Clever Words: A Lenten Devotional

A Clever Word for the Season of Lent
σῖτος (sitos)
Bread, grain
A Clever Verse for Context
“Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread (sitos) alone.'" (Luke 4:4)

Clever Reflections
Spiritual
As human beings we are united in the fact that we need food to survive.  Whether that food is bread or, for the more t-rex minded among us, steak and pork chops, the bottom line is the same.  No one does all that well when they are hungry.  But just as there is more to us than the food we eat, there is more to eating than just the consumption of food.  Jesus will not be reduced to eating bread-rocks in the wilderness because a meal is not only the food eaten, but those with which it is shared.  What is it to be human?  To require food and to be sustained by others to eat that food with.  That’s probably one of the reasons when we eat bread as Church we call it communion.      

Literary
In Homer’s Odyssey, the hero Odysseus boasts that he is the best archer “among all the mortals who now live on the earth and eat bread (sitos)” (see Odyssey 7.222). Elsewhere in the same poem, Odysseus uses the phrase “men who eat bread” as way of saying “people like me, ordinary humans."

Clever Questions for Further Reflection

When has eating with others nourished not only your body, but your soul?
For Jesus and Odysseus, eating bread is a key part of being human.  What are your criteria for being human?

A Clever Prayer to Close
God bless to us our bread!
And  give food to those who are hungry,
And hunger for justice to those who are fed.
God bless to us our bread!
                      ~John L. Bell