Posted on July 30, 2025 View all Gospel Reflection
“Give us each day our daily bread…” (Luke 11:3)
Today we hear the account in the Gospel of St. Luke where Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray by teaching them the “Our Father.” This prayer in many ways is considered the perfect prayer. It is foremost in this category because it is the prayer that Jesus Himself taught His disciples. But it is also perfect because it encompasses a wide variety of the types of prayer that exist and as the prayer concludes it points to how we are called to live the Law of God. The Law which we heard on the Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time immediately preceding the Parable of the Good Samaritan. “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27)
In the Our Father Jesus invites us pray with blessing, adoration, petition, intercession for others, and thanksgiving. But one thing that is interesting is that Jesus tells us said to ask God Our Father for our “daily bread.” It is, of course, important to ask God for the things that we need each day to live. But what is also happening here is that we are asking God to give us what we need, not necessarily what we want. In this manner Jesus recalls the lesson from Proverbs that says “give me neither poverty nor riches; provide me only with the food I need.” (Proverbs 30:8)
What is also striking is the manner in which Jesus shows us how to pray. He gives the example of the person who is asleep and has a neighbor come and knock asking for bread to offer to his guests who have just arrived from a journey. As we know, hospitality is very important in Jesus’ culture, and it was almost always expected that people would share such things like bread when needed. But it was not a convenient time since everyone was already asleep and the doors were locked. But Jesus says the friend insisted, and because of his persistence, the homeowner got up and gave him whatever bread he needed.
Jesus is inviting us to put before the Lord God our needs and to pray for them unceasingly. Not necessarily because he wants us to annoy God. But rather so that we can grow in our own humility. Then, Jesus says that how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. (Luke 11:13) This desire of God for us to ask Him for our needs is also illustrated in the dialogue between Abraham and God regarding the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham whittles the Lord down from fifty innocent, all the way down to ten innocent people. But it was unfortunate that Abraham was not able to find even ten innocent people in those cities.
When we ask the Father for our needs, when we ask him for forgiveness, we also invite Him to do so in the same manner. “forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us” (Luke 11:4) or as in Matthew 6:12 “forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” With these words we recall the actions of the Good Samaritan and who is our neighbor and how we should act with them.
Finally, as we have this great and intimate dialogue with our heavenly Father, we ask him “do not subject us to the final test.” (Luke 11:4) We ask this because we are weak. Recall the words of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane “Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:41) And this was after having just shared with the Lord the Last Supper, having received the very Body and Blood of Christ at that first Mass.
If the disciples were weak and in need of Jesus’ grace and forgiveness, how much more ourselves? As we enter into this week let us take the words of St. Paul with us as he reminds us that Jesus brought us to life along with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions. (cf. Col. 2:13) Jesus died for our sins, is it too much for us to forgive others around us? Jesus gave us His Body and Blood, is it too much to humbly ask Him for our daily bread, our daily needs? Let our life become a living prayer that helps us grow in humility with open hearts so that we can be generous with what we have received and give God the honor and glory He deserves by our actions each and every day.
