Operation Rice Bowl: A Lenten Tradition
Week four - Haiti
In this fourth stop on the Rice Bowl pilgrimage, we visit the small town of Chevalier in the commune of Coteaux in Haiti. There François Livert, a farmer, looks at his future in an entirely new way now that his land and his livelihood have been transformed with the help of new agricultural knowledge.
Slightly smaller than the state of Maryland, Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. More than 80 percent of its population lives below the poverty line, and 56 percent live in abject poverty. While more than 60 percent of the labor force works in agriculture, unemployment and underemployment are rampant. About two-thirds of the population does not have a formal job.
Pray - "We have to do the works of the one who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world." With these words, Jesus explains to his disciples that the blindness of the man they just passed would teach them something about the work of God in the world. In Sunday's Gospel from the Book of John, Jesus healed the man of his physical blindness, while illustrating the spiritual blindness of self-righteous Pharisees. It challenges us to ask ourselves — who are we in the story? What blinds us to the work that God has set before us? What will it take to open our eyes? This week, pray for God to open your eyes to things that you would rather look away from. Often, fear is our biggest blinder. Ask God to help you name the fears that get in the way of seeing the world as God sees it – its needs, its blessings, its beauty and the work to be done.
Fast - How do we fast from fear? How do we give it up even briefly, when anxiety about security or success or the future seems be the backbeat of the social rhythm? Anthony DeMello has suggested that one way to deal with fears and attachments is to stare at them unblinking, to contemplate them steadily without looking away. We must not only face our fears, we must study them. A fast from fear might require a bit of social analysis and a firm resolve not to look away when the urge to change the channel, skip the article or walk by the need sets in.
Learn - In Haiti, where two-thirds of the people do not have formal jobs, work means hope. But for François Livert, the ¼ acre farm in which he scratched out a life yielded barely enough to feed his family. Through an agriculture program offered by CRS, François was able to increase the yield of his farm by learning new techniques such as how to set up suitable pastures for livestock, how to produce and use compost, and how to build structures that protect his land from erosion. "Using the knowledge I learned through the program, I have been able to increase my harvests and livestock considerably," he says. "I now own 2 cows, 15 chickens, 5 goats, 1 sheep, 2 donkeys, and ½ acre of land."
Catholic social teaching on the dignity of work insists that the economy must serve people, and not the other way around. The church teaches that people have a right to productive work, to decent and fair wages, to organize and choose to join a union, to economic initiative, and to ownership and private property. For Haitian farmers like François Livert the dignity of work is realized with the knowledge of effective farming techniques and the vision of labor that lifts a family from poverty.
Give - How many times a week does a member of your family shop for groceries? Many of the world's farmers must draw all their family food from the land they cultivate, with the hope of having a little left over to sell. This week, put a dollar in your Rice Bowl for every stop at the grocery store that someone made to keep your family well fed.
