Hunger and Easter

Two news stories published during the Easter week carry an extra significance when matched against one of the episodes in the Biblical account of Easter (Luke 24:13-35).

The first item, in the Wall Street Journal, reported that in 1981 there were 31,800,000 Americans forced to live below the poverty level. That was the largest number of persons so classified since 1965. The number was still larger in 1982.

The second story cites testimony before a United States Senate Committee that due, in large part, to Reagan’s budget cuts, the number of children suffering from malnutrition has radically increased. The result is less brain growth in the children who will be permanently damaged by the reduced nourishment. The Committee is chaired by Senator Robert Dole of Kansas, a Republican, who is trying to hold the line against further ill-advised cuts in food stamps and child health care programs, as such cuts are demanded by the Reaganites.

It is amusing and disgusting to see the TV commercial showing the well-groomed woman in expensive clothes with every hair locked in place by a high priced hairdresser, walking through an upper middle class home, telling us how good it is for President Reagan to refuse the “quick fix” to provide jobs for the unemployed, help the homeless families whose homes were seized by foreclosures, and provide adequate school lunches for the children about whom the Senate committee if hearing. There is no hint of social sensitivity or social responsibility.

It is also a bit disturbing that no great army of “right-to-life” proponents are coming forward to protest the damage done by the short sighted programs of this administration. The highly touted retraining programs will be helpful to people a couple years from now, but homeless and hungry families need help now, today, “quick”.

All of which brings to mind the story of the walk to Emmaus, as told by Luke. Two followers of Jesus were walking from Jerusalem to that village on that Sunday, talking about the crucifixion and the empty grave. A stranger joined them and asked about what they were discussing. They informed him of the events involved and he related those events to Old Testament Jewish writings. As the two reached their home at dusk they invited the wayfarer to stop and have supper with them. As they broke bread together and shared their food with the stranger – and only then – were their eyes opened and they saw Jesus. What a lesson for those who profess to be Christians: “Inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of those, my brethren, you have done it unto me.”

The doctrine of separation of Church and State bars the use of Biblical writings in the public schools. However, a course in English and American literature can highlight these same set of values and even excite interest in the Bible. James Russell Lowell’s poem, “The Vision of Sir Launfal”, parts of which we memorized when I was in school, is illustrative.

The knight, Sir Launfal, strong, rich, handsome (as all good knights were), resplendent in shining armor, rode his charger out from his castle to begin a search for the Holy Grail, the cup from which Jesus drank at his last supper. The quest was fruitless. After two score years he returned on the way to his home on foot, impoverished, wrinkled and aged, garbed in shabby rags. By the roadside, as he trudged along at eventide, sat an old beggar. The knight stopped for a sparse evening meal, a few crusts of bread shared with the beggar. Then he took an old battered cup, filled it from the roadside stream, and offered it to the beggar. And lo, the cup shone with a brilliant glow, - it was the Holy Grail. The Last Supper was observed again at that roadside.

Quite possibly we shall experience a renewed spiritual fervor in America, when we are as concerned about sharing with the hungry as we are with profit and loss statements. If that requires cancellation of tax reduction – so be it.