Hunger Symposium: General Session - Main Address

Side 1

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It is my honor and privilege to present to you our first speaker in the program, The
 
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People of God and the Mystery of Christ Hungering in the World, the very Reverend Pedro Arrupe,
 
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President of the Conference of Major Superiors of Religious and also the 28th Superior General
 
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of the Society of Jesus, Father Arrupe.
 
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Your Eminence,
 
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the Papal Legate, Your Eminence Cardinal Kroll,
 
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Eminences, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen.
 
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Lord, it is good for us to be here.
 
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It is good to be with you and share with you
 
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this wonderful celebration.
 
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But let us think first on the great absentees
 
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of this Congress, the people starving to death.
 
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Suppose the hungry of the world were also here with us
 
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this morning.
 
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Let us think only of those who are going to die of starvation
 
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today, the day of our symposium of hunger.
 
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There will be thousands of them, probably more than all of us
 
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who are gathered in this hall.
 
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Let us try to see them, their bodies weak and emaciated,
 
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their intense looks.
 
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Let us try to hear them begging with their outstretched hands,
 
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their weak and fainting voices, their terrible silence.
 
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Give us bread.
 
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Give us bread, for we are dying of hunger.
 
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And if at the end of our discussions of the Eucharist and hunger for bread,
 
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as we left the hall, we had to pick out our way through this mass of dying bodies,
 
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how could we claim that our Eucharist is the bread of life?
 
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How could we pretend to be announcing and sharing with others the same Lord who said,
 
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I come that they may have life and have it more abundantly?
 
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It matters little if these starving people are physically now here before our eyes
 
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or are scattered throughout the world.
 
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The tragedy and injustice of their death
 
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are the same wherever it takes place.
 
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And wherever it does take place,
 
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we who are here this morning
 
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have our share of responsibility.
 
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For in the Eucharist, we receive Jesus Christ,
 
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who will one day say as us,
 
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As I was hungry, did you give me to eat?
 
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I was thirsty, did you give me to drink?
 
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I tell you solemnly, insofar as you neglected to do this
 
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to one of this list of these my brothers,
 
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you neglected to do it to me.
 
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Yes, we are all responsible, all involved
 
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In the Eucharist, Jesus becomes the voice of those who are no voice, the voiceless.
 
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He speaks for the powerless, the oppressed, the poor, the hungry.
 
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In fact, he takes their place.
 
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And if we close our ears to their cries, we are shutting out his voice too.
 
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If we refuse to help them, then our faith is indeed dead,
 
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as St. James tells us so clearly.
 
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If one of these brothers or one of these sisters
 
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is in need of clothes and has not enough food to live on,
 
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and one of you says to them,
 
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I wish you well, keep yourself warm and eat plenty,
 
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without giving them these bare necessities of life,
 
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And what good is that?
 
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Fate is like that.
 
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If good works do not go with it, it is quite dead.
 
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It is over 10 years since the Second Vatican Council made
 
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the following fateful comment on our modern world.
 
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As it works, never has the human race
 
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enjoy such an abundance of wealth, resources,
 
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and economic power.
 
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Yet a huge proportion of the world's citizens
 
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is still tormented by hunger and poverty.
 
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Two years ago, the United Nations World Food Conference
 
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explained more precisely what a huge proportion consists in.
 
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I quote, on the most conservative estimate,
 
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there are well over 460 million of such people in the world
 
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today, and their number is increasing.
 
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At least 40% of them are children.
 
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And what is meant by such people?
 
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The same United Nations document goes on
 
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to describe them as people who are permanently hungry
 
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and whose capacity for living a normal life
 
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cannot be realized.
 
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I am sure there is not a single person here this morning
 
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who doesn't know this and many other facts
 
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about world hunger as well as or better than I.
 
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We have been bombarded, perhaps to saturation point,
 
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with tapes, slides, film strips, charts, books, speeches and resolutions of hunger.
 
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In the United States alone, there are hundreds of organizations, groups and agencies
 
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directly or indirectly trying to eliminate it.
 
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In Rome, where I live,
 
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the United Nations employs over 3,000 people
 
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engaged full time in studying and trying to fight hunger
 
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throughout the world.
 
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Yet, the situation seems to be getting worse as the world
 
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grows richer and richer.
 
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At the beginning of his presidency,
 
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John Fitzgerald Kennedy set two goals
 
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before the American people.
 
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The first was to get a man to the moon
 
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before the end of the decade.
 
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The other was to help eliminate hunger within our lifetime.
 
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It is sad, comment on the values of our civilization,
 
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that the first technical and scientific goal was
 
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magnificently achieved, whereas the second, more humanitarian
 
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and social one has reached ever farther from our grasp.
 
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What is the reason?
 
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It is that the problem is too big for us.
 
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There is no doubt that hunger and malnutrition are widespread
 
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and caused by a whole series of factors ranging
 
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from unpredictable weather to rapidly increasing populations.
 
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But, on the other hand, the experts tell us that full resources could in fact be made available to feed ever greater numbers of people.
 
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It is that we don't know how to set about a solution, where to start.
 
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Here again, there are many complex socio-economic, political and even cultural factors
 
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that have to be taken into account if a lasting solution is to be found to the problem of world hunger.
 
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However, to get a man on the moon, to arm and defend ourselves and our allies,
 
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we have made such a dazzling display of resources, of technology, of human ingenuity, and of social engineering,
 
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that we cannot say with a clear conscience,
 
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people are hungry simply because we don't know how to do,
 
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what to do and how to do it.
 
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What is basically lacking are not resources,
 
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technology or knowledge.
 
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What is then?
 
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It can only be our will to do something, our determination to marshal the resources, technology
 
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and knowledge we have to satisfy not only what we consider to be our own needs and interests,
 
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but also what in fact are the most basic needs of others.
 
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Wherever we come from, rich or poor countries, we don't seem to have sufficient motivation
 
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to turn us towards the needs of those most in want,
 
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and to translate our concern, often sincere,
 
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but bad and ineffectual, into concrete deeds.
 
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The problem of world hunger is not primary and economic,
 
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a social, or even a political one.
 
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It is basically a moral, a spiritual problem.
 
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The world hunger for food will only be satisfied when man learns to live not simply for himself,
 
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but for others as Christ did.
 
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The world hunger for food will only be satisfied when man learns to hunger for God,
 
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for his love and especially for his justice.
 
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This truth was clearly understood by early Christians.
 
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The act of the apostles tell us that they went as a body
 
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to the temple every day and met in their houses
 
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for the breaking of bread.
 
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And the passage goes on at once to say,
 
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They shared their food gladly and generously.
 
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They sold their goods and possessions and shared out the proceeds among themselves according to what each needed.
 
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The message is clear and simple.
 
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The direct consequence of, as well as the condition for, their praying together and sharing the bread of the Lord together in the Eucharist
 
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was to share what they had in common so that no one was in one.
 
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The same message is forcefully expressed by St. John in one word, koinonia.
 
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It can be translated as communion or fellowship, but use the same word to describe three different
 
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levels of fellowship.
 
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First, our fellowship with the Father, with God.
 
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Secondly, our fellowship with Christ through the Eucharist.
 
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Thirdly, our fellowship with each other that leads us to share what we have with others.
 
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To hear side two, turn the cassette over now.

Side 2

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The important point is that these three fellowships are all expressed by the same word koinonia
 
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are really only one.
 
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They are different aspects of the same communion or sharing with and cannot be separate from
 
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each other.
 
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Thus, we cannot have fellowship with God unless we have fellowship with each other.
 
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And the Eucharist is the visible bond which both signifies this fellowship and helps to
 
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bring it about.
 
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It effectively recalls and proclaims our communion with God and with our fellow man.
 
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This rediscovery of what might be called the social dimension of the Eucharist is of tremendous
 
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significance today.
 
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We once again see Holy Communion as the sacrament of our brotherhood and unity.
 
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We share in a meal together, eating the same bread for the same table.
 
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In St. Paul tells us clearly the fact that there is only one love means that though there
 
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are many of us, we form a single body because we all have a share in this one love.
 
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In the Eucharist, in other words, we receive not only Christ, the head of the body, but
 
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his members as well.
 
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This fact has immediate practical consequences and St. Paul, once again, reminds us,
 
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St. Paul, God has arranged the body so that each part may be equally concerned for all the others.
 
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If one part is hurt, all parts are hurt with it.
 
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Wherever there is suffering in the body, wherever members of it are in want or oppressed,
 
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we, because we have received the same body and are part of it, must be directly involved.
 
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We cannot opt out or to say to a brother,
 
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I do not need you. I will not help you.
 
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And our concern must, by its very nature, be worldwide.
 
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Just as the body we share belongs to all peoples and knows no barriers of race, wealth, class or culture,
 
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of culture, so our commitment to its members
 
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must be equally universal.
 
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The table of the Lord, which we sit around,
 
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is today the table of the world.
 
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Our neighbor is now not only the man
 
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set upon by the thieves whom we pass on the roadside,
 
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but also the scores of men, women, and children
 
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who pass across our television screens with swollen bellies
 
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and sunken eyes and bodies racked by diseases or torture.
 
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These are our brothers and sisters,
 
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and we are bound to them by the Eucharist.
 
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What should we do?
 
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You, again, will know better than I
 
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that there are many things we can do,
 
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many degrees of commitment and involvement.
 
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But let something concrete come out from the Congress,
 
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from this Congress as a whole,
 
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something that can be acted on at once
 
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by ordinary people in universal love and solidarity
 
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with Christ's suffering hunger in the world today,
 
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something that will be a pledge of our effective will
 
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to satisfy that hunger.
 
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Some years ago, the Eucharist fast from midnight, which as my older listeners will remember,
 
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used to be a condition for receiving Holy Communion, was abolished. In 1966,
 
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Looking at the whole question of fasting, Pope Paul XVI declared that fasting abstinence
 
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should be both a witness to asceticism and a means for helping the poor.
 
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What I wish to propose is the reintroduction of a voluntary basis of a different type of
 
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Eucharistic fast, not now so much for ascetical reasons, but as a token of our commitment
 
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to world justice and a concrete expression of our solidarity with the hungry and oppressed.
 
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In preparation for this Eucharistic Congress, many families have taken part in the Operation
 
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rice bowl, fasting one day or one meal per week and donating the money saved to provide
 
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food for the hungry or the means with which to produce it.
 
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Similar practices have been adopted in other countries and by members of other religions.
 
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ourselves have been invited to make today a day of fast and concern for the
 
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world's starvation and to share tonight in a poor man's supper. I propose that
 
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henceforth some practice such as this becomes an integral part of our reception
 
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of the Eucharist, so that whenever we share the bread of life around the table of the Lord,
 
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we will also share the bread for life with the hungry of the world. In this challenge,
 
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we are taken up merely by Roman Catholics, and in the United States alone, and if the amount
 
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save only average out at $1 per person per week,
 
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this would reach the huge sum, over $2.5 billion a year.
 
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This figure is more than twice the amount
 
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the new International Fund for Agricultural Development
 
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created as a top priority at the 1974 World Food Conference
 
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has been able to rise so far.
 
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Of course, the problem of world hunger
 
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cannot be solved by money.
 
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It's a problem alone.
 
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It would be harmful and irresponsible
 
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to oversimplify a problem which, as we have already seen,
 
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is complex and difficult. The value of what I am proposing
 
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is not so much in the money that could thus be saved and made
 
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available for the world's poor, but rather
 
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in the concrete example that this would offer of our love
 
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and solidarity and our willingness
 
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to make the necessary sacrifices to satisfy
 
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the hunger of the world.
 
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I wish to make this appeal for a concrete expression
 
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of our effective solidarity and willingness
 
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to help out not just Catholics or Americans,
 
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but to all men of goodwill throughout the world.
 
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For though motivation may differ,
 
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world hunger is a problem that concern
 
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not only Catholics and Christians,
 
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not only those who believe in God,
 
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by the believers in the value of human love and solidarity.
 
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Such a concrete example of true solidarity
 
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cutting across religions and races and nations
 
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could inspire and render more effective
 
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other international efforts and also lead us
 
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to other and more deep commitments.
 
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If this appeal is taken up and acted upon,
 
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then the ambition to eliminate hunger within our lifetime
 
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need not to be such a distant dream after all.
 
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Everywhere we look, we are confronted
 
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by what the synod of bishops describe
 
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as a network of domination, oppression, and abuse
 
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with stifled freedom and which keep
 
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the greater part of humanity from sharing
 
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in the building up and enjoyment of a more just and fraternal
 
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world.
 
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Yet we have an answer which gives us hope and joy.
 
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It is the Eucharist, the symbol of Christ's love for men.
 
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The task of this Congress is to share that love
 
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and translate into effective action.
 
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without some action, such as that I have proposed,
 
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will our Eucharist Congress have any real message
 
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for the world, a message that is which modern men will listen
 
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to and believe in, without some tangible evidence
 
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of our concern for others?
 
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what witness can we give?
 
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And this great country, which has hosted our Congress
 
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and is celebrating the 200th anniversary of its independence,
 
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has its courage, determination, the generosity
 
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to give to the world the lead it is looking for.
 
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There was a time when the new land of America
 
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was able to say to other countries across the sea,
 
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give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning
 
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to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
 
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Send these, the homeless, the tempest-tossed to me.
 
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I leave my land besides the golden door.
 
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Today, the majority of the world's tired, poor, homeless, or hungry may never set eyes
 
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on the Statues of Liberty, but they need and have a right to what it stands for, a right
 
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to freedom, to justice, to it.
 
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They need and have a right to just general international policies which call for enlightened
 
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leadership by these and other wealthy countries.
 
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They need and have a right to a new international order
 
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of things.
 
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And if it's called for sacrifice on our part,
 
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will we hold back if it's not this precisely
 
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what fasting means?
 
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This is what the full celebration of the Eucharist
 
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means in the world today.
 
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Let us not forget that it is only when in faith and love
 
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we give away the little that we have,
 
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a few loaves of fishes, that God blesses our poor efforts
 
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and his omnipotence multiplies them
 
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to meet the hunger of the world.
 
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Let us not forget that it was only after the widow
 
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had given Hediah some food, even from the little
 
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possessed that God came to her rescue. And Elia was a complete stranger to her
 
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from another country and worshipping a different God. In the same way, it was
 
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only in sharing their bread with a stranger that the two disciples on the
 
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the road to a most recognized and found the Lord.
 
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Thank you.