Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 523 – Part I.

YOUCAT Question n. 523 - Part I. Why does man not live on bread alone?

(Youcat answer) “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Mt 4:4, citing Deut 8:3).

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2834) "Pray and work" (Cf. St. Benedict, Regula, 20, 48). "Pray as if everything depended on God and work as if everything depended on you" (Attributed to St. Ignatius Loyola, cf. Joseph de Guibert, SJ, The  Jesuits: Their Spiritual Doctrine and Practice, (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1964), 148, n. 55). Even when we have done our work, the food we receive is still a gift from our Father; it is good to ask him for it with thanksgiving, as Christian families do when saying grace at meals.

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) This passage of Scripture reminds us that men have a spiritual hunger that cannot be satisfied by material means. One can die for lack of bread, but one can also die because one has received bread alone. In a profound sense we are nourished by the one who has “the words of eternal life” (Jn 6:68) and a food that does not perish (Jn 6:27): the Holy Eucharist.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 2835) This petition, with the responsibility it involves, also applies to another hunger from which men are perishing: "Man does not live by bread alone, but… by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" (Deut 8:3; Mt 4:4), that is, by the Word he speaks and the Spirit he breathes forth. Christians must make every effort "to proclaim the good news to the poor." There is a famine on earth, "not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD" (Am 8:11). For this reason the specifically Christian sense of this fourth petition concerns the Bread of Life: the Word of God accepted in faith, the Body of Christ received in the Eucharist (Cf. Jn 6:26-58).

 

(This question: Why does man not live on bread alone?  is continued)