If I send them away… by JPIC Collective

If I send them away to their homes hungry, they will faint on the road. Some of them have come a long distance."- Mark 8:3

Here's why: I was hungry, and you gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me nothing to drink.- Matthew 25:42

Fr. Jerry Sabado, O.Carm, parish priest in Sagrada Familia, Barangay Bagong Silangan, Quezon City once told us a story of a 7-year old boy who wanted to receive communion. The boy cried after he was told he could only receive communion on his due age. The boy kept on crying and said, "All I want is to eat the piece of bread, I am very hungry." In the past few days there have been about the bill entitled "An Act Providing for National Policy on Reproductive Health, Responsible Parenthood and Population Development". This will be discussed in Congress when it resumes its session come July 28. A Roman Catholic bishop issued a pastoral memorandum ordering the priests in his archdiocese to refuse communion to politicians who push for the bill, politicians whom the church consider to be anti-life and are promoting abortion.

The church has its own laws governing its life and faith expression. The letter of the Bishop is based on compliance of the Roman Catholic Canon Law.

For her part, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, after meeting with Cardinal Vidal and three other bishops, stated that she maintains her stand against the use of contraceptives. Whether or not

that is her way to win the approval of religious leaders over her obliterated credibility, one can read between the lines of her position.

As we reflect on the hungry boy who was denied communion, we wonder, would the bishops deny communion to the President whose electoral victory is marred with lies and cheating? Would the bishops deny the President and her collaborators in plundering the wealth of the people through the infuriating corruption scandals hemming her political power? Corruption has denied so many children access for basic and social services. Denying them of their basic need for today is like aborting their good future. Is this not an anti-life mechanism of the powers-that-be?

How about the death of the more than nine hundred activists, journalists, professionals, farmers, workers and human rights advocates under the effort of the government to quash the revolutionary movement by 2010? Is this not an anti-life scheme? The abortion of democracy, truth and justice spells massive killings of individuals, causing unspeakable social and psychological trauma, economic dislocation of families of victims of extrajudicial killings.

We applaud the church for its strong stance to promote, protect and uphold life. We hope it will speak stronger, mightier and with authority to condemn the corruption, extrajudicial killings, electoral fraud and cheating that deny humankind from enjoying the gift of being fully alive.

The child in the parish of Fr. Jerry represents the human face of hunger. He may not know the rule of the church about communion. But there is something that he knew very well: He must assert his right to live even just for another day. The bread in the communion would not certainly fill his stomach, but it sends a strong message to society where the rulers and powers-that- be quarrel about rules, righting the wrong by wrong deeds, amassing wealth and winning elections unjustly.