Feeding the hungry
From the website of the CEI’s National Office for the Pastoral Care of Health, commentary on the first work of corporal mercy
(by Brother Marco Fabello, Director General I.R.C.C.S. – St. John of God “Fatebenefratelli” Center of Brescia)
Then there came to him a great crowd who had with them lame, crippled, mute and many others who were sick; they laid them at his feet and he healed them… Jesus, having called his disciples, said to them, “I have pity on this people because they have been with me for three days already and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away fasting, so that they may not fail on the way.” The disciples said to him, “Where in the wilderness shall we get sufficient loaves to feed so many people?” Jesus asked, “How many loaves do you have?” They answered, “Seven and a few small fish.” He then made the crowd sit on the ground, took the seven loaves and fishes and, after giving thanks, broke them, gave them to his disciples and the disciples to the crowd. They all ate until they were full, and of the leftover pieces they gathered seven baskets full. (Mt 15:30-37)
I have wondered more than once why corporal works of mercy begin precisely with feeding the hungry and not, for example, with visiting the imprisoned or whatever.
Nor can I think that this may be merely because one of the first duties of everyone is precisely to make sure that no one lacks daily bread.
I imagine that it is deeper in meaning and that being hungry holds far broader and more challenging meanings than the simple and easy reference to flour bread, an almost indispensable food for satiating hunger.And so I refer to my own life and experience to imagine what is meant by the first work of mercy “feeding the hungry.”
And then: hungry for what? Made hungry by whom? Forced to hunger because why?
I imagine the hunger to know of a sick person in the hospital, or even at home, anxiously waiting to know his or her state of health. But also the hunger, insatiable, almost of all those family members, apprehensively accompanying their loved ones to a doctor’s visit to an invasive examination, and hanging on the doctor’s every move, his every grimace, a smile, in a word, his sentence.
I just want to think of another sick person who has been in the hospital for days and, faithful to frequent Holy Communion, sees no one coming to feed his Eucharistic hunger.
I imagine the mothers in the hospital for the most diverse causes, unable to see their children: how much hunger for affection and love mortified by rules of organizational convenience and not human promotion.
My gaze wanders into the often obscure meanderings of health care facilities that do not facilitate the presence of pastoral care workers, of spiritual accompaniment, who are struggling to spread the bread of hope of serenity, or even the bread of viaticum to new lands and new heavens.
I think for a moment of the health workers who hunger for knowledge, who need the bread of scientific, ethical and human updating.
I cannot forget the hunger for humanization of health care facilities, which are often forced to swallow hard bread, stale for years, because for too long the oven that would make it still fragrant and fragrant has been turned off.
I imagine the hunger for knowledge of those who in the poverty in which they live cannot afford to attend school.
I think of all the people in prison or at home who have been waiting for years for a sentence and have a great hunger for justice.
I think of all the unemployed people who may lack even their daily bread and have a great hunger for work.
Of course then there really remains the bread of flour, that which feeds the material hunger that too many people lack or is insufficient to live a worthy life.
My gaze wanders into the often obscure meanderings of health care facilities that do not facilitate the presence of pastoral care workers, of spiritual accompaniment, who are struggling to spread the bread of hope of serenity, or even the bread of viaticum to new lands and new heavens.
I think for a moment of the health workers who hunger for knowledge, who need the bread of scientific, ethical and human updating.
I cannot forget the hunger for humanization of health care facilities, which are often forced to swallow hard bread, stale for years, because for too long the oven that would make it still fragrant and fragrant has been turned off.
I imagine the hunger for knowledge of those who in the poverty in which they live cannot afford to attend school.
I think of all the people in prison or at home who have been waiting for years for a sentence and have a great hunger for justice.
I think of all the unemployed people who may lack even their daily bread and have a great hunger for work.
Of course then there really remains the bread of flour, that which feeds the material hunger that too many people lack or is insufficient to live a worthy life.
We must then concretize the Our Father that we recite often with the works that we can do and that, in the different fields of action of human social or religious commitment, are not precluded to anyone.
After all, Jesus took pity on the people who followed him and for it multiplied the loaves and fishes but we do not miss the message of those loaves that were simultaneously material bread and spiritual bread.
And even after the resurrection He manifested Himself to His apostles on the shore of the lake as He prepared fish for them to feed them, or when, approaching the disciples at Emmaus, He manifested Himself in breaking bread.
How then can we not remember the children preparing for First Communion: innocence meets the Innocent One who immolated Himself for us.
Perhaps we need to relearn from children to hunger for Jesus with their simplicity, with a renewed innocence of life.
Finally, it may be that we lack the hunger for thanksgiving!
We need to be hungry for the desire to always say a big THANK YOU to the Lord for the gift of Himself in the Eucharistic Bread that nourishes us and gives us strength in our daily walk in the world of the poor, the sick and the suffering who are our daily bread for us.
Source
Image
- Illustration by Sister Marie-Anastasia Carré (Communauté des Béatitudes)