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As Iowa farmer John Hayes penned his handwritten letter to the Pope, he was unsure whether to expect a reply, but nonetheless, he wanted to personally invite the pope to visit the Midwest, so he addressed his letter to the Vatican and dropped it in the mail.
Sometimes small decisions have big consequences.
Mr. Hayes not only received a reply, but the Pope accepted his invitation and added a brief stop in Iowa to the itinerary of his first apostolic visit to the U.S. Shortly after addressing the world's most powerful leaders at the United Nations in New York, the pope would address a crowd of farmers from America's heartland.
The crowd had started to gather a day in advance when parish groups prepared to camp out overnight. My own grandparents, farmers from central Missouri, caught an early morning bus from the church parking lot to take advantage of the once in a lifetime chance to see the pope. To that crowd gathered on October 4, 1979, the largest gathering in Iowa's history, John Paul II addressed the following words:
Here in the heartland of America, in the middle of bountiful fields at harvest time, I come to celebrate the Eucharist...Farmers everywhere provide bread for all humanity, but it is Christ alone who is the bread of life. He alone satisfies the deepest hunger of humanity... While we are mindful of the physical hunger of millions of our brothers and sisters..., at this Eucharist we are reminded that the deepest hunger lies in the human soul. Even if all the physical hunger of the world were satisfied...the deepest hunger of man would still exist... Therefore, I say: Come, all of you, to Christ. He is the bread of life. Come to Christ, and you will never be hungry again.

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