You Are the People

YOU ARE THE PEOPLE

Today we hear the shocking story of the current world food crisis. Hundreds of thousands of people face starvation. I saw children eating baked mud pies on TV. Food has become so expensive that people all over the world cannot buy it. Rice, wheat, and corn have doubled in price in the past three years. When I hear this, I say to myself, (what I often say), “I feel so helpless.”

But am I helpless? When we were children, playing a game with our hands, lacing our fingers, palms inward, then putting our wrists together thumbs pointing up, we would chant, here’s the church. (then forefingers up, tips together) here’s the steeple, then open the door swinging our fingers up we would say, “and here’s all the people.” This is the clue of why I’m not helpless; there are all the people, in the church, with the steeple.

We have each other; we have people; we are not alone. We don’t need to cure the world’s hunger by ourselves. We belong to a loving, giving community; all we need to do is our part. People don’t ordinarily say to one another, “I give (so many dollars a month) to Catholic Relief,” for example. But we know the members of St. Patrick’s give. They contribute to Catholic Relief, to the missions, to Catholic Charities, to the pope and bishops’ funds, to the food kitchen, and countless other charitable organizations. As well as giving money, fellow parishioners take action for charity – Scullys for example – travel to South America to help the poor, the Etlings have for years been the backbone of Catholic Charities, Ruth Myers and her volunteers cook for the hungry, and Jack and Kay Barnet write congress regularly on behalf of the hungry in the world. These are some of the loving giving people of our Church. But just as we do not know what money others are giving, we do not know the countless hours others spend helping the poor. Similar to an election, when we each cast our vote, we are powerful - each doing our silent part.

How powerful are we – the people – together? Together for example, gifts to Catholic Relief Services provide assistance to 80 million people in more than 100 countries and territories. We are not helpless in this food crisis around the world. We are not alone. When we open the door at St. Patrick’s Church, there are all the people – the people of hope.