OFFICE FOR SOCIAL MINISTRY
“We come to share our story. We come to break the bread” are the opening lyrics to the hymn “Song of the Body of Christ” written by David Haas to the traditional Hawaiian melody “No Ke Ano Ahi Ahi.”
This familiar song written in Hawaii beautifully expresses the experience of the Eucharist and why Catholic Relief Services selected the Diocese of Honolulu as a 2017 Rice Bowl “Story of Hope.” The mele sings, “We come as your people. We come as your own. United with each other, love finds a home. We are called to heal the broken, to be hope for the poor. We are called to feed the hungry at our door.”
The 2017 CRS Rice Bowl campaign which will reach out to 80 million Catholics in the United States will feature a “Story of Hope” about how Hawaii Rice Bowl funding supports the coming together of many people through the diocese-wide program One Ohana: Food and Housing for All.
The Big Island Chuukese Ulu (Bread of Life) Planting Project will be highlighted as a compelling symbol of CRS support for sustainable development work with the most vulnerable. Our “Story of Hope” is related to the call of Pope Francis’ encyclical “Laudato Si’” to “include the excluded “ in living the Gospel message that “we are one single human family.”
As many others have done, Micronesians come to Hawaii to share their story. Ulu or breadfruit is a Micronesian staple. Chuukese fondly call ulu their “bread of life” and it is a vital part of their story. By engaging their community in planting breadfruit trees for the vulnerable homeless and homebound elderly, this One Ohana: Food and Family for All project is a living witness to Jesus as “the Bread of Life” encountered in shared vulnerability and transformed into sustainable nourishment for all.
The 2017 Hawaii “Story of Hope” is about how parishioners are empowered through One Ohana: Food and Housing for All projects to donate their time, talent and treasure to transform parish pantries into hubs of healthy nutritious food for the most vulnerable. Transforming shared vulnerability needs to be cultivated year-round for there to be lasting sustainable change, so that living our faith can indeed be about One Ohana: Food and Family for All.
CRS is about sustainable transformation, “changing people’s lives: from delivering aid to ending need.” CRS is committed to “prioritize a new way of working that meets peoples’ immediate humanitarian needs and building toward reduced risk in the longer term.” CRS promotes investing in “enhancing local capacities, building effective, inclusive institutions in fragile vulnerable contexts.”
The 2016 Lenten Rice Bowl program in Hawaii experienced unprecedented diocese-wide collaboration. Pope Francis constantly reminds us that collaboration in experiencing our shared vulnerability is vital to our encountering Christ and deepening our conviction that indeed we are one family.
This is the joyful promise of sharing Hawaii’s Rice Bowl “Story of Hope” through One Ohana Food and Housing for All. We look forward to working with everyone year-round to bring alive these words in the Song of the Body of Christ: “We come to share our story. We come to break the bread … Bread of life and cup of promise, in this meal we all are one. In our dying and our rising, may your kingdom come.”
Mahalo,
Your friends at the Office for Social Ministry
