The first reading
for today as well as today’s Gospel contain some of the most comforting words
in Sacred Scripture. The first reading
is taken from the second part of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, often referred
to as Second Isaiah. This section of Isaiah was written while the people of
Judah were exiled in Babylon in the sixth century before Christ. They were forced into slavery. They had no visible means of escaping. They knew that they were being punished for
their sins. But they feared that God had
forgotten them. The prophet tells them,
“Zion said ‘The Lord has forsaken me; the Lord has forgotten me. But can a mother forget her infant, be
without tenderness for the child of her womb?
Even if she should forget, I will never forget you,’ says the Lord.”[1]
There are times
that each of us fears that we have been forgotten. A crisis hits our family or that of a friend,
or we try our best at some task and fail, or we learn that a sickness is far
more serious than we expected. Perhaps a
marriage is in stress or a close friendship falls apart, and we ask, “Where is
God? Has he forsaken me?” The prophet tells us, “God is here. He loves each of us more than we can imagine,
even more than the love of a mother for a newborn.” Do you remember the first time that you held
your baby? You didn’t know you had that
much love in you. God loves each of us
infinitely more than all that.
God loves each
of us, here and now. He is not putting
off his love until tomorrow. He loves us
now. We need to pause for a second and
just think about this: right now God loves me and you with a love deeper than
any of us can fathom. In the most beautiful section of the Sermon on the Mount,
Jesus points out the birds of the sky who are fed by God and the wild flowers
clothed by God, and tells us that if our Heavenly Father cares for them, how
much more does He care for us.
The problem we
face is dealing with anxiety. One aside
here. I am not using the word anxiety in
the clinical, psychological sense. Many
people suffer from anxiety attacks. That
is not what I am referring to when I use the term anxiety. I’m using the term anxiety in its basic
meaning: anxiety is the fear of the unknown.
What will tomorrow bring? Will I
survive the next crisis? Will I get all
the work done that I need to complete to provide for my future and that of my
family? What if this happens? What if that happens? Jesus is telling us to calm down, and trust
in Him. Yes we have to be prudent and
prepare for the future. But fearing the unknown gets us nowhere. It is also a rejection of our trust in God to
care for us. Don’t be anxious, the Lord says.
Tomorrow will bring new joys and new graces. Yes it will have its burdens, but it will
also have the grace to conquer them. When grace is considered the burdens of
tomorrow will be no heavier than those of today. Each day has its own toil, its own cross and
its own joy. And each day of our lives
is watched over by our God who loves us so much. We can only live in the present. We have to put our trust in God. What matters is the here and now.
Tomorrow is not
yet. What matters is today. Our focus
must be on today. Today is the day we
need to love and to grow in holiness through all those little occurrences of
our lives that make up our lives. There
are things we do today which are naturally pleasant. Other things are far less gratifying. But every single event of our day can be a
gem made to shine for God for eternity, a gem polished with supernatural
meaning. Everything we do we do for the Lord. God isn’t just observing us. He loves us.
St. Theresa of the Child Jesus taught that there is no action too small,
too insignificant to serve the Lord.
Even picking up a piece of paper is a prayer to God. That is the reason why the morning offering
is so important for each of us. We get
up and we say, “Lord, I give this day to you.
Whatever happens, Lord, may my actions be a prayer to you.”
When the Lord
tells us not to fear for tomorrow, He is not telling us to be imprudent and not
prepare for the future; nor is He telling us that it is OK to
procrastinate. What the Lord is telling
us is to live each day as if it were the only day in our lives. Each day is the
one that we must fill with love for God.
We cannot let a day slip through our hands. Today will not come around again, ever. God expects us to fill today with acts of
love for Him and for His Presence in others.
My soul rests is
God alone, from whom comes my salvation.
My soul be at rest in God alone, from whom comes my hope. God alone is my rock and my salvation, my
secure height; I shall not fall. Trust
in God al all times, my people! Pour out
your hearts to God our refuge. That is from Psalm 62.
Spiritual
writers call trusting in the Lord holy abandonment. This is the life of the
Christian. This is the life of the man
and woman, boy and girl who loves and who knows that he or she is loved. We put ourselves into God’s hands. We do our best to serve Him. And we trust in Him to care for us today,
tomorrow and for all eternity.
Jesus tells us
today, Your heavenly Father knows all that you need. Seek first the Kingdom of God and His
righteousness, and everything will be given to you besides.
It takes
tremendous courage to be a true follower the Lord, to abandon ourselves to His
Life. But just as a toddler runs into
the outstretched arms of his mother, we leap into the arms of the God who loves
each of us as though we were His only child ■
[1] 8th Sunday of Ordinary Time A,
March 2, 2014. Readings: Isaiah 49:14-15; Responsorial Psalm 62:2-3, 6-7, 8-9;
1 Corinthians 4:1-5; Matthew 6:24-34
