WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2014

WORLD FOOD DAY

Opening prayer
God of all goodness and life, please continue to bestow on us the desire to protect and honor your great
creation that nourishes your people. Instill in us the willingness to see beauty in the creation of all that
nourishes us. We ask this in your name. +Amen.
Scripture passage
Mark 4: 26-29
He also said, The Kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep
and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth
produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is
ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.
Reflection
Genevieve Mougey; Poverty Education & Outreach Manager,
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development
In my corner of the world, mid October means harvest time. In many areas, farmers are burning the
midnight oil to cut their wheat, corn, and soybeans that will be used to feed people and livestock all
over the world. As I imagine farmers in their tractor cabs harvesting for us, I cannot help but reflect on
my own experiences on the land.
I am the daughter of a ranchers daughter. My Odermann Grandparents worked their ranch and farm
next to the Teddy Roosevelt National Park in western North Dakota for over 40 years. Growing up as a
child, I would look forward to my summers with great anticipation. My family would trek up north to
spend at least two weeks with my grandparents at the ranch. Our kids would get more and more
excited as we began to see the clover in the fields. We knew that this meant we would go climbing in
the hills, go riding in the beat up pickups, stack hay bales, weed the garden, help with branding, get
chased out of the house to catch rabbits, go feed the cows, and generally just get grimy and dirty. My
two week summer adventure represented one small way for me to contribute to our food supply.
As we would get older, we began to notice our mom speaking more nostalgically of us-- her kids- than of
her time on the ranch. She would mash up some of her favorite scriptures and farm wisdom. If we did
something and she was pleased or touched by our action, she would say, The harvest is ready. As her
growing child, I thought that was a ridiculous thing to say.

Today she says, The harvest is in. As her grown adult child it resonates with greater clarity what she
means. My mother articulates her understanding about her familys stewardship and care for the ranch,
for creation, for her children and for humanity as a whole through the lens of this scripture from Mark.
She knows who the planter isGod. She knows that her response is to care and nurture. She knew her
job would be complete, when the grain was ripe. Then it would be time to harvest.
This is the earth the God created, and we are meant to just hold it for a time, to care for it, to nurture
and protect. This earth is not ours. This is the same care the Gospel writer, St. Mark is expressing in this
parable. When we care for the land, when we see and watch the seedlings grow, when we take note of
development, we should not be surprised what we will see upon harvest. We must pay attention to the
world around. We must care for the earth as stewards, as the farmer who carefully watches and tends
the fields; as the rancher, who spends days caring for creatures; as the urbanites, who care for streets
and parks; as parents, who care for children and are their first educators on what is holy and just.
General Intercession
For favorable weather for those who harvest these days, let us pray to the Lord.

Catholic Social Teaching
Pope Francis, Message of Pope Francis for World Food Day 2013.
However, the waste of food is but one of the fruits of the throw away culture which often leads to
sacrificing men and women to the idols of profit and consumption; a sad sign of the globalization of
indifference, which makes us accustomed slowly to the suffering of others, as if it were something
normal. The challenge of hunger and malnutrition does not just have an economic or scientific
dimension, which refers to the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the food chain, but also and above
all and ethical and anthropological dimension....