The Word Of Peace
Homiletic Reflections On Peacemaking

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti, D. Min.

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

July 2000

There Is More Than Enough For All

The little Mokoro, a boat roughly hewn from a mopone log, drifted slowly through the waters of the Okavango Delta. The water was startling blue with eddies of silt, drifts of ochre and dun. There were sudden splashings from a nearby papyrus island as hippos rolled in the mud…

The Bayei people, swamp dwellers, find their way effortlessly through the maze of watery channels. Now the Bayei are being told that the end of their world may come—not through catastrophe as prophesied, but through the thirst of that most voracious and expansionist of species, humankind. One Bayei put it this way.

As people and nations around us tap our water we see trouble ahead. If the water dries up, it will be the end of our lives. All the things of our lives solely depend on it.

This brief story is a vignette from the recently published book, Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource. The greatest challenge to our quest for a more just and peaceful world will come in the form of a growing shortage of drinkable water. Who could imagine such a thing! But the growing world population—expected to double by 2000—climate changes brought on by human activity like depletion of the rain forests etc…. have placed a huge premium on the acquisition of clean water.

Who will get this water? My guess is that those that have the capacity to impose their will over others and those nations with the powerful military, political and economic clout will keep their access to the water. This paints a rather grim picture at first. Wars over drinkable water have been flirted with by some African nations—and this combined with other resource scarcity raise the specter of ever-increasing conflict in the developing nations. This is the developing picture unless the world community acts now or in the very near future so that everyone will have more than enough.

We have in John’s gospel today the closest thing to a narrative of the institution of the Eucharist that we will find in this gospel. The story tells us that there was a shortage of supplies for nourishing the people—or at least that seemed to be the problem. But we see that with God all are nourished, there is enough—more than enough for everyone! Jesus is God’s nourishment to all of us that can and does satisfy all of our hungers and thirsts for liberation from all forms of oppression and wants. Jesus is the historical experience of the overabundance of the Father’s nourishing love. This is typical of the Father of our Lord. We see evidence of this in the experience of the prophet Elisha.

The world in which we live has many hungers and thirsts. Some seek to quench their thirst for some level of inner peace, calm and joy. Some seek to satisfy their hunger for freedom, justice and God. These inner yearnings are fundamental to the human condition and we are assured today that the Father of Jesus has and will give us more than we need for wholeness. The Father worked through the Son and continues to do so in a very special way through the embodiment of the Son in the world—in the Church.

The Church is that special instrument through which God will offer more than enough for everyone. On our day it takes many forms, such as, ministering to sick, mentally ill and challenged those in prisons, suffering from political oppression and a plundered environment. The shortage of food and water for the bulk of humanity, should nothing change, will lead to a conflict riddled 21^st century. However, if groups like the Church should, like its Lord, call upon the Father it will be given what it needs to be a prophet to the world. Furthermore, there is a call for trust in the Father and a change of heart—assuring that there will be more than enough for everyone. Is this not the sacrificial life we are called to in the Eucharist? Is this not the acceptance of our baptismal promises to work for unity among each other and the whole human race? Is this not what it means to be a people of liberation—of new life and a chance to live in a new way?

We know that such large issues are beyond our individual competency to change now. But the Church can and does lobby for legislative change and policy options directed toward addressing these most formidable problems. It does so because it knows that in Christ the Father gives us more than enough. A life of imitation of Christ gives us the necessary discipline not to hoard but to share, not to ignore problems but to engage them with the power of the crucified and risen Christ.

The future has not yet been set. It remains open to our choices. Will there be enough water and food for all? That is up to those who accept the overabundance of life in Christ and bring it to a thirsty and hungry world.

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti, D. Min.
Created July 30, 2000