One of my favorite commentators on the Sunday readings is Patricia Sanchez. She holds a degree in literature and religion from Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary in New York. For the past 25 years, Patricia has been involved in the field of adult religious education. Patricia and her husband also spent some time in third World countries helping the poor (and being helped by them).

In this column, I will share four excerpts from three of Patricia's articles on today's gospel.

In the first piece, she summarizes for us the Seven Principles of Catholic Social Teaching-principles that many social activists believe is one of the church's best kept secret. Unfortunately, all too many of our parishes have not taught these principles and how they apply to our daily lives as followers of Christ. In her first article, Patricia writes:

While few among us may seldom, if ever, have known the desperate pangs of true and unanswered hunger, none of us can claim to be untouched by or unaware of the existence of human hunger in our world. At busy intersections and on crowded street corners, the faces of hunger plead for our attention. Some of these nameless hungry faces hold up makeshift signs that enunciate their need: "Will work for food"..."Lost job, need food for family"..."hungry-anything will help." These pleas must not evoke in us only a part-time pity or a passing rush of generosity; rather, the persisting hungers of our brothers and sisters must challenge our faith and encourage us to continuous action and service.

As a child growing up in the post-World War II years in that section of Philadelphia, known as "Fishtown," I saw the faces of hunger on an almost daily basis. Happily, I saw faith in active service as well. During the war and in an effort to attend to the needy, the city had renovated the last row-house on our block and converted the first floor into a soup kitchen. That being done, it became the responsibility of the families in our neighborhood to turn whatever food stuffs were donated daily into a huge vat of nourishing soup. Because the need did not end when the war did, the soup kitchen remained open and in service. As the neighbors took their turns at the pot, a "stone soup" type of miracle took place, and each day, without fail, the hungry were fed. All that was necessary was that they bring their own pot and present it to be filled.

Some may offer the well-worn argument that if you give a person a fish, they eat for a day but if you teach that person to fish they eat for a lifetime. Obviously, and as Thomas J. Bright (Facing Hunger in this Land of Plenty, St. Anthony Messenger Press, Cincinnati, OH), Justice Coordinator for the Center for Ministry Development, has explained, both aspects of aid are essential. To feed the hungry poor, who were and are the predilect of God and of Jesus, we need both soup kitchens and social justice. Over the last century and a half or so, the church has gathered its wisdom about such justice into a body of truth called Catholic Social Teaching. The principles therein enunciated, suggest Bright, can make a real difference when they are applied to difficult issues like hunger and need. In brief, these seven principles uphold and promote:

(1) Human dignity; all of this earth's peoples deserve to be treated with the dignity with which they were endowed by God.. The dignity of being called to enter into covenant with God (Isaiah 55; first reading)...the dignity of never being separated from the love of God that comes to us in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:39, second reading)... the dignity of being among the multitudes who continue to be fed by Jesus (gospel).

(2) Human rights and responsibilities; because of their God-given dignity, all people have basic human rights, including the right to food, shelter, health care, education and employment.

(3) Dignity of work; through their work, human persons participate with Jesus in building God's kingdom. Workers have rights and needs and deserve to be treated with respect.

(4) Stewardship of creation; as caretakers of creation, we are called to share the goods of the earth with all, according to their need.

(5) Option for the poor; these needy, hungry poor have a right to our time, resources and services.

(6) Solidarity; as a faith principle, solidarity recognizes that all people, despite their differences, are members of one family. Anything that affects one of us affects all of us-especially hunger.

(7) Community and Participation; justice and peace, joy and well-being are achieved only when all work together in mutual cooperation and service.

Bright then invites the praying assembly to consider the following six attitudes and recommendations:

(1) Be grateful: When you sit to eat, give thanks to God for all the hands that planted, picked, packaged and prepared the food before you. Thank the cook! Learn to concentrate and appreciate what you already have rather than pine for the things you want or desire.

(2) Share what you have: Gratitude often leads to generosity. Share not only of your surplus but even of your substance.

(3) Share your time: When hunger has a face, it's harder to ignore. Take time to look at those faces and then allow your newfound awareness to move you to volunteer at a local soup kitchen, food pantry, meals-on-wheels, etc.

(4) Know the facts: Information as to the problems of hunger and the resources and services available to the hungry can be gleaned from newspapers, periodicals, local public libraries and Web sites, like the simple but powerful video on poverty through the Campaign for Human Development Web site (www.povertyusa.org). Click on Tour Poverty USA.

(5) Speak out: Make the needs of the hungry known, keep legislators aware of your concerns.

(6) Pray hard: First, last and always, remember the hungry and those who feed them to God. Fasting (for a day or even a meal) can be a powerful form of physical prayer that can sensitize the satisfied toward the plight of the needy. Prayer also keep believers in touch with God who inspires generosity and affords strength to those who serve others.

Writing in another article on the Gospel, Sanchez notes:

Statisticians report that, for at least two thirds of the world's population, hunger is a daily experience-not the slight twinge of discomfort or abdominal rumbling which may occur if a meal is skipped or delayed, but the deep, painful, sunken-eyed, body-emaciating type of hunger which is virtual starvation. Every hour of every day, at least 1,500 people die of hunger or hunger-related causes while farmers in some of the world's wealthiest industrialized nations are paid not to grow certain crops and to relegate others to storage bins and warehouses.

Reflections by Fr. Henri Nouwen

In a third article, Sanchez shares with us reflections by the late Dutch priest Fr. Henri Nouwen. She writes:

Henri Nouwen, who has been called the most influential and beloved of modern Christian writers on spirituality, had a unique ability to discover new and deeper channels of meaning in the gospel and to open the hearts and minds of his readers to the gospel's message about Jesus and about themselves. Even after his passing from this world to eternal life in 1996, Nouwen has been continuing to open hearts and minds to the depths of biblical truth, thanks to the efforts of Michael O'Laughlin, Nouwen's former teaching assistant. During his years at Harvard, O'Laughlin has compiled and edited excerpts of Nouwen's wisdom from his many books to produce a unique retelling of the story of Jesus titled Jesus, A Gospel (Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY)

With regard to the narrative of Jesus' feeding the multitudes with five loaves and a couple of fish (today's gospel), Nouwen explains that this is a story about the value of the small people and the small things. While the world likes things to be large, impressive and elaborate, God chooses the small things, which are overlooked in the big world. Notice that Jesus' disciples regarded the five loaves and a couple of fish as insignificant. "We have nothing here," they said to Jesus. But, says Nouwen, for Jesus, they were enough. He took them and gave thanks; he blessed them, broke them and gave them to be eaten. Jesus received the small gifts from the small people and acknowledged them as gifts from God. Jesus believed that what comes from God will be bountiful enough to feed all God's people. Through his faith and through the power of God at work in him, the loaves were multiplied and "all present ate their fill" (v. 20). In order to participate in this great sign of God's love for small people, all that was necessary was for each to show up and be willing to present the "soup pot" of their hunger and need to Jesus.

In a fourth article written a few year ago on today's readings, Sanchez writes:

The Meager Making of a Miracle

According to the most recent statistics compiled by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, food emergencies plagued more than three dozen countries of the world last year. Ethiopia and Uganda suffered crop failures and food shortages due to adverse weather and civil disorder. Food production was also drastically inadequate in Somalia, Tanzania and Burkina Faso. The ravages of war have depleted the food supplies of Sudan, Rwanda and Burundi. Civil strife has left thousands starving in the Republic of Congo. A typhoon in North Korea and two years of destructive flooding has left hunger in its wake. As a result of the ongoing trade embargo, malnutrition is widespread in Iraq. Papua, New Guinea, and Haiti suffered from poor harvests due to droughts. Several of the former Soviet republics have dwindling food supplies as a result of bad weather and an uneasy transition to new civil and economic conditions. Hurricanes, flooding and mudslides have all but eradicated the crops in Honduras and some parts of Nicaragua. Serb ethnic cleansing has left thousands displaced and starving in Kosovo and beyond its borders. This litany of human need could go on and on; no area of our earthly home is exempt. Even in those countries where food production is more than sufficient, hunger persists, because those with an abundance fail to see and attend to the hungers of others.

Over and against this backdrop of human misery, many prosper. Indeed, on any given day, in any given town or city, in any economically sound country, a staggering quantity of food-food that could satisfy the hungers of so many-is wasted. Children in school cafeterias toss tons of untouched food in the refuse bins each day. Restaurants serve gargantuan portions to customers; that which isn't trotted home in a "doggy bag" rots in the dumpster. After sporting events, concerts and athletic competitions, the stadiums are littered with half-eaten snacks. In countless homes across the nation, the food that is gobbled down by the garbage disposal after dinner could feed a third-world family for a day. One of the most popular discount department stores in the nation has a policy of discarding day-old meats and baked goods, and slightly bruised fruits and vegetables rather than reducing their price or rerouting them to a charitable food service organization. When farmers grow a bumper crop, rather than glut the market and make the purchase price more affordable for the needy of the world, these same farmers receive government subsidies to store their surplus until shortages make prices more lucrative. As many as one fifth of the world's population continues to consume four fifths of its food, the message of today's liturgy will remain unappreciated. The late Henri Nouwen believed that the wasting/hoarding of food disallows an authentic understanding and appreciation of the gift of Christ in eucharistic food. Nouwen also suggested that the presence of Christ in the Eucharist becomes a "special problem" when we lose our sense of his presence in all that is, grows, lives and dies. "Therefore, wasting food is not just a sin because there are so many hungry people in the world; it is a sin because it is an offense against the sacramental reality of all we eat and drink" ( Creative Ministry, Doubleday, NY:1991)

For those who have seldom known a pang of hunger, God's invitation, as extended by Deutero-Isaiah (first reading), may not seem as enticing as it did to the prophet's contemporaries. Nor will the experience of the hungry crowd milling around Jesus in the gospel strike a chord of familiarity. Perhaps the message that is most apropos for the sated and secure is Jesus' challenge, "Give them something to eat yourselves." To their credit, the disciples had recognized the needs of the people, they assessed the situation and the resource available. Finding them meager, they brought the matter to Jesus. They were soon to learn that with Jesus and because of him, even the most meager of resources has the makings of a miracle. Also to the disciples' credit is the fact that "they acted on the orders of Jesus, orders that seemed preposterous and beyond credulity. . . The crispness of their response and their unquestioning obedience make them model figures." (Charles Cousar, Texts for Preaching, Westminster John Knox Press. Louisville, KY,)