Food crisis and faith

First, you see nothing but the tail-end of night hovering over the horizon stretching far beyond the spread of a sleeping sea. Then slowly, very slowly, a reddish blush appears in the sky not in one isolated spot but simultaneously throughout the entire span disclosing the dark profiles of low laying clouds and the specter of mountain peaks rising from a distant land. A couple of minutes later the sky blossoms into a multi-colored extravaganza – smudges of red, yellow, indigo all intermixed into a wonderful display of magical artistry.

 Observing this, one cannot help but be overwhelmed by the majesty and grandeur of it all. Inevitably he gets transported into a higher level of consciousness where all cares and disenchantments are momentarily forgotten. Reality fades and the mind becomes aware of “something far more deeply interfused,” to borrow a poetic phrase, and a sense of something sublime is felt.

 God seems to be saying, “Look, and be comforted, because I’m still around.” And one remembers this: Peace I leave with you, my peace I leave unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

 In these trying days, when food security on the national and global scale is threatened, these words come like a whiff of refreshing breeze to the hearts of a believing people like the Filipinos. As oil prices shoot up, as global warming brings flood and drought, and as armed conflicts rage in many parts of the world, feeding people in third world countries has become a problem. As reported by the World Food Program recently, the current food crisis can be likened to a silent tsunami, the one that hit the Indian Ocean in 2004 which killed tens of thousands. This crisis, however, is poised to bring havoc to no less than 100 million people throughout the world. It is affecting, says WFP, “more people in every continent, destroying even more livelihood and the nutrition losses will hurt children for a lifetime.”

 This problem includes us because, despite the boast of politicians, this country is still economically handicapped. Our GNP may have chalked something like 6.0 plus in the first quarter this year, but one out of five Pinoys is not getting enough sustenance to keep body and soul in good state, and more than 10 million are either unemployed or underemployed.

 With the current rice crisis the scenario is even more bleak. We are not producing enough rice and in the past years we have been importing this commodity. Now rice suppliers are closing their outlets to take care of their own needs first. Perhaps they will allow us to buy from them later, but at what price will it be? In the last ten months the price of rice in the world market has doubled. How much will it cost us to buy this staple stuff in the months to come?

 As the government scrambles for emergency measures it cautions us to keep calm. Everything, it says, is under control. We have enough rice. We will soon harvest millions of metric tons from our own fields. And imported tons are coming our way. Yet the pila is getting longer and commercial rice is becoming extra expensive. What shall we do?

Before we lose our sense of balance, it may be a good idea to fall back on our faith. It may be to our advantage if we pause for a while and take stock of what our faith has to offer. For in times like this the call for divine assistance is a must. One has only to revisit the history of Christianity to get assurance that God never abandons his people. When, for example, the Israelites who fled from Egypt were dying of thirst, did not God give them water from a hillside spring? And when they were famished, did He not rain down manna from heaven?

 Jesus in the New Testament declares on several occasions the unfailing concern of God towards the well being of his people. One of the most touching of these is recorded by the evangelist Luke thus: Then Jesus said to his disciples, I tell you not to worry about your life. What are we to eat? For your life is more than food and the body more than clothing. Look at the crows; they neither sow nor reap; they have no storehouses and no barns; yet God feeds them. How much more important are you than birds…?

 What comfort! What consolation! Let the world go panicky with food shortage. But let as keep calm and make peace with the Lord. If we abide in Him and keep His words we would bear much fruit and our fields would overflow with food for our table.

In the midst of our anxiety over what to feed ourselves it would do as well for us to savor the magic of sunrise or sunset if only to remind us that God is alive and would never abandon us.

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