Word to the Wise
Saturday, June 18, 2022 - Saturday in the 11th Week in Ordinary Time
[2 Chr 24:17-25 and Matt 6:24-34,442]"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?.......Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil." [Matthew]
w; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil." [Matthew]
Each time I read this part of the Sermon on the Mount, I think of the character from MAD magazine in my college days, Alfred E. Neuman, who appeared in posters and t-shirts with a silly grin on his face and the caption: "What? Me? Worry?" I don't think he helped me to avoid the worry that Jesus speaks about!
This portion of the Sermon on the Mount isn't as dramatic as the teachings on love of enemies and avoiding divorce, but it does touch the everyday "worries" of most people. Some people do not have clothes to wear, food to eat or a place to shelter! Those are everyday "worries." We who do have food to eat, clothes to wear and a place to shelter can take those things for granted. Most of us are somewhere in between. We have to labor to assure that there is food to eat, clothes to wear and a place to shelter. The challenge implicit in all of this is to ask what relationship any of it has in our consciousness with faith in God's providential care!
St. Augustine is quoted as saying, "Work as if everything depends on you. Pray as if everything depends on God!" Jesus warns us not to forget the second half of that saying! AMEN