Not by Bread Alone

0:00C-R101 Radio dot com. Podcasts and more. And explaining this sacrament, Bertram wrote, quote, The soul, the heart of man, is not fed by corporal food or drink, but is nourished and grows by the word of God. It is not this bread which goes into the body, but the bread of eternal life which ministers support to the soul. End quote. Recalling Christ's word to the tempter, quote, It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by everywhere that proceeded out of the life of God, Matthew 4.

1:01Bertram declared that man needs the bread of life, the word of God, and God's grace and life to live. Returning to the elements of communion, Bertram wrote, quote, For this bread and this drink are the body and blood of Christ, not according to what they appear, but according to what they spiritually minister, the substance of life, end quote. The substance of life, this is what people are desperately in need of today. The form of life was never in better evidence. People are richly clothed and sheltered. They live in abundance and in ease but in spite of all this, with ulcers, fear and discontent. There is nothing wrong in material prosperity and much to be grateful for with respect to it, but material prosperity without the substance of life is frustration and futility. The students at Berkeley in the 1930s were far from perfect and they had problems.

2:02More than a few were put into Cowell's hospital by sympathetic doctors, not because they were seriously ill, but because they would eat better there. But it is today's students who are revolutionists and writers, many of them come from prosperous homes and have a surprising amount of spending money. They demand rights for themselves and our present day poor with no real knowledge of what problems a material poverty can be. Their answer to all problems is more material possessions for all. Material progress in wealth must be a part of the goal of any society, but any country that thinks these material advantages will solve its needs is far gone indeed. Without the substance of life, Jesus Christ man's lot is perpetual discontent. The man who wants to solve man's problems with a purely material answer is not only wrong but dangerous because he's a liar.

3:03When Judas talked about giving to the poor since John observed, good, as he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, John 126. We have many such thieves with us today. Jesus warned, the thief come with knots but for distil and to kill and to destroy. I am calm that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. John 1010. Some would charge that it's ridiculous to talk about the sacrament and its meaning as some kind of answer to the problem of civil disorder and poverty. What are you doing for the poor people that demand the answer is an obvious one. Bertram, monk of Corby, did more for the needy of his age than to our noisy revolutionists of today who are generous only with other people's money. He had the substance of life and he shared that life materially and spiritually.

4:04This year is true of Christ's flock today.