May 5, 2012 - Saturday of the Fourth Week of Easter

Acts 13:44-52
Psalm 98:1-4
John 14:7-14


Enough is a splendid idea. We humans seem to have limitless greed, desires for every good thing which are never satisfied. This excessive desire is the center of all religions. It is this desire that proves to us that we are not merely animals. Give food and companionship to a dog, and it is perfectly happy. Give a human food and companionship, and they will write poems about unanswered desires.

Philip makes an unreasonable demand of Jesus: “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” The demand is unreasonable because no one has ever seen the Father, except the Son. The Son, Jesus Christ, is the revelation of the Father. It is impossible for us to see the Father except through the Son. Philip is right though: God is enough. Furthermore, nothing else in the universe is ever going to be enough.

The world believes that the answer to our unlimited desires is an unlimited amount of satisfaction. We know that this is false because when we look at the very rich who can afford to have every satisfaction, they do not come across as a perfectly happy demographic. Certain Eastern religions say that the answer is to destroy the desire, that the perfectly happy person is the one who has learned to appreciate what they have and not want any more.

Christianity, however, rejects both of these extremes and insists on another answer. Christianity tells us that there is an infinite answer to our unlimited desire. If we want to have enough, we should forget about all these insufficient satisfactions and turn to God. We should not moderate our desires but realize that what we have really been wanting all along is God.

Earth is earth and not heaven. It cannot satisfy our desire. Our desire for happiness is so strong, because our happiness someday will be equal to that desire. It is possible to have enough here on earth, so long as we remember what it is that we truly want, so long as we know why it is never enough.