The Loaves and the Fishes of Our Times

When people struggle for parity, with the ordinary things of life seemingly always, and maddeningly, just out of reach, who could blame them for losing hope?

We sometimes look at a bad situation and wonder if God has forgotten the people affected.  The relatively poor, unable to even afford the things that set them apart from the rest of society (such as field trips for their kids, or organized sports, nutritious food) might rightly wonder if society has forgotten them; if God cares.

St. Paul's letter to the Romans assures us that NOTHING separates any of us from the love of Christ.  Addressing their concerns of the day, Paul tells the Romans that no height nor depth, not death nor life, no circumstance or situation or station in life can separate us from Christ's love.  He specifically mentions famine.  Not even finding ourselves victims of famine means that we are unloved by God.

Kevin Carter  1993 Sudan Famine
Mr. Carter took his own life
3 months after he captured this photo

In the Loaves and Fishes Gospel, the only miracle to be related in all four Gospels, we learn that there is enough food for everyone, quite literally in the miracle of the moment, and quite literally in our world today.  There is enough food to feed everyone, including the 4 million people starving in Africa today.  Today.

All that stands in the way is a societal will to overcome every obstacle to making it happen. And in the meantime, those who can must give what they can, and then some.