A Divine Worldview Of Enough And More Than Enough

[note: Today’s guest blog is writen by Brigit Hurley. Brigit Hurley is a member of Spiritus Christi and coordinates policy and advocacy at The Children’s Agenda. She and her husband Jeff live in Scottsville and have four adult children and one grandchild. In addition Brigit has been part of the team from Spiritus working with The Children’s Agenda over the past few years. Thank you Brigit for this contribution!]

My friends Michael and Catherine volunteer regularly at Annunciation House (AH), a shelter on the border between El Paso, TX and Juarez, Mexico. AH provides food, shelter and other support to migrants and asylum-seekers who have crossed the border. It has been offering hospitality for nearly 50 years, through changes in U.S. leadership and border policies and regardless of the legal status of their guests. Michael and Catherine were there on February 7th when Texas authorities arrived with the news that the state Attorney General is accusing AH of human smuggling and facilitating illegal entry into the United States. Though local officials and Catholic Charities – and even Border Patrol at times – have coordinated with AH, the state of Texas has decided their hospitality violates the law.

When I reflect on today’s readings about God’s laws, I can’t help but think of the hundreds of thousands of “undocumented” people who have received a warm welcome from AH volunteers after months of dangerous travel toward the U.S. border. AH sees them as humans with inherent dignity and worth. Others – including some Christian leaders – don’t believe they have the right to live in America, to have a chance to escape violence and persecution. They are a threat to Americans’ lifestyle.

The notion that people should be treated differently based on which side of the border they are born on comes from an attitude of fear and scarcity. If you get more, I’ll have less. Less stuff, less power, less freedom. Richard Rohr says “As long as you operate inside any scarcity model, there will never be enough God or grace to go around.  Jesus came to undo our notions of scarcity and tip us over into a worldview of absolute abundance- or what he would call the “Kingdom of God.”  The Gospel reveals a divine worldview of enough and more than enough.  Our word for this undeserved abundance is “grace”: “Give and there will be gifts for you: full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, and poured into your lap (Luke 6:38).  It is a major mental and heart conversion to move from a scarcity model to an abundance model.”

In the Gospel reading, Jesus declares that he is the fulfillment of the Prophets and the Law. But this passage follows the Sermon on the Mount, where it appears that Jesus is rejecting the rigid laws followed by the Pharisees. Clarity comes a few chapters later, when Jesus is asked by the Pharisee, an expert in the law, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” and Jesus responds “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Jesus is not rejecting as much as redefining God’s law.  It’s not a list of boxes we can check off. He asks us to put it all on the line – our heart, soul and mind – just as he did. In return, we are promised abundant life. In his 2024 Lenten message, Pope Francis describes God’s law as “a thoroughfare to freedom”. He writes, “we call them ‘commandments’, in order to emphasize the strength of the love by which God shapes [God’s] people”. He reminds us of the greatest commandments – “Love of God and love of neighbor are one love. Not to have other gods is to pause in the presence of God beside the flesh of our neighbor.”

This is what Annunciation House does – it pauses in the presence of neighbors. Perhaps this Lent we could ask for the grace to do the same.