Fourth Sunday of Easter
“I came so that you might have life and have it more abundantly.” Jn. 10:10
Stuff.
The famous comedian, George Carlin, often performed a routine called “Stuff” – referring to all the possessions we accumulate and cling to so dearly. You can watch it for yourself on YouTube.
Here’s some of what he said about “stuff”:
“The whole meaning of life is trying to find a place for our stuff. That’s what your house is – a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get more stuff. You then have to buy a bigger house because you’ve run out of room for all your stuff, and you have to have more space for more stuff.”
Carlin’s point, of course, is how addicted we can become to our possessions. It’s the age-old question:
Do you own your “stuff” or does your “stuff” own you?
In fact, we live surrounded by “stuff.” Everywhere we go, we pass numerous stores, all selling “stuff.” We have storage facilities that provide places to store our “stuff.” Media, from television and Internet to newspapers and magazines, are filled with advertisements creating needs and urging us to buy more “stuff.”
In stark contrast to all this fascination with “stuff,” today’s gospel of John ends with these striking words:
“I came so that you might have life and have it more abundantly.”
But what does Jesus mean by the word “abundantly”?
Surely he’s not referring to the acquisition of more possessions, more gadgets … more “stuff.”
Rather Jesus is really talking about our being open to receiving a gift, a grace. And the gift Jesus offers us is the grace to abandon the passion put into acquiring more and more “stuff” for ourselves, and to instead follow him on the journey that leads to filling the hole in our souls, that hollow place within us that keeps wanting more “stuff.”
Jesus speaks today, and every day, about that way-down-deep emptiness in our lives – an emptiness that all the “stuff” in the world never seems to fill – about our most fundamental need to feel that our lives are ultimately about something far richer and deeper than the “stuff” we crave.
Ultimately, Jesus is speaking about developing an “abundance mentality,” a way of thinking and acting that says: “There is enough for everyone, more than enough food, love … everything.”
An “abundance mentality” is the opposite of a “scarcity mentality” that holds back, refuses to share, and keeps only for ourselves.
When we live in this mind-set, we begin to see the miracle of what we give away multiplying to the point of having plenty left over.
In America today, we are faced with a different kind of abundance than the abundance of “stuff” – the abundance of inequality.
Social service agencies, including food banks and organizations that assist with housing, utilities, and transportation costs report an increasing need for assistance as people who made donations in the past now come seeking aid for themselves! Nearly one in six people in the United States live in poverty.
Globally, the numbers are even more alarming:
Half of all children live in poverty and too many die of easily preventable diseases. Approximately 80% of all people on the planet exist on less than ten dollars a day, and many work in abysmal conditions for almost no pay at all.
“Abundance” is a word most people throughout the world wouldn’t even understand or comprehend.
But we do.
The problem for many of us, however, is that too often we think it refers only to the garnering of more “stuff.” Jesus is teaching us in today’s gospel, and throughout his whole life ministry, that true abundance comes not from what we possess, but from how deeply we love, how generously we share.
Do you own your “stuff” or does your “stuff” own you?
Today Jesus sends each of us an invitation:
Spend less time acquiring more “stuff” and more time developing a mind-set of abundance – an abundance mentality.
“I came so that you might have life and have it more abundantly.”
Ted Wolgamot, Psy.D.
11809194.1
5/4/17
