The tragedy of the building collapse in Florida has dominated the news for the past weeks. Dozens of people dead and dozens more missing. Your heart goes out to the families who are lingering in the limbo of hope and despair. One mother’s comment about the efforts of the first responders to a reporter was particularly poignant: “I know they are doing all they can but it is not enough.” Isn’t that the human condition in a nut shell? Even when we are doing all we can it is not enough. Whatever the politicians are doing to heal the racism in our national soul is not enough. Whatever the police chief, state’s attorney and mayor are doing to end the violence in our city is not enough. Whatever the health officials are doing to convince everyone to get vaccinated is not enough. On a more personal level, how many have found that even the love they had for their spouse was not enough to keep their marriage together. Are we condemned, therefore, to perpetual frustration because nothing is ever enough for us to have the peace and joy and happiness that we yearn for?
… which lead to the Gospel, which leads to Jesus. Jesus came into the world to show that while our human efforts will never be enough, God is willing and able to give us enough and more than enough. The God who spangled the sky with a billion, trillion stars (that’s one followed by twenty-one zeros), who created 10,000 different species of beetles (God must really like beetles), who made sure that there was 150 gallons of wine at the wedding feast of Cana (some party!) that God knows how to make sure that there is more than enough. That awareness of God’s fullness is what lies behind Jesus’ announcement that “the kingdom of God is at hand.” That is the good news, the gospel – God showers abundant blessings upon us in our here and now. Jesus sent out the Twelve Apostles to spread the message that God alone is able to fill us with what we need. But did you notice how the apostles went about spreading that message? St. Mark tells us “They went off and preached repentance.” They preached repentance? If you look up “repentance” in the dictionary the synonyms are “regret, sorrow, shame, contrition.” Repentance is what the apostles preached to announce the good news of God? My nerd moment: the Gospel was written in Greek and the Greek word that is translated “repentance” has as its root “metanoia.” That word is made up of two other words – “meta” meaning change and “noia” meaning mind. So a better translation would be “They went off and preached a change of mind.” The kind of change of mind the Bible refers to here is not like going to McDonalds and saying “I’ve changed my mind and I’ll have the salad instead of the fries” – as if that would ever happen. No, the change of mind implies a whole new way of seeing things, a different kind of thinking, a transformation of the imagination. Metanoia is like Dorothy going from the black and white of Kansas to the technicolor of Oz. It’s like finally figuring out how to work the Rubik’s cube. It’s like a slow motion view of all the twists and spins and turns and flips that Simone Biles does in a vault. Metanoia is when things finally click and we say, “Now I get it.” A better translation for metanoia instead of repentance would be conversion, change. So we should read: the apostles preached that if we want to receive the enough and more than enough of God we have to change.
Digging into the gospel text gives us some suggestions on the kind of changes, the kind of conversion that we will need. First of all, did you notice that Jesus sent the twelve, the apostles, out “two by two.” It wouldn’t be the Lone Ranger who brings the good news of God’s super-abundant love but a pair, a group, a community. Of course by sending out the apostles two-by-two he was providing them with a built in support system, an assurance that someone would have their back, that they would be able to encourage each other. In addition, I suspect another reason that Jesus sent them out in pairs – since they were together, they would have to learn to forgive and be forgiven. Even for apostles sent on a divine mission there will be the giving and taking of wounds. It is inevitable in human interaction; hence, forgiveness in part of the package. The change, the conversion that will shower us with divine blessings happens when we are like those paired apostles in working to build community both in supporting one another and forgiving one another.
Another suggested conversion moment in the gospel comes when Jesus instructed the twelve to “take nothing for the journey – no food, no sack, no money.” Our Lord wanted the apostles to understand that you don’t need lots of stuff in order to have enough. As a matter of fact, the more stuff you have the more stuff you need. You can never have enough stuff. One billion is not enough. I want two billion. My Acura isn’t enough. I want a Rolls-Royce. My house isn’t enough. I want a mansion. For some reason no matter what they have human beings want more. We never have enough. The change that is called for: Jesus told the apostles be content with what you have – your walking stick and your sandals — and you’ll find you have enough to live a full and happy life. So with us.
But change, conversion is hard. We get used to a certain way of thinking, a certain way of acting. Getting out of even a painful rut takes prayer and effort. One of the great saints, Teresa of Avila, proposed a prayer that we might adopt to help in our own conversion. It goes like this: Let nothing disturb you, Let nothing frighten you, All things are passing away: God never changes. Patience obtains all things. Whoever has God lacks nothing; God alone suffices.
