GIVE US, THIS DAY, OUR DAILY BANANA
“Why
ask for your daily bread, when you own the bakery?”
Randy
Alcom
For
many years, I used to regularly receive a small booklet (free of cost) by the
name – ‘Our Daily Bread’. It carried some simple, yet profound, reflections to help
wade through our frantic life. It was published by a Christian organization.
When Covid broke
out, I stopped receiving this booklet, and I completely forgot about it… Out of
sight, out of mind!
Some days ago,
when my wife and I had gone to Mahim church for a novena, I stopped at the book
counter just outside the exit… My eyes fell on this 2021 annual-edition of ‘Our Daily Bread’. I, immediately, began to glance through some of its pages,
when I heard the man at the counter
gently nudge me, saying, “Please take it.” I pulled out a note of Rs. 500 to
pay – without even checking the price… I was simply told with a smile, “It’s
free.”
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That’s when I
realized, that all the books and magazines displayed at that counter were old
ones… People seemed to have donated them to this Centre, and the Centre, in
return, seemed to pass on the good deed. I ended up picking up three different
books and two magazines. The gentlemen at the counter appeared more than happy
to see those amazing books and magazines going to people who loved to read them…
“Give
us, this day, our daily bread.” For those who aren’t familiar, this line is
taken from the famous prayer Jesus had taught to his disciples, when they had
asked the Master to teach them to pray. Ever since then, this prayer – ‘The
Lord’s Prayer’ – has remained the most popular and recited prayer. Each line in
it is profound, and calming.
At times, I stop
after each of these line and go silent… When I come to the line, “Give us, this
day, our daily bread,” I, particularly, pause to reflect. “Go slow, go slow, go
slow,” I hear from within.
How peaceful
life can be, if you and I could truly rely on this message!
But, as Randy
Alcom says, the temptation is to say, “Why ask for our daily bread, when we can
own the bakery?”
That’s why, probably,
the Master seemed have added in His prayer these lines, too: “And, lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
On reading my Post
on Adani episode – ‘Bubbles are Beautiful’, my dear friend, Dr. Deepak had
shared this hilarious poster:
I smiled and
replied to my friend: “Long before the Master from Nazarene taught humans to
pray, saying, ‘Our Father in heaven… Give us, this day, our daily bread,’ He
seemed to have taught our ancestors to pray, saying, ‘Give us, this day, our
daily banana’.”
The famed Forbes list is the expensive offshoot of our much-hyped ‘evolution’…
How else can it be
described, Sir?
GERALD D'CUNHA
Pic's: 1. Pixels 2. Discovery House 3. Unknown
Video: Gaur Gopal Das
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