The Scarcity Mindset

In Luke's Gospel, we find a story generally referred to as the feeding of the 5000 (Luke 10:9-17). In that story, we read:

The day was drawing to a close, and the twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away, so that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside, to lodge and get provisions; for we are here in a deserted place.” 13 But he said to them, “You give them something to eat.” They said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish—unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.” 14 For there were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” 15 They did so and made them all sit down. 16 And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. 17 And all ate and were filled. What was left over was gathered up, twelve baskets of broken pieces.

Very often, with stories like this, we get caught up in the apparent miraculous details of the story: how did Jesus "magically" feed all those people? In doing so, we lose sight of the nature of these sacred texts. That nature is wisdom, and rather than being distracted by details that seem difficult to reconcile with what we know about the world, we should ask ourselves where the wisdom in this story is to be found.

For me, today, that question leads me to appreciate how different the mindset of the disciples is from the mindset of Jesus. The disciples assume that there is not enough to feed everyone: theirs is a mindset of scarcity. Jesus, on the other hand, is quite sure that there is enough: his is a mindset of abundance.

I once heard someone comment about this text that the real miracle is that Jesus gets everyone to sit down. The people who have come to see Jesus in this story are all people who are wrapped up in their own scarcity and need. It seems that they did not come together as a community, but rather they showed up as individuals who were preoccupied with their own lives and situations, as we so often are, and came looking for Jesus' help. The disciples, too, were wrapped up in their individual preoccupations -- like, "What you expect us to do? Go to the store?" By organizing the crowd into groups of 50, Jesus is effectively creating community. In the context of these groups, people begin to encounter each other in a more profound way and are moved a bit out of their individual needs to face a shared challenge: it's getting late, and they haven't eaten yet. It is then, I think, that everyone discovers that some people brought a lot of food, some people brought a little, and some brought nothing. Those who have begin to share with those who have not, and in the end, everyone is fed.

Most people, I find, operate with a scarcity mindset. They are dogged by the fear that they will not have enough. That mindset leads people to hold tight to what they have, or to amass far more than anyone really needs. It is a selfishness, but is is a selfishness born of fear. In our small, ego-driven selves, we hatch a narrative that says what we have is what we deserve, it is what we worked for, it is ours, and no one else is entitled to it. Beneath that narrative is another, which is one of fear: What if I lose what I have? And what about those who have less or nothing? Well, they simply didn't work hard enough to get what they needed. These are the stories we tend to tell ourselves.

Most of the world's problems are driven by the scarcity mindset. From economic and social disparity to war to changing climates -- almost all of this is driven by a sense that we must get as much as we can and hold onto it for dear life and the behaviors that flow from that mentality.

But this is not the mindset of Jesus, who knows that the world has enough. Everything that everyone in the world needs is alredy here. What is lacking is our willingness or our ability to see that truth. When we are isolated in our individual small selves, or in the tribal mentality of our small collective, it can be hard to see this truth. But when we encounter one another in the fullness of each other's humanity -- when we really see each other in a genuine communion or community, when we recognize our own humanity in another's humanity, then our mindset can begin to change.

In the catholic Christian calendar, this Sunday was the feast of Corpus Christi -- focused on the Eucharist as the sacrament in which Christ shares himself with us. And this story from Luke is read on this feast day. Just as it is easy to get caught up in what appear to be the magical details of Luke's story, when we consider the Eucharist it is easy to get caught up in all the theological stuff that surrounds it and the "magic" that the traditional theology of the Eucharist seems to involve in the language that associates the bread and wine with the body and blood of Christ. But at its heart, the Eucharist is about seeing the presence of the Christ in the world around us, in each other, and in ourselves. After all, the bread and wine consecrated at the altar are consumed by us. We take into ourselves that which we already possess: the presence of Christ, the mindset of Christ. The Eucharist reminds us of who we truly are: bearers of Christ consciousness. But that consciousness is hidden much of the time beneath the preoccupations of the small, ego self.

The spiritual challenge for us is to transcend our small, ego selves that cling so much to this mindset of scarcity and acquire the mind of Christ which is rooted in compassion and

generosity, and knows that everything all of us needs is already right here.

St. Paul gets this right: "Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus" (Phil 2:5), and "it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me" (Gal 2:20). This is a calling to rise above the ego self of scarcity into a transformed mindset. For when we are in this more spacious Christ consciousness, we recognize the oneness of humanity, that each of us is participating in the same being, the same consciousness, the same awareness. And the clinging stinginess of our small self gives way to something greater and more authentic.

We live right now in a season when such a transformation of mind and perspective is so badly needed amidst the current suffering of so many in our world right now.

May we learn to see, and to share, our abundance, and to know that everything that everyone needs is already right here.