“Give us this day our daily bread,” as found in Matthew 6:11, is one of the petitions found in what we generally call the Lord’s Prayer. Positioned midway between the beginning and the end of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, this is serious business— Biblically speaking. As it turns out, correspondents for the popular press worldwide also take the expression “daily bread” pretty seriously.
This is, so it seems, at least partially the result of establishments such as Toronto’s Daily Bread Food Bank, which distributes food and often other services to the needy within their communities. This is important, even crucial, work, not lending itself to levity or leitmotifs. Nonetheless, there are some occurrences of “daily bread” in the daily (or weekly) press that might lead us to reflect on Biblical connections—and that, after all, is what this column is all about!
First, we observe that the “cult of celebrity” extends to charitable organizations as it does to just about every other facet of modern life. We begin, as we often do, with sports. Our Daily Bread, a food bank in Maryland, attracted sports-related support from “the Chesapeake Bayhawks of Major League Lacrosse” and the junior varsity football players from Meade High School (Annapolis’ Capital and the Maryland Gazette, respectively).
Conscientious and conscience-oriented stars extend beyond athletes. So, simply from reading this headline—“Food Bank Gets Break from Boss” (The Toronto Star)—we are well positioned for the story’s first sentence: “Always a charitable fellow, Bruce Springsteen has given the Daily Bread Food Bank four tickets” to one of his Toronto concerts. With a minimum bid of $1,000, these tickets are not Springsteen’s first contribution to this charity. Best known by a nickname and often associated with charitable deeds, which Biblical personage does Springsteen most remind you of?
The above Biblical “connection” may seem a bit of a stretch to some readers (not that I’m averse to a little stretching, of the mental or physical kind). But I’m sure that everyone will immediately recognize a specific Biblical character in the following headline—“Teacher Trades His Hair for Food Donations; Daily Bread Benefits from Load of Groceries”—and story (as related in The Toronto Star): “Ric Hollowell, a physical education teacher … agreed to have his blond head shaved in front of the whole school—if the students managed to collect 100 pounds of food per home.” So that’s the way it was: Delilah was simply seeking Samson’s curly locks as a means of raising consciousness and food for starving Philistines. What could have been more noble?
Sometimes, there’s humor enough simply in the headlines. Here are two relevant examples from The Toronto Star, which seems to be our go-to publication for this column: “Dismal Drive Is Food for Thought” and “Fraud Arrest Leaves Bad Taste.” Or how about this, from Scotland on Sunday—“Kneads Must.”
Alas, this last headline reminds us that this column, like a good meal, needs to come to an end—and in a way that appeals to both the upper crust and the white bread segments of the reading public. Here we go: “Le Pain Quotidien [the name of a Belgium-based bakery/café chain] translates as our daily bread, echoing deep into our psyche. Give us this day our daily bread—and when you don’t, you get revolutions and famine. Bread used to be slang for money and is a metaphor for life. You break bread as an act of communion and community.” And thus it was, for the most part, in Biblical Israel, where the same word connotes “life” as well as “bread.”
This thought, in common with most every thought, makes me hungry—for a sandwich on whole wheat or rye! Care to join me?
“Give us this day our daily bread,” as found in Matthew 6:11, is one of the petitions found in what we generally call the Lord’s Prayer. Positioned midway between the beginning and the end of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, this is serious business— Biblically speaking. As it turns out, correspondents for the popular press worldwide also take the expression “daily bread” pretty seriously. This is, so it seems, at least partially the result of establishments such as Toronto’s Daily Bread Food Bank, which distributes food and often other services to the needy within their communities. This is important, […]
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