"God Alone Suffices"

Homily for the Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
2 March 2014

Let nothing disturb you; nothing frighten you.
All things are passing.
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things.
Nothing is wanting to him who possesses God.
God alone suffices.

        This great bookmark of Saint Teresa of Avila is one of those prayers that, in my humble opinion, should be known well by every Catholic. They are great words of wisdom which reflect what we have just heard in our First Reading and Gospel: DO NOT WORRY!

        Our Lord, and, by extension of her bookmark, Saint Teresa, are reminding us of the fact that worry gets us nowhere. If we continue to place before ourselves everything which distracts us from our relationship with God and our relationship with one another, then we miss out on the blessings and graces that God bestows upon us. While it is normal to be concerned about the temporalities of our lives, when we allow the concern to turn to worry, we allow our selfish preoccupation of the “things” of life to overshadow the fact that our God is with us and will attend to all our needs.

        When we worry, we don’t remember that “all things are passing.” All of creation is groaning in anticipation for the day in which even the entirety of the physical world passes into the next life. The situations and people that are in our lives now will one day not be here. And so, why worry about something that will be passing from this life? To allow people and situations to preoccupy our lives, especially in those personalities and details in which we have no control, is a waste of our time and energy. When we don’t allow God to move on what needs to pass from our lives, our worry overtakes us, and we become overwhelmed in our own grief or fear.

When we worry, we forget that “God never changes.” Change is a constant in life. Yet, God needs to be that which is constant in our lives. He is our Rock, our Anchor. And when we let go of our Rock, our Anchor, then we allow the changes in life to overwhelm us. The changes we undergo and live through should help us become more like God, Himself. But we can only allow that to happen when we see how our God consistently cares for us throughout this life.

When we worry, we forget that “patience obtains all things.” For when we worry, we lose that peace of heart, that sense of contentment where God abides in the depths of our innermost being. The idea that “the best things come to those who wait” is just not a practice in self-discipline for the physical things in life, but is a phrase that is suited for one’s spiritual life. Patience practiced is patience perfected. Worry disturbs our practice of patience, for it allows those things which are passing and those changes in life to overwhelm us, causing our loss of that peace which only our Lord can provide. Patience that is practice secures us to the Rock which is our God.

My brothers and sisters, the final phrase of Teresa’s bookmark sums up the entire longing that is in the human heart: “God alone suffices.” How true a statement! God, alone, fulfills the longings of our hearts! God, alone, is that constancy in that which is passing and changing. God, alone, is that fullness of patience which helps us to obtain all that we TRULY need to live this life. How blessed we are to know that “nothing is wanting to him who possesses God.”

When we allow God to truly suffice all that brings us strife, discontentment, dissatisfaction and longing in our lives, then the worry goes away. The concern may remain, but we are no longer overwhelmed by possible immensity of that which causes us grief and pain. In saying and believing that “God alone suffices,” we open ourselves to the stability and peace that only our Lord can give to our lives. Sufficient is the grace God gives to us to live our lives in His love in the present moment. We should not worry about things past, for we cannot change what has happened. We should not worry about things future, for we cannot control all the variables to that outcome which is still unknown.

God alone satisfies our deepest desires, for He remembers and cares for us more than we could ever know. Knowing this, nothing should ever disturb or frighten us; nothing should ever worry us. When we worry, we serve the master who is not God. In trusting that “God alone suffices”, we serve God by placing our trust in Him.

We seek our God, our soul thirsts for Him because it is in Him alone that we receive satisfaction and relief of all that worries us. And it here at this Mass, here from the Table of the Word and the Altar of Sacrifice that we receive Him who alleviates the anxieties and fears of our worries. It is here, at this Mass, in which God alone suffices our longings, for it is here that our hungers and the Divine Love embrace in their ecstatic union, and our longings are fulfilled.

And now, as we place upon the altar our joys, sorrows, concerns, worries and thanks, we come to know that it is through our participation in the Sacramental life of the Church that our God, alone, satisfies all that causes disruptions in our relationship with Him and with others. It is here that we now remember and pray:

Let nothing disturb you; nothing frighten you.
All things are passing.
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things.
Nothing is wanting to him who possesses God.
God alone suffices.

 
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Enjoy the journey . . .