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Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Feb. 24, 2019, by Fr. Kevin Anderson

Ok, here is something that I have been thinking about lately.  Ponder this . . . What if God were enough?  How would your life be different?  I know, it sounds weird, but think about it . . .  in all areas of your life (e.g. work, relationships, money, school, sports, music) if God were enough for you, would you still fill yourself by getting so worried, getting so worn-out with stress, getting so hyper about all the details of this event or that activity? 

 

If God were enough, would you still need to hold onto that grudge?  Would you still feel so wounded from that job loss?  Would you still feel that you don’t have a close friend?

 

What if God were enough?

 

So let’s start with THE person, or those people, whom you do NOT get along with?  Picture that person in your mind.  So let’s make this clear . . . that person is rotten, they’ve done mean things, they haven’t ask for forgiveness and they act like things are just fine.  Ugh, it’s frustrating, right?

 

So what do we do with them?  Well, most often we want them to “go down.”  Hence we gossip about them, look for ANY character flaw . . . or simply AVOID them.  Many times it feels like they have slapped across the face.  So what do we do?  Well the Old Testament says it’s OK to slap them back (from Exodus 21).  That is, “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.”  They harm you, so it’s OK for you to harm them. 

 

But what does Jesus say?  You just heard it.  He says, “turn the other cheek.”  Which means if someone harms you DO NOT harm them back.  If they slap you on this cheek [point to cheek] then say, “Well, why don’t you get this one also?” [And point to the other cheek]

 

You see, most of those who profess to be Christian DON’T act like Christians.  As Jesus said, “It’s easy to love those who love you.  To get along with those you like, or those who voted like you, or think like you.”  Non-believers do that just fine.  But to be follower of Christ means to be different.

 

So here’s what I try to do.  When there’s a person who has harmed me . . . I pray for them.  Not a prayer of “Dear God punish that son-of-a-gun.”  Or please God change him to start agreeing with me.  NO.  I try to pray, “Dear God, I hope she eat her vegetables, I hope he has a good night’s sleep.  I pray that she can be at her best today.  So that . . . here’s the good part . . . God may you be enough for them, for me, for us. 

 

I pray that they have all the conditions set in right order . . . then LET GO and trust that God will do the rest.  It’s actually easy . . . to let God be God, and you don’t have to be God.

 

Now I am not talking about a goofy kind of faith where someone has a disease and then just trusts that God will take care of it.  No, go to the doctor and get the medical attention so that God will take care of it.   Again, what if God were enough?

 

Think of your financial woes.  What if God were enough?  Jesus just said in the gospel, give and gifts will be given back to you.  That is the whole concept of tithing.  Which means, you give to God 10% and God will take care of every financial woe.  Jesus said, It will come back to you, a good measure, packed together, shaken down and overflowing and poured into your lap.  If you have any kind of financial woes, I say give money and trust that God will be enough. 

 

With the times when you feel lonely?  Instead to running immediately to that thing or activity that gives you solace.  What if you turned to God . . . and God were enough?

 

Jesus says stop judging, stop condemning, start forgiving . . . and I add, trust that God will be enough in those areas.

 

You know Lent is coming up.  It starts March 6th.  As you prepare for Lent, many times you start thinking of something to give up. Well, that’s nice.  For giving up something is really meant for you to make more room for God.  But too often, we give up something that we should be giving up anyway . . . snacks at night, pop, alcohol, that inappropriate website. 

 

But what if, this Lent, you chose one area of your life . . . then attempted to live as if God were enough in that area?  That you don’t have to worry so much . . . God’s got it.  That you don’t have to freak out so much . . . God will be enough.  That you don’t have to “push the water in a river, it will flow by itself.  What if for Lent . . . instead of giving up something you trusted God more?  How you be different?

 

What if God were enough?

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