Our Daily Hunger (Matthew 6: 7-15)

(originally re-written September 26, 2008) I watched the movie, The Devil’s Advocate, again last night and I realized one thing. The Devil can appear to fulfill some (if not most, but definitely not all) of our needs. This was clear (in an “evil” way) for the character played by Keanu Reeves who was self-absorbed and whose definition of good lawyering and adequate self-worth was the fact that he was “a stud” who won every case he handled. We tend to associate “evil” with these kinds of base passions, vanity and lust.

But the movie also shows that evil “woos” us when we desire to fulfill our “legitimate” needs, our need for someone to be interested in us, someone who will listen to us, someone who will take care of us when we have been “wronged”, our need to be loved. This was what was scary about the way the devil wooed the wife and mother of the character played by Keanu Reeves.

I think it is in this sense that I begin to understand the Lord’s Prayer. I never was satisfied with explanations that the “Daily Bread” that we ask from God is “God’s Word” or “Jesus in communion” or even the more simple explanation that this is a recognition that we rely on God completely for mundane and not too mundane things in order to live. For me, these explanations were too “up there”.

Then I began to look at it from a different angle. I began to ask myself, what is my daily hunger? Through the choices I make every day, through the feelings that I feel most of the time, what needs of mine do I reveal? What do I hunger for on a day to day basis? Do I hunger for affirmation from my co-workers and my friends? Do I hunger for belonging? Do I hunger for love from particular people? Do I hunger for a sense of accomplishment?

Before I proceed, let me just say that I think it is important to realize is that our “needs” are neither right nor wrong. They probably are just part and parcel of being human. Even vanity and lust may stem from “passions” that aren’t evil at all such as the need to feel useful and the need to feel loved.

That said, the movie leads my self-examination to another level. It leads me to ask myself: How do I fulfill my needs? Who or what do I rely on to fulfill my needs? And if these needs aren’t fulfilled, what do I do?

It is only then that I begin to understand the Lord’s Prayer a little bit more. When we ask God to “give us this day our daily bread” we are telling him, “Look God, you know and understand my needs better than I do. You know too how best my needs can be fulfilled. In fact I think you want to fulfill my needs because you love me. I turn to you and ask you to help me fulfill my needs. Please show me today how you would have me fulfill my needs”.

It seems logical then that the prayer proceeds to ask God to forgive us our sins and to forgive those who sin against us. We become sinners when we fulfill our needs in a sinful manner, at the expense of others and at the expense of our own souls. Then we pray that we be not led to temptation, the temptation that we fulfill our needs in a sinful way.

I guess in the end, our prayer is that God grants us the grace to be conscious of our daily hunger and that our daily hunger be increasingly fed by the grace of God.