The human face of suffering
I find today's gospel worrying. In Matthew 15:29-37, Jesus cures many sick people and then feeds them because of their hunger.
In Combapata in the Andes, sick people and hungry children came to the parish because there was a ''botiquin'', a small clinic that diagnosed illnesses and provided the appropriate medicines. There was a ''comedor'', that gave daily nourishing meals to 120 schoolchildren who walked distances to school with just a handful of roasted maize.
Here in Aotearoa, we are told on the news that 1 in 5 children are living in poverty. But they don't come to our doors. We may not know any of them.
Let us pray this Advent that our compassion may lead us to discover and respond to the human face of suffering.
Don Hornsey
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