Word to the Wise
Saturday, June 22, 2019 - Saturday in the 11th Week in Ordinary Time
[2 Cor 12:1-10 and Matt 6:24-34]"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?....Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil." [Matthew]
JUNE 22 [St. Thomas More, martyr]
I remember well from my undergraduate days the poster of a character from MAD Magazine named Alfred E. Newman. The poster showed a goofy guy with a mindless grin on his face. The caption read, "What, me? Worry?" Perhaps for a very few seconds, my worries would disappear, but only for a very few seconds! I think I find this part of the Sermon on the Mount to be the most difficult. As deeply as I believe in God's providential care, I still do worry. Like many people my age (76), I worry about health (although mine is pretty good for my age). I worry about (and pray for) many family and friends going through various trials and challenges. I share some of the worries I hear others speak of in regard to the toxic political climate of our country, and a more toxic international one. I worry about our Church and its leadership. I worry (in a kind of parental way) about the students whom I have come to know and love here at Texas Tech and how they will navigate the challenges to their faith when they leave the protective womb of a Catholic student community. Yes, I guess I'm a kind of "worry-warrior" - just the sort of thing Jesus is saying I shouldn't be!
Lord knows, I do not have the severe challenges facing those who are trying to migrate to the USA through our southern border, or those in our inner cities who have little hope of a future and do not know where their next meal is coming from. I serve as a spiritual adviser for the St. Vincent de Paul Society here at our parish. The people being served by the society are in terrible circumstances and barely survive. How can I dare to worry about my "little" concerns?
Jesus' challenge about not worrying will be a constant one for me, and I'm sure for others. The one thing I don't have to worry about is whether or not he will help me deal with what I worry about! AMEN