Which of the following two challenges has the best chance of success, achieving world peace or alleviating world hunger.  I'm sure there are more than a few of you or any congregation who would say neither effort would have a chance of succeeding.  If I were to ask which one of these, if it could be achieved would happen first, I would hope you would say alleviating world hunger because fact is that every reliable organization analyzing global resources says that right now the world produces enough food to give everyone enough to eat every day.

I believe we have in our first reading and Gospel today, the mindset of God which suggests that what some would say is impossible, is in fact possible.  Through the mouth of the prophet Isaiah, God says ALL who are thirsty, come to the water.  Heed me and you shall delight in rich fare.  Then in the Gospel, in the fact of a huge group of people in front of him, Jesus tells the disciples to give them something to eat and he meant give ALL of them something to eat and as we know that indeed happened.

The Lord is ofering us a challenge that seems far beyond what the disciples faced that day of feeding 5,000 people with the little food that it seemed they had that day.  He wants us to believe that all who are thirsty and all who are hungry can get enough to eat and drink so that we can eliminate a terrible reality that 1.5 million malnourished people are dying in this world each year. That's 21,000 people in a day.  That's an average 150 people who will have died during this homily time.

At this point, I turn this homily over to someone who was always positive about what God can do through people of faith.  He is someone worth paying attention to on this and so many other subjects on which he spoke.

"The crowds of starving people-children, women, the elderly, immigrants, refugees, the unemployed-raise their cry of suffering. They implore us hoping to be heard.  How can we not open our ears and our hearts and start to make available those loaves and fishes that God has put into our hands?

If each one of us contributes, we can all do something for them.  Of course this will require sacrifice, which requires a deep inner conversion.  Certainly it will involve changing our consumerist behavior, combating hedonism, and resisting attitudes of indifference and the tendency to disregard our personal responsibilites.

With more than 800 million people suffering from malnutrition, it is often difficult to find immediate solutions for improving these tragic situations.  We must nevertheless seek them together so that we will no longer have, side by side, the starving and the wealthy, the very poor and the very rich, those who lack the necessary means and others who lavishly waste them.  Such contrasts between poverty and wealth are intolerable for humanity.

It is from love of God that Christians learn to help the needy and to share with them their own material and spiritual goods.  Such concern not only provides those experiencing hardship with material help, but also represents an opportunity for the spiritual growth of the giver.

For each of us, moderation and simplicity ought to become the criteria of our daily lives.  The quantity of goods consumed by a tiny fraction of the world population, produces a demand greater than available resources.  A reduction of this demand constitutes a first step in alleviating poverty, provided that it is accompanied by effective measures to guarantee a fair distribution of the world's wealth....

It is necessary once more to state the characteristic principle of Christian social doctrine: the goods of this world are originally meant for all.  The right to private property is valid and necessary, but it does not nullify the value of this principle.

As far as the Church is concerned, the social message of the Gospel must not be considered a theory, but above all else a basis and a motivation for action."

These words are the words of the modern day saint John Paul II.  What he challenges us to do, in the face of so many starving and dying people, starts with real conversion on the part of many or most of us here.  He speaks positively and with hope of what can be done collectively, and what we can and should first do, individually.  If we are truly people of faith, looking the other way or saying what's the use are not options.  Following Christ is always the only way to go.  And it always produces wonderful and even miraculous results.  "The hand of the Lord feeds us, He answers all our needs."