"Give us Lord, Our Daily Bread", A Reflection by James Kornelsen

Friday, September 11, 2009

I recently spoke to a group of people, assuring them that there is actually enough food for everyone in the world, but that nearly a billion people on the planet are not getting enough to eat. One woman sought me out urgently afterward, looking directly in my eyes and asking me “What can we do?” The urgency in her voice and in her face actually caught me off guard, and I was surprised she was so visibly upset by the information. At Canadian Foodgrains Bank we often talk about the number of hungry people. One in seven goes to bed hungry. There are, at the same time, the same number or more who are overfed. For many Canadians, though certainly not all, worrying about our next meal is more about what kind of food we will eat, rather than worrying whether or not there will be enough. More and more, we also need to talk about the overfed. While the problem is complex, global inequalities do confirm the need to look at hunger as a matter of injustice.

Often when we compare the statistics, unlike the woman who approached me, some negative feelings emerge: hopelessness, apathy or pity. None of these is helpful. We often face messages in the media to the effect that there is not enough. Is there enough? If so, why so many hungry people? People need to know how they can replace these feelings with hope and a hunger for “food justice”. Food justice aims to correct the imbalance and brokenness by addressing the inequalities and mending the broken relationships that cause many in the world to be without the most basic necessity for life – daily bread. But how do we get there?

Fast for Change encourages some healthy reflection around this point. Is our having connected to others' not having? Do we simply have too much? Do we at some point need to lament the excessive consumption and wastefulness in conjunction with our giving thanks? I confess I don’t know, but I’ll explain why I’m asking it. Recently, at mealtime while saying Grace that included the line from the Lord’s Prayer “Give us Lord our daily bread”, we were led to pray a revised version, saying “Thank you, Lord for daily bread”. I felt frustrated and upset, not because I am against being thankful, but I wondered why we might be uncomfortable praying it the way Jesus taught. In this case it may have been to avoid demanding something when in fact we have more than enough. Who am I to demand something of God who has provided so much? Perhaps the prayer in its original form is a challenge for someone who is certain of today’s bread, secure about tomorrow’s, and has no worries about the days ahead thanks to disposable income. But for those who are hungry, I suspect it would be a natural prayer with no such feelings of presumption.

That gave me some insight into why the original version is so important. “Give us Lord our daily bread” becomes a powerful prayer when we consider both the hungry and the overfed. I asked myself who we mean by “us” and what is meant by “daily bread”? I now recommend offering this prayer both in solidarity with the poor, and also as a request for God to reveal to us what it means to have enough. We can identify with the poor and pray on behalf of all people when we say “us”. We can begin to recognize global inequality, access to food, and over-consumption when we say “daily bread”. While challenging us on the meaning of enough, it can also feed justice and hope, and can give us confidence in the prayer.

Fast for Change is designed by Canadian Foodgrains Bank to create space for all Canadians to reflect and pray, rather than to prescribe answers to these complex problems. What gives me hope is that it sparks a greater movement among Christians across Canada and across denominations, acting to promote food justice.

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