The world is so bountiful there is enough food in all the world to forever banish hunger. Yet, there is still a lot of hunger in the world today. The world has more than enough resources to banish poverty forever. Yet, there are still a lot of poor people in the world today. If everyone in the world were to aspire for the level of need and consumption of the US, there will indeed be not enough food to feed everyone nor enough resources to draw people out of their neediness. There are many who aspire for the American dream. And there are also many who see America as the reason for many of the world’s ills.
It is not physical hunger that drives people to keep more food than they need and deny this to others. It is the selfish, unquenchable hunger in the human heart. It is not material poverty that drive people to hoard more resources than they need. It is the poverty of spirit that afflicts those who would keep for themselves more than what they need. Why would some people need to own billions of dollars when billions barely get by on two dollars a day? Why would some people splurge in one night of fun and revelry what would be enough to feed a family elsewhere for one year? Why would some people bedeck themselves in such luxury and opulence while there are people who could barely keep body and soul together?
In some remote mountain, thousands went to hear Jesus teach for days on end. In the end, they must have been hungry. Miraculously, he fed them with a few loaves of bread. The greater miracle was that the people shared willingly whatever they had. True to their nomadic roots, the people who followed Jesus must have brought provisions for their journey. After hearing him speak of the bread that would fill their insatiable hunger and the drink that would slake their unquenchable thirst, they were more than willing to share whatever they had with others, having experienced a change of heart through their encounter with Jesus.
One of the things that I have truly learned during our hikes is the great abundance and prodigiousness there is in nature. There is enough for everybody and more. We just have to learn how to share.
Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten. When the people saw the sign which he had done, they said, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world!”
John 6:1-15