**How Do the Poor Celebrate the Feast?**
**How Do the Poor Celebrate the Feast?**¹
At the outset of this article, I offer our heartfelt congratulations to all our Muslim brothers, loved ones, and friends in Egypt, in the Arab world, and the Islamic world. May God make it a blessed and happy feast, fulfilling in it the hopes of the peoples…
We see signs of celebrating the feast and its manifestations everywhere. Foremost among these are what the media presents in expressions and news of joy for the feast: whether through radio and television, or through newspapers and magazines with their articles and reports. And what artists presented during the month of Ramadan in series in which they exerted every effort to bring joy to people. Nor do we forget the efforts made by several ministries—such as trade, supply, finance, and others—to provide the materials needed by people, meaning those capable of purchasing them… Religious leaders also celebrated the feast through their special religious programs… and many institutions celebrated during the holidays—all of this rejoicing in the feast.
Amid all this, an important question arises: How do the poor celebrate the feast, or how do the poor rejoice in the feast? And the poor are of varying degrees: among them the destitute, the needy, and those unable to meet the basic and essential requirements of life… How do these rejoice in the feast? And how can the feast, for them, be days that are not ordinary—days of joy and delight?! And even if the state strives in many ways to provide food during the feast days for those who can afford it, what then do we say concerning what the children of these poor desire—new clothes for the feast as a sign of their joy, and also the toys without which the joy of the feast is incomplete?! Will all these look toward the rich in their pleasures and amusements, comparing their condition with that of those others?
I propose the distribution of certain financial bonuses on the occasion of each major feast for Muslims or Christians, so that the expenses of their feasts may be covered, and so that they may not feel an atmosphere of need during their feasts, nor a sense of comparison between them and the affluent… I also hope that the hand of love may be extended from the wealthy to instill the spirit of joy in these needy ones, at least during the feast days. Matters should not be limited only to “Tables of the Merciful” during fasting days. For God’s mercy encompasses all days—fasts and feasts. And mercy is not satisfied with merely a morsel of food that one offers to ease the conscience. For the needs of the human person in mercy include many, many things.
Caring for the poor and their children during feast days is a spiritual work, a national work, and a social work… Let us not neglect this as citizens and as brothers… And let this care extend to their condition even outside feast days. And the matter deepens further so we do not merely ask: How do the poor celebrate the feast? But rather we ask more: How do these poor rejoice in the feast? And what is the duty of the state toward them? And the duty of institutions and individuals?
And if we are discussing what must be done for them, then how much more severe is the judgment and punishment of those who—rather than bringing comfort to the poor—hoard markets and exaggerate price increases, so that the poor bear burden upon burden because of the greed of their fellow citizens!!
And if we say all this on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, which our country celebrates, there are other feasts that also pass by the poor, and we must ask: How do they celebrate them, or how do they rejoice in them? The question remains needing an answer… If they cannot handle ordinary life, how much more the days of celebration?! The matter requires a deep harmonization between the necessities of life and the ability to meet its costs.
If we are now speaking about the problem of the ordinary poor and how they celebrate the feast, what then do we say about the poor who are ill—those who bear heavy burdens of illness, treatment, the high prices of medicine, and the inability to spend, especially when the matter sometimes requires surgical operations beyond the capacity of the average person, and which state insurance cannot cover!!!
What is the condition of these poor patients—whether in ordinary days or especially during feast days? And what is our stance toward them? Do we suffice with a kind word we utter without any action?! Or do we suffice with prayer alone while leaving them to God, the Most Merciful?
The phrase “How do these celebrate the feast?” may include many—not only the poor, and not only the sick. It also includes the homeless, such as street children—those whom God created not to be children of the streets, but to be embraced by society, which should give them from what God has given, or what God wills to give to every member of His creation.
And the phrase “How do these celebrate the feast?” also includes those in prisons. For if the expression “discipline and reform” is applied to prison, then perhaps the period of the feast might partake of the blessing of this expression.
Setting aside the many institutions whose condition we may question on feast days, we finally wish to ask about the attitude of the affluent during the feast—those who look only to themselves, thinking of how they will spend the occasion in joy, happiness, luxury, and pleasure, without looking toward their brothers who live with them in the same country—how they are.
We say to these that God did not create the world for them alone but for them and for others. And God has given to them so that they may give. And the more they give, the more God increases His gifts to them and opens the windows of heaven to pour blessings upon them. They must share with others what God has granted them. Indeed, one of the saints said a beautiful saying: “If you have nothing to give to the poor, then fast and offer them your food.” How much more then if you have what suffices you and what exceeds your needs…
Let us, on the day of the feast, look toward others who are in need, and feel deep joy when we see them rejoice with us, not spending the feast day in deprivation or want.
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An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, published in Al-Ahram newspaper on 20–9–2009.
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