Let us pray that everyone, from large producers to small consumers, be committed to avoid wasting food, and to ensure that everyone has access to quality food.
Pope Leo’s prayer that everyone might have food is so simple and the need for nourishing food is so evident that at first sight it should hardly need to be prayed. The earth is bountiful enough to provide food for everyone, fertilisers available enough to make the earth grow, and transport sufficient to transfer skills and surplus food in one nation to meet crises in others. And yet people, including most unforgivably children go hungry, and money that could be spent on food is spent in excluding the hungry when they knock on the door of nations with more than enough food.
That disparity echoes Jesus’ story of the rich man and Lazarus. In it, the rich feed on fine food and wine while Lazarus picks up the scraps at their feet and shares them with the dogs. That is echoed uncomfortably in the contrast between people dining on fine foods and wines in city restaurants with emaciated people sleeping in the streets outside. This extreme inequality breeds discomfort, which in turn leads to beggars being driven from the wealthy part of town. Out of sight, out of mind. In Jesus’ story, the fault of the rich man was not failing to feed Lazarus but failing to notice him as a human being like himself.
The need to notice lies at the heart of Pope Leo’s prayer. To feed the hungry in any society requires more than a technical solution of providing adequate production, transport and financing. It demands the conversion of heart needed to make these steps a priority. That, in turn, demands conversion of the eyes so that they notice the people who are hungry. The habit of noticing, being moved by, and staying with people who go hungry lies at the heart of prayer. It requires discernment, noticing the movements of our hearts and the needs of our brothers and sisters, and the courage to remedy what we see.
Traditionally, and still in the religious practice of many people, attention to the world and to the people around us, and a compassionate response to them have been encouraged by special periods of prayer and fasting. In the words of the humiliated King Lear in Shakespeare’s play, they urge us to ‘expose thyself to feel what wretches feel’. In the Muslim observance of Ramadan people are encouraged to open their table to the needy in the evening meal that breaks the daily fast.
By themselves, of course, prayer and charity do not solve the logistical challenges involved in feeding the poor in an unequal world. That depends particularly on the priority that governments of wealthy nations give it. That is why Pope Leo prays that that, everyone, from large producers to small consumers, be committed to avoid wasting food and to ensure that everyone has enough. It means that in families we pay attention to recycling food, putting pressure on the management of large companies to make left-over food available to people in need instead of being dumped, supporting overseas aid, and demanding that governments give a high priority to aid programs.
Fr Andrew Hamilton SJ writes for Jesuit Communications and Jesuit Social Services.
