Today’s scriptural lesson has to do with the deepest matters of the heart, and with the things in life that cause us to be concerned. However, in a more important way, the message is about what should concern us the most.
When I was a child growing up, my mother taught me to trust God in everything. I was fortunate to have been brought up by someone whose faith led her to seek understanding of it. She instilled that in me at an early age. She would call me into the kitchen to teach me her lessons of faith when I was just a little more than a five-year-old. She believed that if she taught me, then when I was older I would not depart from it. That was a lesson she learned in scripture. She would often tell me, “Don’t ever be troubled about anything, but always put your trust in God.”
As I looked at today’s readings, the providence of God stood out clear to me. Providence is one of the great themes of Christianity. Perhaps as Catholics we don’t talk about it that much. Providence gets more attention in the mainline Protestant denominations that emphasize the theological framework of John Calvin. However, I’m not really going to talk that much about providence as a theology as I am going to refer to it from the viewpoint of our trusting in God's goodness toward us. A great part of what we learn today is the lesson of trust. The words of scripture seek to reach deep within us, into that spiritual interior of our being, which we refer as “heart.” Not that we should confuse heart with the organ that pumps the blood through our bodies, but to know it as that place of inner depth sought by the mystics. Indeed our lesson is really all about knowing our hearts. It is about knowing the rhythm and beat of our spiritual life.
Whatever things we might say about our relationship with the life that we live, we must say that life always gives something to us. It may seem odd to hear about being in relationship with life. Perhaps we would expect to hear a homily about being in relation to God or other pious concerns. We might expect a preacher to talk about our relationship with Jesus Christ, but in our direct firsthand experience it’s life—plain and simple—that meets us straightforward, and it’s life with which we must deal. We consider all other things secondary to life as we live it.
As we encounter life daily we learn to see our cooperative partnership in it. It is also a partnership with God. It is one in which we always take a role. Do you know that, willingly or not, each one of us always takes the role of a servant? Yes, we always do. I’m reminded of the lyrics of a popular song now close to 30 years ago. The singer sang, “You’ve got to serve somebody. It may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you’ve got to serve somebody.” Jesus tells us in the gospel that no one can serve two masters. You will hate the one and love the other. He puts it plain: you can’t serve God and selfish gain at the same time.
The tone of today’s gospel indicates that we shouldn’t ever worry. God provides all we need. Do you really trust God? If so, then be at ease about things that worry others. Everything is in God’s hands. Even transcending the love that a mother can have for her newborn baby is the love of God. There is never a need to worry for a moment’s time. The reading from Isaiah expresses the matter clearly… “Can a mother forget her nursing child or fail to love the son of her womb? She may forget but I will never forget you. Behold I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. Your walls are always before me.”
Often the anxiety that consumes our lives isn’t about our basic material needs or even our desire for gain of wealth. Often we allow a culture of fear to be part of our world. Too often we live and act according to fear rather than according to love. However, all the things that concern us are ultimately in God’s hands. They belong to God’s plan and design.
A part of trusting in God’s providential love is about what we give back to life through our deeds. This is probably the truest meaning of being a servant. Jesus tells us to take no thought for what we will eat or what we will wear. However, does this mean that we are to take no thought for what others will eat, what they will wear, and where they will sleep on this cold night? Does it mean that we are not to be concerned with the clothing of human dignity and the intrinsic worth of every person? If we truly take no thought for our selfish concerns then we will be willing to transfer our efforts—without judgment—to the greatest needs of others wherever we may find them in our world. We may find them to south of us in Venezuela, or perhaps we may look to Eastern Europe or to Central Africa. We place our efforts, our concerns, where there is the greatest human need.
The giving that we discover in life, the unconditional gift of each and every day, of each breath we breathe, of every ray of sun, every cloud above and every drop of rain, and of every human encounter, teaches us to be imitators of that same giving. In the complete letting go of ambition and self-concern and in the giving of ourselves for others, we discover the innermost heart of the servant, and in this we discover what it truly means to be at rest. In this we learn to answer a universal concern.
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