Word to the Wise
Saturday, June 22, 2024 - Saturday in the 11th Week in Ordinary Time
[2 Chr 24:17-25 and Matt 6:24-34]"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]
These words from the Sermon on the Mount are among the most difficult for me to live with. Yes, I do worry about "tomorrow," even though, as a friend of mine once told me, "Nobody is guaranteed a tomorrow!" Living in the present and leaving the rest to God is a challenge!
Jesus asks us to consider the birds of the sky and the wild flowers and how God cares for them. Are we not more important than they? Don't they have to "worry" about where their next worm is coming from or a spark causing a grass fire? Well....no! We humans are endowed with the capacity to worry and we do indulge it
Jesus assures us that God knows what we need, but that doesn't mean we just sit still and wait for everything. Total passivity turns out to be rather counter-productive. Wisdom, which comes from God and experience, tells us that even if we worry, we can also decide and cooperate. The combination of trust and action seems to be the wisest course. There is an old Arab proverb: "Trust God and tie up your camel!" Indeed! AMEN