Fr. Paul Pecchie
In his book “Jesus of Nazareth”, Pope Benedict XVI delves into the Our Father prayer line by line.
In the prayer, we have a petition for “our daily bread”. The “daily bread” phrase has many layers of meaning. The word “daily” is the Greek word “epiousios”, and this is a very interesting word! The word is coined by the evangelists. It doesn’t exist outside of the Gospels. So, when Jesus told us to ask God for “epiousios bread”, this was something new.
What does “epiousios bread” mean? It has two meanings: The bread that is “is necessary for existence”. The prayer is a request for the food needed to live each day. “Bread for the future”. The prayer asks for “tomorrow’s bread” for today. But it makes no sense to ask for tomorrow’s bread today if the bread is only earthly bread. Thus, a better sense of the prayer is understood to be asking for the Eucharist, which is the “Bread of Angels” that we can and do receive even today at Mass! Pope Benedict XVI emphasizes that the Our Father prayer encompasses both our earthly needs and our spiritual nourishment.
Pope Pius X was asked by many theologians and pastors of his time to weigh in on the contentious controversy regarding frequent reception of the Eucharist.
The controversy involved just how often a person should receive Holy Communion. Like all controversies, in this case, one side wanted stricter norms for receiving the Eucharist and the other side wanted more encouragement to receive frequently and even daily.
Pope Pius X waded into the controversy in December of 1905 with his proclamation Sacra Tridentina. The document recognized that there were two different praxes regarding reception of communion: On the one hand, some are almost never going to communion. The document stated:
“Because of the widespread plague of Jansenism, disputes began to arise concerning the dispositions with which one ought to receive frequent and daily Communion; and writers vied with one another in demanding more and more stringent conditions as necessary to be fulfilled. The result of such disputes was that very few were considered worthy to receive the Holy Eucharist daily.” On the other hand, others are going too often. The document states:
“Some, however, went over to the opposite view. They held that daily Communion was prescribed by divine law and that no day should pass without communicating, and […] they determined that the Eucharist must be received even on Good Friday and in fact so administered it.”
The Pope brought a balance to the question, and concluded that while the Eucharist does require of us due honor and reverence, the Eucharist’s primary purpose is to strengthen us and to be an antidote from mortal sin.
As such, frequent communion is the desire of Jesus Christ and the Church and should be the praxis that each parish follows. This week, we should ask ourselves with what attitude do I approach the altar? Do I go because of a false sense of entitlement? Do I approach without any thought to the gravity and power of communion? Do I go with scruples? Do I avoid going at all? None of these is a good place to be. Rather, we should approach the altar with humble love and gratitude, and if we have any grave sin on our souls, we should cleanse ourselves in the sacrament of confession. Here is the passage in full: “The desire of Jesus Christ and of the Church that all the faithful should daily approach the sacred banquet is directed chiefly to this end, that the faithful, being united to God by means of the Sacrament, may thence derive strength to resist their sensual passions, to cleanse themselves from the stains of daily faults, and to avoid these graver sins to which human frailty is liable; so that its primary purpose is not that the honor and reverence due to our Lord may be safe-guarded, or that it may serve as a reward or recompense of virtue bestowed on the recipients. Hence the Holy Council calls the Eucharist “the antidote whereby we may be freed from daily faults and be preserved from mortal sin.”