Feed the multitudes

by Editor · Published October 28, 2009 · Updated March 6, 2012

In the gospels we read about Jesus� response when, on two occasions, he was faced with crowds of people he knew to be hungry. Something needed to be done, and Jesus performed the miracles of the feeding of the multitudes. Whether he literally multiplied the meagre offerings or persuaded those who had food to share it communally, as some Scripture scholars say, Jesus saw a need and responded to it.

Jesus had the means to provide abundant food for all. Today, the world has the means to feed the world�s hungry, but fails to do so because of selfish greed, lack of compassion and the absence of political will.

The miracles of the feeding of the multitudes are perhaps those Gospel passages most relevant to social justice today. Indeed, the scandal of poverty and hunger is a running theme throughout the Bible. Poverty and the poor are mentioned hundreds of times in both Old and New Testament, more than any other social condition.

The Church�s priority in its social engagement therefore resides with the destitute, of whom today there are more than a billion globally � or every sixth person in the world. In that light, we must welcome Pope Benedict�s forthright admonition that the fight against world hunger is integral to the right to life philosophy on which the Catholic Church, and other denominations, place such a premium.

In his letter to the United Nations� Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in October, Pope Benedict said that the �primary right to food is intrinsically linked to the safeguarding and defence of human life�. Last year he warned: �Give food to those who are dying of hunger because if you do not, you shall have killed them,� pointing out that �hunger and malnutrition are unacceptable in a world which has, in fact, levels of production, resources and knowledge sufficient to put an end to such tragedies and their consequences�.

While Pope Benedict�s comments are directed at the international community, he also addresses us as individuals. In fulfilling Jesus� mandate, the Church�s and therefore every Catholic�s solidarity must reside with the poor.

This presents Catholics of comfortable means with challenges in the way they relate to those in need. In Southern Africa, a region with high levels of deplorable poverty, those who can must subsidise the poor through taxes and levies. While one may take issue with the mechanics of programmes intended to alleviate poverty, the followers of Christ must accept the sacrifices they are called to make for the greater good, difficult though that may be.

At the same time, Christians must hold the government accountable when it fails the poor, be it by the purchase of ostentatious vehicles for polticians, inexplicable expenditure on military equipment, corruption or plain incompetence. A thorough modification of priorities is needed.

According to FAO director-general Jacques Diouf, it would take $30 billion a year to alleviate the global food crisis, and $44 million a year in agricultural aid to ensure that the world is fed in 2050. Ths is small change of what the world spent on weaponry in 2006 alone: $1,2 trillion.

We must not be deceived by the lie that world hunger cannot be solved.

The gospels tell us that Jesus performed miracles to feed the hungry. It does not require a miracle to feed the world�s hungry today. All that is needed is the political will to do so.