FEED THE HUNGRY & INSTRUCT THE IGNORANT

FEED THE HUNGRY

This is the first corporal work of mercy. Feeding the hungry is the humane activity. The basic need to live is to have a food. To eat is to live. Without food life would be extinct. Hunger is the terrible pain for the beings. Jesus fed five thousand people because he did not want them go in hungry (Mt 14: 14-21). The world produces enough food to feed everyone in the world, but hundreds of millions of people who are hungry each day do not have the land to grow the food or money to purchase it.

Whoever wastes the food let them remember that they are ignoring the hunger of many people. Let us thank God for the food that we receive every day. Let us not grumble about the quality of food that we are blessed with. Because there are so many people who are deprived of food. The best charity that one can do during this lent is to feed the hungry which means, giving a life to a person. Mother Teresa said that the hunger is not due to lack of food but it is due to lack of heart to share and love.

In this lent let us share our food with the needy from the money that we save from fasting and abstinence. By doing this we not only feed the hungry but also share the feeling of the hunger.

INSTRUCT THE IGNORANT

The first spiritual work of mercy is to “instruct the ignorant.” Biblically speaking, this action comes directly from Jesus when He instructs His apostles, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20).

Ignorant is the spiritual hunger. Knowledge is the food to confiscate the ignorance. During the time of Jesus people were ignorant of the Word of God. The teachers of the law, the so called Pharisees and Sadducees did not want to teach the people about God, the light. They only wanted the people to follow what they command. People were very ignorant and living in darkness, which they acknowledged by devotedly obeying the commands of the priests. Those who had the light did not have the will to light the lamps in darkness. At last the light himself came to the darkness in order to light the lamps in darkness. When the light subjugated the darkness those who had already been in the light could not accept this fact. They even convicted that the light is not a true light but only a spark of it.

There is a normal thirst in each of us to gain knowledge. But, due to certain circumstances the knowledge ends up in the hands of few people who are selfish, who are knowledge sellers. In this year of mercy let us help some youngsters who are finding difficult to cope up with their studies and undergo financial crises. Here ‘instructing the ignorant’ does not only mean endowing the people with academic knowledge but also instructing them about the mercy of our God, the Father. Today with ‘educate to evangelize’ we also need ‘evangelizing education.’