Superabundant Obsession

By Rev. Jerry J. Pokorsky Many things rightly preoccupy us as we go about trying to solve personal and public problems. Other preoccupations are obsessive. The abundance of news, entertainment, and advertising often creates and feeds such obsessions. The Sacred Liturgy on this Feast of Corpus Christi, along with the regular recitation of the Lord's Prayer, can help us overcome these paralyzing and destructive worries. The Our Father is a prayer before the most sacred of meals: Holy Communion. We pray, "Give us this day our daily bread." The petition immediately follows our acknowledgment of the supremacy of God's will: "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." Bread - the gift of His bounty and work of human hands - depends upon God's favor and our cooperation with His holy will. The latest farming technology means nothing without the seed, soil, and sunshine God provides. We pray for our daily bread that we will consume today. During the Exodus, manna - the gift of heavenly bread - nourished the Israelites on their journey to the Promised Land. "Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law or not." (Exodus 16:4) God gives His people their "daily bread," but only in "daily portions" - provided they walk in His ways. We obsess over material possessions, in part, because we fear the future. A family has many mouths to feed. There are wars and rumors of war. Globalists threaten to rule the world. These concerns are significant, but they're nothing new. "Do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well." (Matthew 6:31-33) When will our fears end? Soon. The Psalmist attests: "Our years end like a sigh. Seventy is the sum of our years, or eighty, if we are strong; Most of them are toil and sorrow; they pass quickly, and we are gone." (Psalm 90: 9-10) Christians have always longed for the Second Coming of Jesus. In the Our Father, we pray with the paradoxical hope that this day will be our last on earth: "Thy kingdom come." When we realize life is short, we may begin to acknowledge our avoidance of our responsibilities. As Jesus tells us, the rich man says in the parable : "'I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.' But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God." (Luke 12:18-21) Every form of consumption is communal. Saint Cyprian writes that the bread I consume is a portion of the bread that belongs to everyone. God provides for the needs of His people with daily apportionments. Hoarding possessions violates the Seventh Commandment because we deprive others of the sustenance God gives. Freezers and dried food have their place, of course. But the obsessive accumulation of food and other possessions is a vain and futile attempt to attain independence from God and others. Medical science extends our lives, but is merely "kicking the can down the road." The corruption of manna, the bread from heaven, after one day, reminds us to trust in God moment by moment. "Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world." (John 6:32-33) The Lord's Prayer elevates our earthly concerns: "Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." Manna and the miraculous multiplication of the loaves confer God's earthly gifts of food upon us. But the petiti...