Think of a time that you felt needy. Maybe it was a time that you felt alone or perhaps ignored and unimportant. Aside from the circumstances that you may associate with why or how you came to feel that way, simply stay with that feeling itself. What kind of reaction if any did it elicit from you? Did you want to let people know how you felt or did you prefer to hide it away or perhaps withdraw? The way you may answer that question may depend upon your personality. Now, think of a time that you felt satisfied, full and happy. What was that sensation like? Was it a feeling or state that you wanted to keep to yourself or was it something that you wanted others to see, appreciate, and perhaps experience for themselves?
What are abundance and scarcity really about? Are they only terms that relate to quantities or do they perhaps have more to do with quality? From the standpoint of world economics and the demographics of affluence and poverty, we look at abundance and scarcity within the framework of quantity – some have and some have not and the economy of inequality within this structure actually determines the way in which we perceive and engage our world in relationship to things and people. Sadly, we very often fall prey to considering people as quantifiable “things” rather than fellow relational beings.
What if abundance and scarcity were looked at from the standpoint of quality and indeed dignity? What if these terms have more to do with how we relate to ourselves, our God, our neighbors, our world? Today’s readings seem to be prompting us to consider this very thing. In Paul’s address to the Corinthians (2 Cor 9:6-11), we hear how abundance and scarcity have to do with the source from which they are received or engaged:
“…Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly,
and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
Each must do as already determined, without sadness or compulsion,
for God loves a cheerful giver.
Moreover, God is able to make every grace abundant for you,
so that in all things, always having all you need,
you may have an abundance for every good work.”
The key seems to be the source of our actions, i.e., from where we receive that which impels us to act. If we hoard or withhold in our act of giving or sowing, the only thing that will come of this is scarcity. When we start out thinking and believing that we have little reserves, we feel compelled to withhold some for ourselves, making the little that we do choose to let go of even more meager. On the other hand, when we sense that where our giving is received or coming from is bountiful, then we can give everything, even more than we could imagine.
The difference may be that in the first case we are convinced that we are giving something that belongs to us and coming from us, wherein in the latter case, we realize that we are simply drawing off of an already shared abundance we have received that comes from the divine and limitless reserves of God. It’s the difference between true generosity from an abundant heart that can enrich us in every way, and an almost forced contribution from a defensive heart that can only give from an excess of what it considers a justifiable amount in consideration of the circumstances.
The question comes down to whether we consider our God to be one of scarcity or abundance. The way we see or experience God in our lives is ultimately tied to how we see each other. It’s a matter of relationship. From what source do we draw when we attempt to give of ourselves? If it’s from a reserve that is considered limited in quantity, then when we do give it will always look like and indeed be a gloomy exercise of apparent withholding. Jesus describes what this looks like in today’s Gospel (Mt 6:1-6, 16-18):
“When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.
They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting…
But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,
so that you may not appear to others to be fasting”
Although this Gospel passage seems to be talking about the appearance that we should have when we fast and give to each other, on a deeper level it perhaps has more to do with the source from which we choose to give. Is it the source of an isolated self that counts its ‘goods’ and then begrudgingly releases the ‘excess’ that can be released without upsetting the balance of what is deemed necessary in order to continue to exist in a given fashion? Or is it the source that is not so much outside of oneself, but perhaps deep within oneself – a cavernous treasure of unlimited love and abundance that we have already received and are sharing in? Are we drawing water from a private well that has no flow in and out, or are we flowing water out to others from a great sea of abundance in which we are all swimming?
“…When you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.”
Is Jesus talking here about the great abundance in God – in Christ – as this inner and hidden room? If so, how can it be hidden and kept secret? Abundance will always break forth when it is received as given, or given as received. It seems to be a matter of receiving the Abundance already there – though perhaps hidden in a way – that will allow us to give it away or flow it out! To go a step further, perhaps ‘receiving’ itself is at the very same time ‘giving over’ or ‘flowing out.’ We will inevitably touch each other and sow abundantly, when we give as a receiver of the abundance that is really already here. Many times we have hidden the abundance from ourselves by trying to dam it up in private containers of individualism that only see scarcity and hoarding as the measure of any excess that can be given away.
Another way of looking at this hidden aspect of abundance is to not simply consider it in terms of content. The mysterious hiddenness of abundance is that sense of ‘more’ that is always present, ;which we can never completely name. It defies our ability to grasp it and the very quality of this mysterious ‘more-ness’ is always present flowing out infinitely. We can not necessarily SEE the abundance but can see FROM the abundance – those mysterious eyes of the Divine that hold all together. [I]
Real abundance has no need to put on airs or shows for everyone to see it. In fact, it is not abundance that we see in this case, but rather flagrant excess from a defensive posture of hoarding and exclusion. We mistakenly think that we own abundance as if it was a thing quantifiable, where indeed abundance is the divine quality of the life of God that we have present within us and each other at all times, yet we fail to recognize and receive it.
“You are being enriched in every way for all generosity, which through us produces thanksgiving to God.”
Could it really be the case that the life that we have been given as created in the image of God is first and foremost one of generous abundance and sharing? Is this not the loving life of the Trinity? If so, then Life truly is an invitation to the celebrated reception of, thanksgiving for, and participation in this abundant love, marked by the enrichment of generous giving and receiving, receiving and giving, over and over again.
[i] See Raimon Panikkar’s discussion in Rhythm of Being (Orbis: 2010), p. 288, where he speaks not necessarily in terms of abundance, but describes a sense of our lives and reality as ‘more’ than simply what falls upon our senses and intelligence. He discusses how we are more than ‘isolated singularities’ and that this transcendent aspect of reality is not a privilege but a feature of being. I would venture to call this the divine element present always, the abundance of Life that is always present though perhaps unrecognized or unappreciated.
Peace,
Thomas
(originally published June 21, 2017)