Are we conscious of the starving?

ARE WE CONSCIOUS OF THE STARVING?

Jn. 6:1-15

How many of us have experienced real hunger? We may have been hungry for hours, but not days.  When someone is really hungry, hunger rules their world.  It forces an honest person to become a thief.  It makes the most unselfish person look at his neighbour's plate to see if his ration is bigger than his own.  All he thinks of is food, food, food.  Severe hunger turns a person into an insomniac.  Even when the hungry person does manage to snatch a little sleep, he still dreams of food.  If food is given him, he can't keep it down.  His stomach rejects it.  When you are hungry you will gladly eat grass and chew on an old belt.  Fastidious people no longer become fussy, they have even been known in their hunger to eat rats, cats and dogs.  Some years ago, a plane crashed in the icy mountains and the survivors were so hungry that they ate parts of the dead bodies that had been preserved in the snow and ice.

In today's Gospel we see how the people followed Jesus to a lonely place.  They were so anxious to hear Jesus that they had forgotten to bring food with them.  Fortunately, one boy did have some food with him.  Jesus multiplied this small quantity and so fed thousands.  He gave them the only thing that mattered at that moment, food and plenty of it.

Our problem in our part of the world is not that we have too little food but too much, and too much food is almost as dangerous as too little.  How often the main occupation of many people has become so preoccupied with satisfying their taste buds that this can lead to selfishness, greed and failure to think of those who go hungry.

In our part of the world some of us waste more food than hungry people ever get.  This is criminal, for we live in a world where at least a third of our brothers and sisters are hungry.  We Christians in Europe should be profoundly disturbed over what is done with our surplus food.  On occasions the  European Union have mountains of apples, butter, meat, grain and skimmed milk.  The stock-piling of surplus food is as great a scandal as the stock-piling of arms.  We have a simple answer where to store our surplus food and that is in the shrivelled stomachs of millions of God's children who go to bed hungry at night.  But the chances of this happening are remote.

ls there anything we can do to alleviate the hungry of our world?  There is.  Every Friday we could show some solidarity with them by cutting down on our food, saving say 50p. or £1 and sending it to CAFOD at the end of the year.  It would mean that the hungry would benefit by £25 or £50 a year, and if all Christians did this just think what an impact we could have on feeding the hungry.

It is interesting to note that the first matter on which Jesus will judge each person is on the subject of hunger!  'I was hungry and did you feed Me?'  We can't multiply food like Jesus did, but we can share what we have, or at least buy it for them through organisations that feed the hungry.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta once came across a Hindu family who hadn't eaten for days.  She gave them a small quantity of rice.  What happened surprised her.  They divided the rice in half and gave half of it to a Moslem family next door who also hadn't eaten for days.  The Hindu family in their hunger were big enough to look beyond their own need.  They threw down the barriers of religion, which sadly so often separate people, and were able to see this Moslem family as their own brothers and sisters in God.  'That' said Mother Teresa, 'takes greatness.'

Lord Jesus, may each one of us hear from You the words, 'I was hungry and you fed Me.'

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