The late Brazilian Roman Catholic Archbishop Helder Camara, one of the most prominent liberation theologians of Latin America, who was also called the ‘Bishop of the slums’, once famously said: “When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist.”
Well, in the Philippines nowadays, it seems even giving food to the poor can get you branded a communist, like what Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr. and Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy, spokespersons of the government’s counterinsurgency task force, did to Ana Patricia Non, the young lady who started the Maginhawa community pantry in Quezon City.
But isn’t feeding the poor and helping people who are in need, more than anything else, Christian?
Feeding the hungry and giving drink to the thirsty are first and second among the seven acts of charity, what Catholics call the corporal works of mercy.
Indeed, the sprouting of hundreds of community pantries all over the country—bearing the same sign: Give what you can, take what you need—just barely two weeks after the first humble bamboo cart with free vegetables and canned goods was first set up by Non, has even been compared to Jesus’ miracle of feeding the multitude.
Jesus performed more than 40 miracles in the Gospels but the story of how he managed to feed thousands of hungry people from the only food available in the crowd—the five loaves of bread and two fish offered by a young boy—is one of his most often-told miracles, in fact, the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels aside from the resurrection.
Perhaps, it is no coincidence that many Filipinos felt an immediate and empathic connection with the Maginhawa community pantry, which is why they multiplied it, why it seems to have animated the Catholicism of this predominantly Catholic nation. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that Patricia Non’s “miracle” pantry coincided its start with Easter, a day when Christians celebrate Christ their risen savior and his message of hope.
This year, we are celebrating 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines. Archbishop Romulo Valles of Davao, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, said the best way to celebrate this quincentennial is “to make our faith shine in deeds of charity and mercy.”
“Anyone of us can take up this challenge—to serve the least and lowest of our brethren,” Valles said in his opening remarks during the CBCP’s virtual plenary assembly held last January.
Well, Patricia Non and all the people who started their own little charitable grocery booths on streets and sidewalks all over the Philippines are taking up this challenge of faith. They are showing what it is to be truly Christian during this pandemic, when many people have gone hungry due to lockdowns and restrictions to curb the spread of the virus.
These Filipinos of all ages, genders and walks of life who lined up for hours waiting for their turn to stock up on donated food have no one else to turn to. Many of them have no way to earn an income and do not have access to any social welfare safety net. They have not received any ayuda. Indeed, these community pantries have been nothing short of a miracle to them.
Going by the number of religious festivals we have here, the places of worship that dot our landscape and the religious symbols we see at homes, in workplaces and worn by our people, one can’t deny by casual observation that Filipinos are a very religious people. Many times though it is the kind of religiosity wherein one can do what one wants for as long as he or she goes to mass on Sundays, says the rosary, or performs the rituals during Holy Week.
Catholicism, Christianity, or any faith for that matter – Muslims stress the value of acts of charity and generosity — would be nothing more than false enthusiasm and empty phrases, if it is not accompanied by appropriate actions, if it is not lived and fulfilled in the lives of its faithful.
In a world where more and more of the younger, affluent generation seem to be inclined to making their first million before they turn 30, there is something truly heroic and truly Christian in the simple act of service that Patricia Non started.
The ordinary Filipinos like her who put up these community pantries are living out their faith. Their religiosity is rooted in human experience. Working quietly and diligently without expectation of reward or recognition, they are trying to feed a hungry multitude.
Such compassion, kindness and generosity should be commended, not criticized, much more condemned. These are the everyday examples of Christianity that Filipinos could better relate to and imitate.