Reflections on Jesus, food and hunger

Poverty is in some ways a kind of violence. We can say that its strongest expression is hunger. Let’s not forget that some political, economic and even humanitarian actors don’t hesitate to use poverty, and its most violent expression of hunger, as a “resource” for their own advantage. They use it like a business asset, as a means of illegal enrichment, of dominating and subjugating entire populations. In my country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, I remember that in order to subdue the students who were demonstrating against the corruption and dictatorship of his regime, President Mobutu cut off their grants and closed down all the university dining halls.

…We must refuse to accept poverty and hunger as an inevitability and not give in to the temptation that there’s nothing we can do about it. We’ve often heard things like: “We’ll always have the poor among us.” These words borrowed from Jesus sound like an appeal to not get involved, but are rather an invitation to refuse the status quo, to fight until no child, woman or elderly person is deprived of sufficient, nutritious quality food. Jesus accepts no justification for letting someone go hungry. We recall his answer to the apostles when they adopted a defeatist attitude before a crowd of people whom the Lord had asked them to feed. He didn’t hesitate to tell them: “You yourselves must give them something to eat.” (Mt 14,13-21). –Father Pierre Cibambo, Caritas Internationalis, Rome

It’s us the Lord is speaking to today: “You give them something to eat”, and he knows we have the wherewithal to do so! He says to us: You who are my disciples, don’t abandon them to their fate. Do something, you have the wherewithal to do so. Stretch your imagination and be creative. Work ceaselessly and share what you have. Fight selfishness and don’t waste anything. Protest so that the exploitation of the most vulnerable comes to an end. Demand that a stop be put to the monopolisation of land by the rich. Give the poor, women and farmers the know-how and tools they need to produce, process and sell the products of their land, etc. Do the same as God, who is always interested in our daily bread: from the offering of bread in the Temple to the breaking of bread in Emmaus, from the manna of the exodus to the multiplication of loaves and fishes, the Lord has always paid attention to human hunger.

May this campaign also help us to rediscover and go deeper into the mystery of the Eucharist. The Lord left us this memorial – which he wanted to remain vitally present among us through the symbols of bread and wine – for a reason. Since then, we cannot break Eucharistic bread or become communities that celebrate the Eucharist, the sacrament of communion and alliance, without doing our utmost to give back dignity to our brothers and sisters deprived of sufficient, good-quality food. Indeed, the Eucharist is the expression par excellence of God’s compassionate, merciful and redeeming love. –Cardinal Oscar Andrès Cardinal Maradiaga, President of Caritas Internationalis

Throughout the Bible, food is used as means to build, enhance or repair relationships. Eating together builds community. It demonstrates trust and care. It even prevents quarrels. In this way food meets important social needs and is an instrument of blessing. In the Old Testament for example, Abigail made appeasement to David, who was coming to kill her husband, by sending him donkeys laden with food. By Abigail’s gift of food and well-chosen words, conflict was averted. (1 Sam 25:18). Food brings people together as it did at the Last Supper or at the meetings of the Early Church or at Old Testament festivals such as the Feast of Tabernacles, First Fruits or Passover.

The Bible’s constant recognition of the state of the poor and the need that they be cared for speaks volumes not only to the physical attributes, but also the social attributes, of food. Feeding the poor would bring them into community and thus the poor would come to enjoy the benefits of community life and interaction as well as no longer being hungry. –Mr. Firmin Adjahossou, Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM)

Millions of children go to sleep each night hungry. In contrast, many of our cultures throw out food daily. Water is squandered without any thought of those who have to walk miles to get it in places where water is scarce. Food and water are sacred, not to be wasted. …Even among the poorest people on the earth, food and water are signs of hospitality. We seek to be awakened, return to the Lord, and put faith into action. Discuss the following with family, friends, parish or civic groups:

• Become aware of the waste of food and water in the world, in your neighborhood, in your life. Who in your community struggles to find food or water? Why?
• How is the larger civic community responding to this issue? Is there a way to support them?
• Who in your community is turning waste into bounty? Look at restaurants, charitable soup kitchens, or national organizations.
• What are the opportunities at home for using such things as water catchment or composting? Look at your daily meals. How do they express a way of turning to God in all things?
• Take time for sharing meals. Learn to appreciate all of creation that has given life to what you eat.

–Kathy Brown, Senior Director for Mission, Catholic Charities USA

Jesus acted out his own teaching, eating with men and women of any and every station, ignoring distinctions. And he is fiercely criticised, with his enemies implicitly suggesting he is no better than those he associates with.

The context for the Lord’s Prayer is villages where people are hungry and in debt to one another. When their harvest fails they starve. When their overlords call in too much produce they starve. When resources grow limited they resort to loans. With loans from neighbours the assumption is they will be paid back interest-free as and when possible. But when all are without surplus then loans have to be made from their landlords, whose interest rates are extortionate. Unable to meet repayments they have to mortgage their land and all too often forfeit it. Families are broken up, children are sold as debt slaves, men become wandering day labourers, without shelter or family networks to support them…

The petitions of the Lord’s Prayer address this reality and speak of an alternative equitable use of resources. It teaches that there is an alternative! It is a call to a renewed communal life, starting from the local, capable of resisting the powerful political and economic forces that would undermine it. –David McLoughlin, Newman University College, member of CAFOD’s Theological Reference Group

“Bread for myself,” wrote a great Russian thinker, “is a physical question; bread for my neighbour is a spiritual question.” My neighbour’s lack of bread, my neighbour’s struggle for the means of life, is spiritually speaking my question. I am not being fed if my neighbour is struggling, nor is my neighbour fed when I am hungry. –Dr Rowan Williams, Chair of Christian Aid and Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge