More than Prayer and 67 Minutes

Pope Francis has been aptly described as a rock star. Never, throughout the entirety of history, has a single pontiff drawn as much attention as Pope Francis; thanks in great part to the rise of social media.

His social media presence, his personable approach, his down-to-earth nature, and the fact that he is constantly speaking truth to power, seemingly fighting on behalf of the “little guy”, has endeared him to Catholics, the media and the world at large.

What makes you pay attention to him, though, is not his celebrity, but much rather what he says and how he challenges the world to deal with real, hard issues. Take his current, most popular quote: “You pray for the hungry, then you feed them. This is how prayer works.”

This statement, short enough to constitute a tweet, speaks volumes. It challenges us as Christians in understanding the role of prayer.

Take the issue the pope is tackling here, namely hunger and malnutrition — read into that: poverty.

Since much of it is, in fact, man-made, is it not for us to change?

Much as the pope says in his much publicised and commented on encyclical on global climate change, Laudato Si’, we find that human industrialisation — even of agriculture — has led to a negative shift in global weather patterns. It is really up to large corporates, owned by people, as well as ordinary people, to change our behaviour and resultant impact on the environment.

Prayer on the matter is wonderful. Perhaps our prayers should aim at captains of industry to abandon the outright pursuit of profits and to adopt instead a sustainable, caring and futuristic approach to the way in which they conduct business.

Or perhaps our prayers may instil a global perspective that makes everyone realise that this planet is the only home we have.

But prayer alone will not have you reconsider buying that fancy SUV emitting high quantities of noxious greenhouse gasses, instead of the smaller – perhaps less fancy, even cheaper – hatchback with a smaller engine and fewer emissions. Prayer alone does not use green, alternative energies as opposed to polluting, fossil fuel-based energy. Something needs to done.

This is Pope Francis’ message and challenge in feeding the poor.

However, a little more than prayer is needed. The same argument applies to the 67 minutes we invest every year in our works of charity on July 18, as many of us did last month.

It is indeed great to have the world rally and perform acts of charity on what is the late Nelson Mandela’s birthday. Some of the charitable acts that accompany the day truly make a positive difference in the lives of people.

At the same time, simply invoking the name of Mandela once a year, and doing something for the “betterment of mankind” for one hour on one day a year is really not sustainable. On its own it does little, if anything, in making a difference in the world.

Some may respond that “at least someone’s doing something” and that “some might be spurred to do something more on a more regular basis for their communities”.

That may be true, but we should also be honest and question why we have to invoke the hallowed name of Mandela for people to care about others and do something for them.

Real, tangible, effective change only happens if someone does something about it. For the hungry to be fed we need to pray on the issue — that goes without saying — but we need to actually feed them to satisfy their hunger, here and now.

As tough as it is to believe, these hungry masses remain hungry long after our prayers and long after our annual 67 minutes on Mandela Day.