What is your “enough”?
Ignatius of Loyola taught Christians to pray these lines daily:
“You have given all things to me … to you Lord I return them. Give me only your love and your grace. That is enough for me.”
Ignatius believed that we thrive spiritually when we grow to the point that God, alone, is enough. Even if all is stripped from our hands, as long as we hold God, we hold enough.
This was David’s conviction in Ps. 63:
“O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in your sanctuary and gazed upon your power and glory. Your unfailing love is better than life itself; how I praise you! I will praise you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer. You satisfy me more than the richest feast. I will praise you with songs of joy.” (Ps. 63:1-5 NLT)
David trusted that even if life felt like a desert and all else had been removed, God was enough—better than life itself. As long as he had God, he would be satisfied as with the richest feast.
This is the subject of the 6th rung of Benedict’s 12 rungs of humility:
“The sixth degree of humility is, when a monk is content with the meanest and worst of everything”
Benedict believed that the key to flourishing in life was to learn contentment. To learn that God was enough. To know that even if all you have is the meanest and worst of everything, you still have it all if you have God.
Humility, for Benedict, ultimately had to do with the way we treat others. And here’s why contentment matters–the more we are genuinely content with what we do have, the less we will use and abuse other people to gain what we do not have. The more I make God my end, the less likely I am to treat others as the means to my ends. If God is all I truly need, I will not devour, destroy or decimate others to get what I need.
Discontentment is the root of all discrimination. Racism, classism, sexism, ageism, gaycism and all other forms of bigotry grow out of discontentment. They are the striving after what we feel we do not have enough of and will not be happy until we get more of–power, position and prestige. But when we are deeply satisfied by God alone, no longer seeking anything else, we are free to treat all humans not as means to any end, but as ends in themselves. We are free to give ourselves to them generously and lovingly. When my cup is already full, I don’t demand to drink from the cups of others. I can, instead, share the overflowing bounty of my own cup with them.
What is your “enough”? And how is your answer to that question affecting the way you treat others?
