Solidarity is more than a feeling.

Some years ago, I read of something that happened in the Vietnam War in the 1960s. During intense fighting, a mortar shell landed on an orphanage in a small Vietnamese village. A US Navy doctor and a nurse from France were brought from a nearby city with medical supplies to triage several injured children, including a little girl around eight years old who required an emergency blood transfusion. Gathering the unharmed children together, they tested their blood types and identified a handful that were a match. They asked in a mix of broken Vietnamese and French if any of them would be willing to give their blood for their classmate. The children looked on somewhat disconcerted and uncomprehending. Then one little boy raised his hand, pulled it down and then falteringly put it up again.

He was laid on a stretcher and prepared before the needle was inserted into his arm to begin drawing his blood. He began to sob quietly and, as the blood filled the bag, her tears became more pronounced and violent. As best as they could, they asked if he was in pain and if they should stop, but he just signalled resolutely to them to go on. At that point, a backup team of a medic and nurses arrived, and straightaway engaged the boy in perfect Vietnamese till he was calm. The medic turned to the first aiders and disclosed that the little boy thought he was going to have to give all his blood for his classmate, that he was going to have to die to save her life. They asked him why on earth he would allow such a thing to be done to him for the sake of a classmate. The little boy replied: “She’s my friend.”
 

I found myself using this story one year as my homily for the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper. It brought home the drama and significance of the Lord’s gift of Himself to the Church in His Body and Blood. Jesus was ready to die to save the life of His friends, as He called them – to lose the last drop of His Blood so that we could have life through His sacrifice. 

Catholic Social Teaching has bequeathed to contemporary social ethics the idea of solidarity. It means that recognition of our shared humanity is integral to our human dignity. As the English poet John Dunne put it:

As technology shrinks our world into a global village, we become increasingly aware of our interconnectedness as one human family. This truth has always been part of Jesus teaching as laid out in the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. Every day the rich man went on feasting in fine clothes with his family while leaving poor Lazarus to languish at the foot of his gate, full of sores and hunger, without lifting a finger to help him. In the end the distance that the wealthy man placed between himself and Lazarus grew into a permanent chasm of isolation, and an eternal tournament for the wealthy man. When the tables were turned on him, this chasm of his own creation prevented Lazarus from coming to his aid in his hour of need.

The Gospel demands that we stand by each other and help each other, especially the poor and marginalised. Only in this way do we build a better world, rich in humanity for everyone. Solidarity is more than a feeling. It comes from an awareness of our shared humanity; our conviction that every other human being is our brother and sister. It is about overcoming the selfishness of Cain who, from the very beginning, rejected the idea that he was his brother’s keeper. Instead, the awareness of family bonds creates in our hearts a firm commitment to the common good of all. It urges us to get involved so that everyone can enjoy peace and justice and life to the full.

This is the inspiration at the heart of Mary’s Meals. It is a worldwide movement that places faith in the innate goodness of people, and shows just how much can be achieved with many thousands of little acts of kindness. It invites anyone who does not want a child going hungry for one single day, calling us to be part of a wonderful dream where every child can enjoy one nutritious daily meal in a place of education despite poverty or circumstance.

Like the little boy in the midst of the Vietnam War all those years ago, there flows in every human heart a desire for friendship and a commitment to the wellbeing of our brothers and sisters across the world, no matter what the cost. It is this generosity of spirit and solidarity that is so intrinsic to Mary’s Meals that is helping to deliver such surprising hope across the world.

Bishop John Keenan

Diocese of Paisley, Scotland