Sunday, September 28
St. Augustine Cathedral
My dear friends,
How many times perhaps we’ve heard it from our own lips or from the lips of those around us, we have heard the words, “enough is enough”. Perhaps you and I have struggled with the situation we wanted to make better, and we tried, and we tried, and we tried, we had enough. Or a relationship you and I wanted to heal, and we tried, and we tried, and we tried, and enough is enough. It is a natural human response to a situation, problem, or challenge that we simply can’t solve or heal or make better.
Today, we are reminded that when we say enough is enough in the spiritual life, we are treading on very thin ice that can lead to major problems. We call it complacency. When we’re comfortable with how we’re living, we’re comfortable with how we’re praying. We’re comfortable on how we are responding to the Lord’s message, thinking we are doing enough. Whether it’s the promise of the Prophet Amos 2,800 years ago or from the lips of the Lord himself, we are being warned against complacency in our spiritual life.
For my friends, it would be a mistake I think, I think, for you and I to imagine the rich man in the gospel as some evil malicious man. Perhaps he was a man who was trying to be good, tried to reach out, but thought he was doing enough, and enough is enough. Perhaps he did not even see Lazarus at his gate, wrapped up in his own comfortable world. Look what happened to him?
I ask you, my friends, today, this is our homework for this week. Do you now, have you ever been, or are you tempted to be – how are you complacent in the spiritual life you have in your relationship with Jesus Christ? If you’re wondering to yourself, Well, how would I know I’m complacent? Allow me to give you some examples.
How many times have you and I sat down to pray, and when it’s over, we don’t even remember what we prayed, or our prayer just becomes a habit in a routine, and we do it day in and day out, and neither our minds or our hearts are moved? How many times have you and I gone to confession, and we say the same thing over and over and over and over again. We have no real desire to ask the question, Why can I not conquer this sin? What is it I need to do more?
How many times have you and I in the season of Lent got to ash Wednesday morning and said, I have to do something for lent. I’ll do what I did last year. It only happens to be the same thing I did the year before and the year before and the year before because we think that’s enough. The list can go on and on and on.
Spiritual complacency, my is a spiritual poison because the Lord will always ask for more. He will never ask for the impossible, never, but He will always gently ask for more. And are we ready to say yes? For if we do not, we can become blind like the rich man in the the gospel who interestingly has no name, for perhaps you and I can put my name to him.
Next week, when we’re together at Mass, I will give you some ideas on how to break complacency. I myself will reflect upon it in my own life. But this much I ask of you today. Before we can explore you and I as sisters and brothers, how to begin to to do more, there’s one question you and I need to ask.
Are you ready to do more? Am I ready to go beyond my complacency wherever I find it? Think about that question this week. Pray about that question because perhaps in our own relationship with Jesus Christ, it is the first and most important question you and I have to answer honestly. For if we’re comfortable being complacent, how can you and I expect a fate different than the rich man whom we have heard today in the gospel?
