The deep hope, the jewel at the heart of the common wealth is the conviction that there must always be enough to go around. This is, in effect, the faith of the Eucharist, the meaning of the parable of the loaves and fishes. When that belief is shaken, whether by growing demands or a decreasing willingness to share, the commons and all it stands for is in peril. For we know that when a single interest is allowed to control a resource that is needed by all, those with the least will be the first to suffer. In a healthy commons, there is a reasonable balance of economic and political power.
Public life prevails over private interest.
There is a spirit of cooperation and a sense that we are guarding a sacred trust. The common good is more verb than noun, and a healthy commons holds a diversity of interests together, not necessarily in agreement, but always in dialogue. Finally, what sustains the commons is the faith that there is a greater good than that of the individual alone, the knowledge that we are radically interdependent with the world, and the recognition that it is our very vulnerability that holds us together and gives us strength. Some might say that recent years have seen a kind of enclosure of this commons. The challenge before us now is how to restore or rebalance or at least reopen the possibility that the River might once again live out its destiny as a source of the common wealth of all of the life in its sweep.