The story is familiar (Mt. 14: 13-21). Jesus was feeling low and wanted to grieve for the passing of his cousin and teacher, John the Baptist. He went alone to a deserted place and did not want to see anyone. But the crowd followed him. Upon seeing them, he was filled with pity. He could not help it, despite what he was feeling inside him. He saw they needed him more. His little pain though deep and significant was nothing compared to theirs. So he began preaching and curing the sick.

When it was evening, the disciples panicked on how to feed the multitude. Jesus told them not to send them away. “Give them some food yourselves.” They had only five loaves and two fish. Jesus blessed what they had, had it distributed to the people and everyone had their fill. The leftovers were twelve baskets – after 5000 men ate, not counting the women and children. This story must be important that it is written in all the four gospels. In the Synoptics, the five loaves and two fish must be the “baon” of the apostles. In John’s gospel, there was a small boy who gave up his food. In all instances, the so-called “miracle” happened because some simple people gave up their own share.

One of our fears in Payatas in the beginning of the community quarantine was hunger. We were afraid that people will loot other people’s homes and chaos which we could not control would ensue. But after four months into the lockdown, thanks be to God, this did not happen. Despite the irregular and unsystematic distribution of government aid which actually did not reach the most vulnerable for which it was intended, no one died of hunger in Payatas.

The first reading (Isaiah 55: 1-3) – though seemingly impossible in our times – is real. It truly happens.

Thus says the LORD:

All you who are thirsty,
come to the water!
You who have no money,
come, receive grain and eat;
Come, without paying and without cost,
drink wine and milk!
Why spend your money for what is not bread;
your wages for what fails to satisfy?
Heed me, and you shall eat well,
you shall delight in rich fare.
Come to me heedfully,
listen, that you may have life.

Let me share some stories of life from the rough grounds of Payatas.

A meager three-kilo bag of rice was distributed to each family in Payatas every week since the beginning of the lockdown until today. This did not come from big companies. It was a share of ordinary people – Christians and non-Christians alike – who heard about our call for help. Some are simple Catholics from China or Taiwan; others are Buddhists in Thailand; some others from Germany or Belgium, from the US or from the Philippines. Many of them we do not know. They just read what we posted on Facebook. And they volunteered to help.

I can still remember one young person who just started to work and got her first salary maybe. She shared her 500 pesos. That is not big, if we count that Payatas has 50,000 – 60,000 families. But her 500 pesos gave us 12 kilos of rice which can feed four families for a week. That is quite a big help.

I can never forget what someone told me. A mother got her 3 kilos for that week. She told her leader: “I will get this not for myself but for my other neighbor whose husband does not have job for some months, much more during the lockdown.” When she gave her share, her neighbor cried and did not stop thanking her. She has been praying for God to intervene because it has been days now that they had nothing on their table.

Another thing we distributed daily in Payatas was “pandesal”. We have not thought of this at all. A group of women-friends wrote me. They said they will help generate the money to buy pandesal each day for some families in Payatas. The money was not there yet but they promised. Maybe they also asked their other friends to help. What they asked us is – if we are willing to distribute. We told them yes. From that time on, thirty women BEC leaders wake up early each day to distribute hot pandesal for free to at least 720 families all over the parish. Our last count: we have distributed 408,000 pieces of pandesal to 40,800 families. When rice was meager, the small bread saved the day.

When people read in on Facebook, they started volunteering. Some generous friends helped us to buy more bread. Some big flour mills donated sacks of flour which we distributed to the mothers who also started baking what they know (siopao, puto, pan cake, etc.) augmenting the food needs of children in the neighborhood. The pandesal metamorphosed into other kinds of bread. What they got free of charge, they also gave away free.

Another initiative was milk. With only rice and sardines, we began to realize that the infants did not have anything to eat. We also discovered that it is illegal to distribute breast milk substitutes. We defied this legal restriction. When I posted this on Facebook, within an hour, someone sent me 50,000 pesos to buy milk for the children. She does not care if it is illegal or not. When it was time to write a receipt, she told me: “Write ‘Anonymous’.” Later we realize, the hundreds of PWDs and elderly people needed the milk as well. Until today, when people could not go out to work yet, the milk supply continues.

In our weekly meetings, the BEC mothers realized that we could not give rice, bread and milk forever. We encouraged the people to plant whatever they can in the little spaces available. The mothers and fathers started planting vegetables, some in small plots, others in plastic containers, etc. And I heard several started harvesting their first produce last week. Food has been multiplied again beyond the five loaves and two fish.

But the greatest miracle for me are the simple mothers who distribute the rice, pandesal and milk each day. They also have their families. They also have their own needs. By going around the houses, they also risk their own health. Some of them are senior citizens who volunteered just the same even as they were warned of their vulnerability. They do not get paid for what they do. What they get is also three kilos of rice like the rest of the families.

In one of those meetings halfway into the lockdown, I asked them a guide question for reflection: “Despite the pandemic, why are you here and what made you stay?” One mother summarized the sentiment of everyone. She said: “We keep on until now because we want to help our neighbor to be less hungry. This is what the gospel tells us to do.”

While there are accusations of corruption in high-places during the pandemic, while people who rule us only show brutality and incompetence, while those in the know do not provide us with roadmap on how to get out of this mess, there are simple people who leads us to the way of Jesus.

The miracle in Payatas is not that we have twelve baskets of leftover.There is none. The real miracle is that there are simple people who are willing to give up their share, to share the little they have, so that their neighbor who has nothing will remain alive and well.

Daniel Franklin E. Pilario, CM
St. Vincent School of Theology
Adamson University
danielfranklinpilario@yahoo.com
08.02.2020

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