In the light of the Eucharist, the richest source of complete nourishment for all the deepest needs of human beings, society, and the world, according to our Congregation’s Rule of Life and the 92nd edition of the five-article Ensemble-Together (December 2025), the types of human hunger in my particular context are identified as follows.
1. Hunger for universal harmony with human beings, ecology, and the divine Creator
Father Camille Gagnon’s reflection helped me identify the hungers of humanity in my context, Vietnam: the hunger for a safe marine environment, for healthy and responsible aquaculture, fishing, and conservation, and for the scientific development of marine resources. Currently, according to state media, Vietnam's fishing industry is striving to build a marine fisheries management system that meets international standards to have the yellow card lifted for violations of international marine fishing regulations. This solution, in the light of ecological theology, demonstrates goodwill and commitment to protecting the sea, building a lifestyle and work in harmony with nature.
The article also inspires me, in my capacity, position, and profession, to educate and build our scholasticate into a living environment that is harmonious and friendly to nature, humanity, and God. This includes planting trees around the monastery's residences, having quiet, green, and clean spaces for our brothers to pray, worship, study, relax, drink tea, or coffee. In addition, there will be liturgical celebrations of praying for the care of the nature as Pope Leo established. It also involves incorporating the universal Mass into catechism or classes of eucharistic theology as an educational tool to promote understanding and love of a harmonious lifestyle between faith, liturgical practice, and ecological protection practices.
2. Hunger for an art of living well, as God the Creator desires
In light of Father Nilindra Gunesekera's article, based on biblical and theological foundations of ecology, I recognize my people's hunger for an art of living well. It is a life of peace, joy, and harmony in goodness, as originally intended by God the Creator. Speaking theologically, the art of living well is to accept God as the Creator, the controller, the preserver, and the judge of the universe. According to Father Nilindra's article, the art of living well is that “humanity is to manage all ecological systems, even as every life form, including itself, becomes fruitful and multiple. [...] Humanity's mastery over creation itself consists in preserving and enhancing the goodness which the Creator acclaimed in his creation.” (Ensemble-Together, 92, pp. 16-17).
Such a virtuous way of life will bear existential fruits for the natural and human environments, such as a love of practice and voluntary sacrifice for the common good of the nation and the world, expressed through thinking, education, structural systems, and actions in the mission of building, developing, and preserving natural reserves and ecosystem services. For example, the mining industry, agriculture, fisheries, and forestry are God-given treasures for the Vietnamese people. Sadly, these are being exploited destructively rather than being preserved, enjoyed, and developed in the good as God intended. The high cost of deforestation and environmental destruction is devastating floods, climate change, air pollution, etc.
My home country has made significant strides in development, yet still faces human hungers extending beyond basic physical needs to complex social, economic, and spiritual longings.
On the level of physical hungers, many workers in urban industrial zones and farmers in rural areas are hungry for secure, stable, and dignified living conditions. In the face of unqualified healthcare, counterfeit medicine, malnutrition, stunting, and micronutrient deficiencies, both urban and rural people are yearning for reliable and equitable access to quality healthcare, clean water, sanitation, food security, and medicine security.
Moreover, on the economic and social level, there is a strong hunger for stable employment, improved working conditions, and opportunities to develop high-quality professional and technical skills in a rapidly evolving economy like Vietnam’s. Despite poverty reduction successes in my country, significant inequalities persist in income and opportunities to access education, healthcare, and resources, leading to a hunger for greater social justice and equity, particularly in the rural and mountainous areas.
Vietnam has 54 groups of ethnic minorities and a rapidly expanding elderly population; as a result, challenges related to land rights, social welfare, and quality healthcare reveal a hunger for targeted support and inclusion for these vulnerable groups. Besides, as urbanization increases, there is a growing public hunger for a clean, safe, and healthy environment, with issues like pollution requiring attention.
On the level of moral and spiritual hungers, there is a pressing issue in the social and spiritual realm: the degradation of thought, morality, and behavior in some sectors, damaging public trust in institutions and leaders, which indicates a hunger for ethical leadership, transparency, and social discipline. Amid rapid modernization and lifestyle changes, there's a hunger for stronger community bonds, stable family relationships, and a sense of collective identity and belonging.
As with all people, the Vietnamese embrace a fundamental human longing for meaning, life ideals, and a sense of purpose beyond material gain, which traditional beliefs and modern society sometimes struggle to satisfy. As a Christian in the midst of my nation, I am taught by Christ in the Eucharist the art of living well through voluntary love and service through the incarnation, entering the world, and self-giving for the greater good of others, my country, and the world as Christ did.
3. Hunger for ethical responsibility to care for this world, not to destroy it
Based on practical experience, my country's development has been influenced by dialectical materialism, focusing too much on material economic efficiency while neglecting moral responsibility. While reading Father John Keenan's article, I am reminded of one of my people’s hungers: ethical responsibility towards the ecosystem and human living environment. For example, Vietnam's beautiful natural landscapes and precious forests are part of our shared heritage, but they are under threat from irresponsible exploitation and the development of other services that only benefit individual investors. Many of us hunger for a clean environment, worrying about pollution in our cities and the loss of precious forests in the countryside due to development. This highlights the urgent ecological hunger, especially a hunger for the ethical understanding of ecology.
As Eucharistic man, in the light of Fr. Keenan’s article (Ibid, p.41-49), I come to know that the Eucharist uses the most basic and sacred gifts of the earth: bread made from grain and wine from grapes. It reminds me that all creation is a sacred gift entrusted to humanity's care, not merely a resource to be exploited. The communion with Christ, others, and all creation in the sacramental Eucharistic forms calls me to an “ecological conversion” - to be a steward protecting this sacred earth as our common home, not a consumer destroying it. Through the eucharistic celebration, I, together with the Church in my country, as God's priestly people in Christ, offer gratefully to the Creator God the entire universe given to humanity, symbolized by the bread and wine, the chosen products of God-created earth. Out of a biblical understanding of ecology as a God-given gift to humanity for cultivation and living, Vietnamese Catholics are called to become ethically responsible to care for the earth and contribute to the reconstruction of social justice for all people.
4. Hunger for a truly good life in holistic connection
Father Olivier Ndondo’s article on ecology according to Pope Francis’ thoughts (Ibid., p.51-66) leads me to an understanding of the hunger of humanity in my context: a hunger for a truly good life in integral connection with God the Creator, the Earth, and humanity. In fact, in a world changing as fast as Vietnam is, people often feel a loss of direction, struggling with ethical challenges, concerns about corruption, the proliferation of malproducts/unsafe goods, and general injustice which damage public trust and harm the most vulnerable, and searching for lasting purpose beyond material achievements. This covers spiritual and moral hungers for trust, integrity, socio-environmental justice, peace, truth, and goodness, integral education of ecology along with an egocentric lifestyle in respecting nature, human as well as cultural diversity, and meaning.
5. Hunger for knowledge, love, and glorification of God in His creation
Living in a rapidly changing society like Vietnam, I examine myself and find that people are swept up in the whirlwind of chaotic, artificial, and illusory mass media; they are carried along by the winds of fame, power, profit, and meaningless, fleeting material pleasures. This makes people indifferent and insensitive to the spiritual needs and sacred reality that exists within and around them.
This situation also occurs to some extent in the religious community like ours. In such a situation, I read in Father Manuel Barbiero's article a skillful connection of ecological reflections from Pope Francis' Laudato Si’ to St. Eymard's writings and the S.S.S. Rule of Life that illuminated for me, from the context of our scholasticate, a need or hunger for a contemplative gaze on creation in which God reveals His living presence and boundless love for humanity. This universe is a joyful blessing bestowed by God so that humanity may share in God's life and goodness. One of the fitting attitudes for contemplative contemplation is a spirit of grateful appreciation, praising God for His wondrous works in this universe. In my opinion, Eucharistic adoration prayer is a school of contemplative gaze with a spirit of ardent love, attentive listening, grateful praise, and integral communion with God, humanity, and all creatures on earth and in heaven, and practical commitment to go and care for all living beings in our common home.
To conclude my response, I pray that the grace every Vietnamese religious, S.S.S., received in the Eucharistic Communion may inspire each to become nourishment for my Vietnam’s hungers as we are nourished by Christ's presence in the Eucharistic forms of bread and wine to feed physical bodies, strengthen community morals, and care for our common home.
Father Joseph Thang, SSS
Scholasticate
Province Vietnamese Martyrs, Vietnam