You give
them something to eat ....
When it was evening, the disciples approached him and said,
“This is a deserted place and it is already late;
dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages
and buy food for themselves.”
Jesus said to them, “There is no need for them to go away;
give them some food yourselves.”
But they said to him,
“Five loaves and two fish are all we have here.”
Then he said, “Bring them here to me, ”
It’s
obvious that today’s Gospel is presenting us the miracle of the multiplication
of food as an announcement, a foretelling of this what is happening on the
altar during every Eucharistic celebration. But I think that this event is
bringing to our minds also some social justice issues. We cannot avoid this
problem, because Jesus is telling openly: “There is no need for them to go
away; give them some food yourselves.”
***************
According
to the report PNUD “Reconsidérer la Richesse” prepared by Patrick Viveret in 1998
•
We need 6 billion dollars yearly to assure the
education for all children in the world who are not yet in school
•
At the same time in the USA,
people spend annually 8
billion dollars on perfumes
•
Nearly 1 billion people entered the 21st century unable
to read a book or sign their names.
•
The world needs 13 billion dollars annually to feed all who are
hungry
•
At the same time in the USA, 25 billion dollars is spent each year on pet
food
So,
wealthy Christians in the USA
are spending almost twice as much on pet food as is needed to feed the hungry
of the whole world.
•
Each day some 30 thousand children under the age of 5 are dying
due to poverty. And they “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth,
far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and
weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.” That
is about 210,000 children each week or just under 11 million children
under five years of age, each year.
•
Each day in France
with a population of 63 million, 60
thousand tons of food goes to
the garbage
The 3 richest people (and two of them are Christians) in the world
have more total wealth than the total GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the
world’s 48 poorest countries.
GDP = 46
billion 890 million dollars
almost 50 billions dollars
Global Priority $U.S. (Billions)
Basic
education for all 6 billion
Water
and sanitation for all 9 billion
Reproductive
health care for all women 12 billion
Basic
health and nutrition 13 billion
Military
spending in the world 780
billion
only in USA 550
billion
Pope
John Paul II said:
We are fortunate. We have much more than what we need to be
content. 20% of the populations in the developed nations consume 86% of the world’s goods.
Let’s try not to feed this endless cycle of consumerism and
immorality in which this “modern and advanced” society forgets and ignores the
other two thirds of our brothers and sisters.
“The biggest scandal of the contemporary world and especially of
the Christianity is that while in one corner of this world thousands of people
is starving every day, at the same time in the other corner of the same world
thousands of people is dying because of the health problems caused by obesity.”
