Let us give them bread to eat

God does not make bread out of stone in a moment, nor does God shower food from the sky. Bread is a graceful miracle that God does in the soil. “You give them something to eat” should also meet the whole question of “why are they hungry?” If we cannot participate in ensuring the right answer in some way, we have no part in the Eucharistic banquet. Since bread became a money maker, we store food, make consumption increase, and waste what is excess. World’s people are hungry not because food is insufficient, but because over consumption and wastage. Around the world, more than enough food is produced to feed the global population—but as many as 811 million people still go hungry each night. From 2019 to 2020, the number of undernourished people grew by as many as 161 million, a crisis driven largely by conflict, climate change, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Somehow we are fooling ourselves being at the luxury of the altar expecting God to do magic and end poverty, end conflicts and establish peace. We are simply to enjoy the entertainment. We are, in fact, wasting the grace that works within us. Stone to become bread is a temptation. Bread and fruits are outcome of a big process of generosity and sacrifice. From the soil, the earthworms, the farmer to the baker it is a graciousness. What we hear from the servant of Elisha (2 Kings 4:43) and the disciples of Jesus (Jn 6:7) is the same, “We don’t have enough to serve the needs of the hungry.” The servant of Elisha does not ask what are we to do with the twenty loaves and fresh grain for themselves. 

The storers have power, and power creates further conflicts. In 2020, conflict was the primary driver of hunger for 99.1 million people in 23 countries. So, the saying of Jesus, “You give them something to eat” is very significant to our context. Mt 14: 16 Mk 6:37. We too can ask, “what do we have to meet the world hunger?” 

First step to do is to feel the hunger, know that there are hungry people around just as Jesus saw and had compassion on them. Even if we take the theological presentation in St John as Jesus offering pointing to himself as the bread of life, it calls us in a deeper way to be conscious of how we function as the bread of life if we are part of his body. Feeding the hungry is to offer life. It involves sacrifice and death. Hunger relates to many other factors like safe stay, general health, water and sanitation … If we are thinking of the kingdom of God sincerely the doors are here.

Then the Lord God said: “Let us give them bread to eat.” The earth community gathered, the soil, water, earthworm, fallen leaves, ash … “what can we do for these many people?” they asked. “For one grain a thousand measure,” so generously let us produce if we stand together. Grains were in abundance and fruits were plenty.