Mt 6:24–34
No one can serve two masters; for he will either hate one and love the other, or he will be loyal to the first and look down on the second. You cannot at the same time serve God and money.
Therefore I tell you not to be worried about food and drink for yourself, or about clothes for your body. Is not life more important than food, and is not the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow, they do not harvest and do not store food in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not less worthy than they are?
Can any of you add a day to your life by worrying about it? Why are you so worried about your clothes? Look at how the flowers in the fields grow. They do not toil or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these. If God so clothes the grass in the field, which blooms today and is to be burned in an oven tomorrow, how much more will he clothe you? What little faith you have!
Do not worry and say: What are we going to eat? What are we going to drink? or: What shall we wear? The pagans busy themselves with such things; but your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. Set your heart first on the kingdom and justice of God, and all these things will also be given to you. Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
REFLECTION
The lyrics of the opera Nabucco was by Temistocle Solera and music was by Giuseppe Verdi. The latter’s last name signifies the re-unification of Lombardy and an acronym for Vittorio Emmanuele Re d’Italia, King of Italy. After a day of forced labor and resting by the Euphrates River, the Israelites long for their freedom, for their land where there are gentle breezes. They wondered whether Yahweh had abandoned them. Zechariah encouraged them not to worry, but trust in God.
Mystics had also their worries and doubts. Mother Teresa of Calcutta confided in her letters “… just that terrible pain of loss, of God not wanting me, of God not being God, of God not really existing.” For her God seemed oblivious of her sufferings for “the poorest of the poor.”
Humans are no exception with regard to worries. People worry about money, job, health and family. Jesus also was terribly worried at Gethsemane to the point that he suffered “hematidrosis” (sweating blood). At Calvary, he asked “My Lord, why have you forsaken me.” In the end, he died with absolute faith in God. Jesus is the Emmanuel, God-with-his-people. He never abandons us, even if we abandon him.
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