce we might want next month. We have closets full of clothes and shoes yet we rush to the latest sale to buy more. We dump reusable materials in the landfill because we do not take time to recycle them. We store many items past their useful life because we have some notion that we may need them someday, while others may need them today.

“Give us this day our daily bread,” is such a simple prayer, such a common, humane request. Give us – not give me, give just my family, just my nation – but give us, all of us, what we need to live today. But how can we pray this sincerely while by our actions we keep others from receiving what they need just for today?