Many years ago when I was a student teacher in a public school, I noticed one of the third grade boys resting his head on his desk. I asked if he was sick. He replied that he was just tired. As we talked more, I learned that he was tired because he hadn’t eaten anything that morning. Reluctantly and with some embarrassment, he explained that the children in his family took turns eating. It wasn’t his turn to get to have breakfast that day. Tomorrow would be his turn. My supervising teacher discreetly asked him to help her with an errand and they went to the kitchen for food. I thought of this child again when I recently heard a true story about the late Bishop James Hoffman of Toledo. He was meeting with civic officials at the Cathedral rectory when a man rang the doorbell seeking a handout. The bishop, who answered the door himself, proceeded to ask the officials to wait a few minutes while he made the man a sandwich.

It is in Matthew 7:7-12 that Jesus says, "Ask and it shall be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.... Which one of you would hand his son a stone when he asked for a loaf of bread, or a snake when he asked for a fish? ...Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the law and the prophets."

In the world in which we live, people are hungry for many kinds of food. Sometimes, as in these two stories, it is nourishment for the body they crave. Sometimes theirs is hunger for hope, or hunger for consolation, for knowledge, for a listening ear, or perhaps hunger for someone to pray for them. Christians, young and old, try to pay attention to the hungers around them, in people both nearby and far away. Followers of Christ try each day to readily share whatever has been given to them. No one – young or old, stranger or friend, child or adult – should have to wait their turn for breakfast or for food for the spirit. This is the law and the prophets.

Jean Marie Hiesberger