Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

proceeded to examine every apartment in theith little, and, after much search, he discovered at length two rusty knives. These he scoured and polished; and, having again received for his labour two pieces of bread, he came with them to the table of the Cardinal.

Those to whom this conduct may appear too singular and extravagant, although in Ægidius it proceeded from sincere simplicity, may compare the masters and models of Christian perfection, and such as the Church acknowledges as saints, to those players on the violin who lead the orchestra, and, on this account, have their strings toned an octave above the rest. Yet did not St. Paul declare, in presence of the faithful at Ephesus, "I have not coveted any man's silver, gold, nor apparel, as you yourselves know. For such things as were needful for me and them that are with me, these hands have furnished." (Acts xx.)

What an example! one against which no objection can be raised. The instructor of nations, the teacher of all divine wisdom, the benefactor of mankind, the light of Europe; he of whom, by excellence, it might be said,

The labourer is worthy of his hire;' this illustrious Apostle would receive no other food, nor be clothed with other garments, than such as he had earned by the labour of his hands. What a lesson for such as live in affluence! What a condemnation of those who would, moreover, appropriate that which is not their bread, but which belongs unto their neighbour! If the idler has scarcely a right to call that his own which falls to him by the laws of society-for no one is born merely to consume the fruits of the earth-how much less has he this right, who, in his too great industry, has recourse

E US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD.

133

Ægidin to usury, and to the various other arts connected with Proteus-like avarice! "Give us this day our daily bread." Can they join in this petition who, like crows, invade the field of harvest, or, like worming moles, gnaw the roots entrusted by the farmer to the earth?

St. Bernadine relates an anecdote of an Italian peasant who went to a money-changer to receive, in smaller coin, the value of some silver. The changer counted in his presence the small coin, making use, however, in place of the first numbers, of certain words and syllables; for thus was he accustomed to secure his own profit in his exchanges. He commenced, then, with these words: In the name of God and of His Saints, six, seven, eight, nine.' The peasant perceived the profane fraud concealed beneath these clouds of godliness; he recounted the money, and discovered that five pieces were missing. He instantly threw back the money, exclaiming, 'Count again.' The well-practised hypocrite complied, still observing the same system; but the peasant, unwilling to be further imposed upon, exclaimed, Not so, my friend; count once more, leave out God and the Saints.'

[ocr errors]

and

Such is the good advice which should be given to all those who, whilst they pretend great esteem for Christian practices and prayer, wind their way through a land of lies. Count, reckon, and speculate; but cease to profane the just and true God. Wherefore do you

"Our Father?"

cry to Him, with the words of love, Wherefore petition, "Give us this day our daily bread?" Such was the bitter reproach made by our Saviour to the Pharisees, "Your father is the devil, the spirit of lies." In like manner, your bread is not your own,

but the bread of lies. And what is the voice of Scripture?"The bread of lies is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth is filled with a stone." (Prov. xx.) Unrighteous gain, the fruit of deceit and of lies, may at first bestow a flattering gratification; but it will finally be converted into anguish and punishment. But to lawful labour it is promised, "Thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands; blessed art thou, and it shall be well with thee." (Psalm cxxvii.)

'

If it be so, what consolation then remains for the needy and weak-for those who, animated by the best will, can yet gain nothing? Where is the bread which they can call their own? The prayer of our Lord is not of that egotistical form to allow any one to pray, 'Give me my daily bread;' but as the words of the petition are expressly, 'Give us our daily bread;' so no one should be seduced by the too natural delusion, that his possessions and acquisitions are so exclusively his own, as to allow him to apply or to squander them solely for himself. The Lord,' says St. Augustine, desires to bless the rich through the poor, and to prove the fidelity of His steward. He leaves the poor in poverty for their greater trial; he establishes the rich to prove them by the poor.' How deeply was holy Job convinced of this truth: "If I have denied to the poor what they desired, and have made the eyes of the widow wait; if I have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof; if the poor man hath not been warmed with the fleece of my sheep; let God have no share in me." (Job xxxi.) What an awful judgment! What a cloud of darkness does it not cast over the heads of the hard-hearted and avaricious! We are informed

by Plutarch that the inhabitants of the ancient state of ŒŒnea had been warned by an oracle not to bestow in alms the least of their property, lest they should endanger their country, their homes, and their entire possessions. And to judge from the conduct of the selfseeker, would he not appear to have been cautioned by the same oracular voice? Every sacrifice that he makes to the welfare of his neighbour causes him no less alarm than if his whole property were in peril.

Want of charity is, however, fortunately, not in the spirit of our times; at least, of that charity which manifests itself in active assistance, and which feels the import of these words in the mouth of the poor, "Give us this day our daily bread." For their petition to their Father is not, 'Give us bread,' but Give us our bread, which Thou wilt bestow upon us through those to whom Thou hast entrusted it for us, in rich abundance.' It is, indeed, sufficiently obvious, that the poor must supplicate for that which, although destined and prepared for them by God, they do not as yet enjoy. But if the rich, and those who are in possession of a certain inheritance, are to repeat the same daily prayer, why are they to pray that God would give them what they already possess? Because, without the Divine blessing, all our labours would be fruitless, all our hopes deceitful. For "neither he that planteth is any thing, nor he that watereth, but God, who giveth the increase."

Thus do we pray the Giver of all good to bless the work of our hands, acknowledging that all is in His power, and that neither to accident nor to blind chance, neither to our skill nor to our wisdom, but to Him alone do we ascribe all things. For he who would consider

any other as the God of what he possesses is guilty of the lie of Satan, who, in his usurped dignity of prince of this world, shewed to the Redeemer the kingdoms of the earth, boldly declaring, "All these are mine, and I give them to whom I will." In opposition to the old deceiver, and in obedience to the command of Christ, do the rich petition for their daily bread, lest they should be deprived of that which already they possess; and that they may be mindful of the precept of the Apostle, not to think highly of themselves, nor to trust in perishable possessions, but in the living God. (1 Tim. vi.)

In fine, whether rich or poor, we all petition for our daily brea for the present day, lest we should ever lose sight of the frail and transitory nature of our existence on earth. For, as it is only by reason of our earthly captivity, which is comprised in a series of years and of days, that we stand in need of our daily bread; so by the word 'bread' we are reminded of death, and are cautioned not to anticipate Providence by imitating the rich man in the parable, who filled his barns for an immeasurable futurity; yet more forcibly are we warned by the little word 'this day' to banish all those anxious and painful solicitudes which spring from a diffidence in the goodness of God. A reasonable and well-ordered prudence is, indeed, not forbidden by Divine wisdom. It tells us rather to go to the ant, and learn from her to make, in reasonable time, provision for the future, By it also are we sent to the birds of the air, which neither sow nor reap, but, as St. Augustine says, fly and flutter about in search of their food. That which in these creatures is but the impulse of nature, is in man perfected by reason and experience. They may in

« ZurückWeiter »