GIVE THEM SOME FOOD YOURSELVES
[Mt.14:16; Mk.6:36, Lk.9:13]

LENTEN PASTORAL
By
Most Rev. Dr. V. A. Chikwe
(Catholic Bishop of Ahiara Diocese)
ASH WEDNESDAY, 13 FEBRUARY 2002


INTRODUCTION

1. “My heart is moved with pity for the crowd”, Jesus tells his disciples, “for they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat.”(Mk.8:2). This introduces the miracle of the feeding of the four thousand (Mk. 8: 1-10). It is important that the Lord himself gives the reason for the necessity of giving food to those whom he had fed with the word of God. He tells the disciples. “If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will collapse on the way, and some of them have come a great distance.” (Mk.8:3)

2. Some commentators believe that the miracle of the multiplication of the loves, for the feeding of the four thousand (Mt. 15:32-41; Mk.8: 1-10), is a repetition of the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand (Mt. 14: 13 –21; Mk.6:34-41). It is in the combined and careful reading of both that we get the full meaning of the message the Lord has left us in his command to the disciples: “Give them some food yourselves.” (Mt.14: 16; Mk. 6:36; Lk. 9:13). This command is at the heart of my Lenten pastoral message to you, my dear and beloved people of God in Ahiara diocese, this year.

PART I: FEEDING THE PEOPLE

3. The miracle of feeding the five thousands people is recorded in the four gospels. In the Synoptic gospels it is the disciples who, out of pity for the people take the initiative concerning their feeding (Mt.14:15; Mk.6:36; Lk.9:12). They were desirous that the people have something to eat. They did not have the means and so they wanted the people to go away from the Lord because of hunger, to look for food. Their request was explicit. “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.’”(Mt.14:15-16; Mk:6:35-37; Lk.9: 12-13)

4. We are, today, faced with the same situation in Ahiara diocese. Will Mbaise people go away from the Lord in search of food and because of hunger? We say no! Can the preaching of the gospel and the provision of food go together as the Lord did and taught his disciples in the occasion of the multiplication of loaves? We answer, yes! And I repeat: “There is no need for them to go away.”(Mt. 14:16)

5. One of the things very clear from the accounts of the multiplication of loaves is that both Jesus and the disciples had compassion for the crowd. The disciples had compassion for the people but they did not know what to do and they hadn’t the means. But Jesus had compassion for the people, knew what to do and had the means to do it. He, in practice, taught the disciples what to do. Here we are faced with putting our good intentions into good action, and with finding the appropriate means to realize those good intentions.

6. There are other factors involved: the availability of the funds, the availability of the food, and the locality of its production and purchase. For instance when Jesus told the disciples to give food to the crowds, they were frightened and asked: “Are we to buy two hundred days’ wages worth of food and give it to them to eat?”(Mk: 6:37). Their concern here appears more to be the amount of money to spend. Implied here is that they had it and even knew where to buy the food and that the food was available. But they were hesitant to part with the money.

7. In Lk.9:13 the willingness of the disciples to buy food for the people is clear. In Mk. 8:4, the disciples were overwhelmed by the prospect and asked the Lord: “Where can anyone get enough bread to satisfy them here in this deserted place?” One gets the impression here that the disciples are implying that there is no need to try to provide for the people because they are so many. But in the Gospel of St. John it is Jesus who asked Philip: “‘where can we buy enough food for them to eat?’ He said this to test him, because he himself knew what he was going to do” (Jn. 6: 5-6).

8. The four gospels are all agreed on the mutual concern of Jesus and his disciples for both the spiritual and material welfare of the people. This concern, in itself, is a big lesson for us today. The lesson is that we must not separate one from the other. The message of the multiplication of the loaves and its importance accounts for why this particular miracle is recorded by the four evangelists and even repeated by St. Matthew and St. Mark. (Mt.14:13-21, 15:32-39; Mk.6: 34-44,8:1-10)

PART II: WORD OF GOD AND THE FOOD OF LIFE

9. Jesus saw that the people “were like sheep without a shepherd and he began to teach them many things” Mk.6:34). He healed them of their physical ailment, cured them of their ignorance and he fed them. It was after teaching them, that is, after giving them the word of God, that he fed them. Here we have the legacy from the Lord that our pastoral care should be for both the body and soul. It should not be a divided apostolate!

10. Some biblical commentaries rightly insist that this miracle points to the Eucharist and makes the children of God everywhere to remember how God fed the Israelites in the desert. The story of the Manna that God used to fed the Israelites in the desert is well known (Ex.16). Well known also is that it came after they had murmured against God and Moses. So “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘I will now rain down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion; thus will I test them, to see whether they follow my instructions or not’”(Ex. 16:4).

TRUST IN GOD
11. Jesus taught us the importance of dependence on God (Mt. 6:25-34). We are yet to fully understand Jesus’ instruction to us that we should “…not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day.”(Mt.6:34). I must point out that the multiplication of loaves took place in a deserted place. The lesson is very clear. The same God Who fed his people in the desert where they could neither sow nor reap, still feeds them everywhere today, even in “a deserted place”. But the difference is that in the New Testament, He would not wait until they grumble. He goes out to take care of them even when they are not aware of it, and perhaps, not expecting it.

12. But one characteristic of the Old Testament people that persists with the people of the New Testament is greed. Moses explicitly told them in the desert not to gather more Manna than was needed in a day, but greed would not allow them. The excess they gathered and left over got rotten (EX.16:19-20). Christ would not lead the New People into temptation. He made each person sit down in an orderly manner and He gave each what he needed. Christ even asked the disciples to gather the fragments for safe keeping so that nothing would be wasted.

13. In the collection of what was left over was, in part, to teach us that no matter the quantity of the food, we could have our fill and still have much left over, provided we are not greedy and share it orderly. But human anxiety often makes us to forget the very thing Jesus taught his disciples and teaches us - trust in God.

14. Lack of this trust often separates us from God and introduces anxiety that separates us from our neighbours. Do we not, at every Holy Mass, ask the Lord to “protect us from all anxiety”? Christ gave us the cure for anxiety in the examples of the flowers of the fields and birds of the air that our heavenly father clothes and feeds (Mt.6:25-34). In it He gave us the reasons for the necessity of trusting in God. My dear people trust in God! Worry can kill faster than hunger, trusting in God gives life!

PART III:
FOLLOWING THE LORD’S COMMAND

15. The Lord commissioned his apostles to preach, baptize and teach the nations to observe all that he commanded them. “Give them some food yourselves”, is certainly one of the things he commanded them. Christ is addressing and commanding us today to give our less fortunate brothers and sisters, the widows and orphans among us food to eat.

16. Trusting in God and following the example of the Lord, therefore, we can’t but use our resources - our land, or goodwill, our expertise, our personnel, our money, our friends etc., to feed our people. Christ fed people with and through the resources they had. The five loaves He used were in the community. The willingness of those who had them to give them up for the good of the community is a lesson for us. Therefore the goodwill and the willingness to help others are of utmost importance. And I believe we have them in Ahiara diocese.

AN IDEA NURSED FROM THE BEGINNING

17. Since I began the work of the Chief Shepherd of Ahiara diocese, fourteen years ago, it has been uppermost in my mind to undertake an agricultural project, as a diocesan food apostolate for the production of food, especially for the poor among us. It is a desire to participate more actively in the apostolate of the “multiplication of loaves”. It was the desire to develop this apostolate that motivated me to pay a visit to Fr. Nzeamujo in Porto Novo in 1999, in the quest of realizing this particular aspect of my plans and projects for Ahiara diocese in the new millennium.

18. This is because, as we all know very well, and have learned for the Lord himself, the Church is mindful of feeding the faithful both in soul, mind, and body. If we delay or do not always engage in this at the same time and in the same degree, it is because of human constraints. But the truth is that at no point does the Church, nor do we forget or abandon our people, particularly the poor.

19. You have, with the help of God, been excellent in bearing your part of the burden of building this diocese. What we, together, have since accomplished is nothing but miracle. You took to heart the message of my first Lent pastoral that we build this diocese together with correct notion of the Church. We have walked, worked and prayed together in harmony in the image of shepherd and sheep I presented you then. That image remains our model.

PART IV: MATER FARM PROJECT

20. Last year I ended my Lent pastoral by stressing our commitment to human promotion, community building in love and faith and the education of the young. I had in mind then our agricultural pastoral programme, the food apostolate project I mentioned above.

21. Let me quote the passage to refresh your minds. I said: “Some of you have enthusiastically expressed to me their wish and hope that we would celebrate the 15th anniversary of our diocese in the new Cathedral by the year 2003. My immediate reply to such wishes is that “Our help is in the name of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.” I welcome such wishes. I am praying for their realization. Pray harder for them too. As we focus on the new Cathedral project, we will not forget the projects of human promotion, community building in love and faith, the education of the young. We pray that the Good Lord will provide us with the means to promote His Kingdom on earth as we march to meet Him in heaven.”

WE MUST LEARN FROM HISTORY

22. We may recall the successful programme of agriculture, the farm settlements, the Honourable Dr. Michael Okpara, of happy memory, initiated in the then Eastern Region of Nigeria. Those who know can recall that enough food was available. It is quite unfortunate that successive governments have offered lips service to the farm programme.

23. We know how much “land army” was helpful to sustain the starving Biafrans during the Nigerian civil war. But since after the war we have been familiar with slogans such as: “Green Revolution”, “Operation feed the nation”, ‘Food for all by 2000”, etc. Yet we have seen neither green nor revolution. Operation feed the nation became operation starve the poor. Food for all by the year 2000 was followed by the year, 2001, that the cost of garri was highest in the living memory and history of our lives and nation.

24. The inability to continue where others stopped was responsible for the failure of some, for others, it was lack of proper planning. Still for some others it was the political motive to starve others so that hunger continues to be a permanent weapon of the rich to dominate the poor. Greed certainly was another factor added to the politics of food production as electoral weapon for campaign. Very soon the sale of fertilizer will become a business venture that has money making than food production interests. We cannot say that we, here in Ahiara diocese, are free from all these.

INITIATIVES: ORIGIN AND PLANNING

25. The will to succeed in the programme of food apostolate led me to visit Fr. Nzeamujo, O.P, in 1999. Because I know that this apostolate falls directly within our diocesan office of Justice and Peace, I took with me Msgr. Donald Okoro and Fr. Justin Anaele. Again the need for a constructive evaluation of the project, the prospects of its possible failure demanded putting heads together. This paid off. Our visit to Songhai Farm, in Benin Republic, run and managed by Fr. Nzamujo, O.P. opened our eyes to the wonders of the new ways of doing the miracle of the “multiplication of loaves” in our age of mechanized agriculture. Not only the people of Porto Novo, but also the international community is a living witness to the success of the apostolate of food.

26. On coming back from that visit, we collected three grass cutters, Nchi. They survived and have since increased and multiplied to 20. This, for me, has been a big encouragement and a sing of a greater success to come. Therefore, it has not been difficult to come up with a five-year plan on three phases: 1) animal husbandry to produce protein for our people; 2) agro-related crops plantation; 3) food processing, preserving and distributing programmes.

IMPLEMENTATIONS SO FAR

27. As in other things, thinking out and planning may not be as difficult as implementation. That is where we are now, implementation - at the stage of anaekwuekwu, anaememe. Yes we have started. You all know that our policy in this diocese is to put our faith into action, to practice what we believe. This is what I mean here by anaekwuekwu anaememe. The plan to acquire land has materialized. As I have made clear in the Pastoral Council, with the help of some of the Executives, the diocese has acquired three extensive plots of lands. Therefore, I must, in the name of Ahiara diocese thank, once again, the peoples of Ekwerazu Town in Ahiara West Parish and of the Uvuru community in Uvuru parish, for the land they have donated for Mater Farm Project. I also thank those who made it possible for the diocese to buy some property in Egberede Nguru for this project, therefore, Anaekwuekwu, anaememe.

28. I sent two dedicated priests, Fr. Roland Ugo and Fr.Augustine Ibezimako, to Fr. Nzeamujo, O.P., in Porto Novo to undergo not just a theoretical formation but on-the-sport learning and experience. I thank them. They survived the hardships and hazards involved with interesting experience. They have come back with tales of enthusiasm and readiness to work. I must also note that a good number of agricultural experts, our own sons and daughters, have donated their talents and services, waiting for deployment. I am, therefore, enthusiastically looking forward to the taking off of the programme.

IN UNITY AS ALWAYS

29. This project which was started in September of 1999 is developing progressively. Our unity in pursuing our common goals has always been blessed by the Lord. He will also bless this initiative. You know that our programmes of human promotion have never lost sight of the unity of body and soul. Let me just draw your attention to one recent example in the area of health care delivery. Our hospital project is going on, even if slowly, but it is going on. Our pharmacy is doing its best to provide genuine drugs at cheap rates to combat costly fake drugs.

30. You may now see why, in my last year’s Lenten pastoral, I made the connection between the word of God and the food of life and connected them with your wish of our using our cathedral for the fifteenth anniversary of our diocese. I believe that the Lord will continue to increase the means He has given us to promote His kingdom on earth.

31. It was a source of personal grief for me, last year, when garri began to sell, in some place, at three cups for N40.00. Who could have believed that such a thing would have happened in our time? Who thinks it may not happen again? Our wish and prayer is that may it not happen again! But we cannot fold our hands. Our agricultural project was not conceived as a reaction to that event. But that event has made it more urgent and makes its successful completion a pastoral imperative.

GRATITUDE FOR SUPPORT

32. I give thanks to God for the encouragement and support I have always received from all of you, the good people of Ahiara diocese. We work with one heart and mind and this proves we are a people truly rooted in the Gospel Message. Now we have another opportunity to prove it in obedience to the Lord who asked his disciples then, and is commanding us today, his disciples: to “give them some food yourselves”. I thank all of you who have in one way or another given your support to the building up of this diocese, the Church, the body of Christ Our Lord, who lives and reigns among us, forever and ever, Amen!

 

+ Most Rev. Dr. V. A. Chikwe,
Given at Maria Mater Ecclesiae Cathedral
Ahiara diocese Mbaise, Nigeria.
Ash Wednesday, February 13, 2002.

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