"Stop worrying about tomorrow!"

“Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap.” (Lk 6:26)

“Stop worrying about tomorrow!”
February 27, 2011, 8th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Isaiah 49:14-16 1 Corinthians 4:1-5 Matthew 6:25-34

First reading from Isaiah

But the people of Jerusalem said, “The Lord has abandoned us! He has forgotten us.” So the Lord answers, “Can a mother forget her baby and not love the child she bore? Even if a mother should forget her child, I will never forget you. Jerusalem, I can never forget you! I have written your name on the palms of hands.”

The Word of God
Thanks be to God

Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew
Glory to you, Lord

Jesus said to his disciples: “No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other.You cannot serve God and mammon. “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? Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span? Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin, yet, I tell you, that not even King Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them. If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?

So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear?’ All these things the pagans seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides. So stop worrying about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Live one day at a time.”

The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

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Introduction
Reverend reserve

The Sermon on the Mount continues in today’s gospel. In these days of economic hardship, when people are worrying about food, fuel, rent, doctor-bills, medications, car-payments, etc. Jesus’ injunction to stop worrying is greeted with a bit of reverent reserve.

Rich fool

In Luke this passage about the birds in the sky and the lilies of the field is preceded by Jesus’ Parable of the Rich Fool who had a bountiful harvest and didn’t know where to store it all. He decided to build bigger barns and bins to store his stuff. Then he planned to settle down to an old age filled with abundance. But God said to him, “You fool, this very night you will have to give up your life; then to whom will all your piled-up wealth go?” This is what happens, Jesus says, to a so-called `rational’ creature who hoards things for himself and is not rich in the eyes of God.” (Lk 12: 13-21)

Then Jesus moves on to other side of the spectrum—to God’s `irrational’ creatures who do not bank on bountiful bins but on the Father in heaven. He points to the birds of the air who do not sow, reap and gather into barns, but are fed by the heavenly Father. He points to the lilies of the field who neither toil nor spin, but are more splendidly robed than King Solomon himself. Then Jesus comes to His bottom line: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides. So stop worrying about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Live one day at a time.”

Feeling like a fool

“Nice gospel,” said one preacher, “but I don’t like it! It’s embarrassing. In this capitalistic society of ours I feel like a fool telling some father in the congregation to stop worrying about food, fuel, rent, doctor-bills, medications, car-payments, etc.” In the present state of the economy where unemployment hovers close to 10% (and we or someone we know are part of that statistic) we, too, feel foolish telling people to “Stop worrying! Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be given you besides.”

A friend, who feels a bit guilty about lack of trust in the heavenly Father, writes,

It seems there have always been a few people who don’t mind feeling like a fool. There have always been a few people, some of them canonized and some not, who have taken the Lord’s words literally, at their undiluted face value. St. Francis of Assisi was one of them. To these few fools is contrasted the `rational’ majority: that's you and me (our name is legion). We go about interpreting the Sermon on the Mount about birds of the sky and the lilies of the field in such a way that there is not much to get excited about!

`Rational’ Anna

Anna was part of that `rational’ majority who worry about tomorrow. She was a spinster, and hairdresser by trade. She was also German by nationality, and that tells us something about her temperament. She put her nose to the grind, worked hard and was very thrifty. She didn't grossly deprive herself but neither did she live it up. With religious regularity she deposited all her bucks in bins called banks. I never saw her bankbook, but I suspect she had amassed a good 100,000 dollars. In those days that represented a mighty mountain of work and thrift over the years. But alas! One day the circulation in her foot stopped, gangrene set in, her leg was amputated, and she was carried off to a nursing home where she eventually died.

To whom did all her piled-up wealth go? It went to the nursing home industry, which ate up much of her life-long savings in a very short time. What was left went to her well-off nephew. There was something sadly foolish about this dear `rational’ creature. She didn’t want to be foolish, but society made her so. In today’s gospel this `rational’ creature is contrasted by `irrational’ creatures like the birds of the sky, who do not toil and gather into bins, but are taken care of by the Father in heaven.

A friend ambushed by angst

A friend writes,

Have you ever awakened in the middle of the night with the thought that somethingbad was going to happen? This week I had one of those attacks. I was in the middle of an ordinary week of teacher training, grocery shopping, laundry, and parenting our two sons. Blame it on the drizzle outside, but suddenly small worries in every facet of my life (in the parenting, professional, and financial departments) rose together and came crashing down on me in a big wave of anxiety about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday.

My faith gives me a way to cope when such angst ambushes me: prayer. My worries arise when I begin to imagine that I am the one in control. Praying my rosary calms me down and reminds me that the heavenly Father, and not I, is the master of my universe and the captain of my ship. When I awoke in the middle of the night I was seized with panic. My rosary was outside in the family van, hanging from the rear view mirror. To calm myself down I started to pray the decades of the rosary, counting off the Hail Mary-s on my fingers. Before long I had calmed down and fallen back to sleep. Not only prayer but also Scripture helps me cope when angst ambushes me. I turn particularly to those wonderful words of Jesus who bids me, “Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they?“

“Shut-up” to self-talk

We want to obey Jesus who commands us to stop worrying about what are we to eat or drink or wear. We want to obey His command not to worry about tomorrow, but we just can't do it. We tell ourselves to stop worrying about food, fuel, rent, taxes, doctor-bills, etc. Over and over again we say to ourselves, "Don't worry! Don't worry! Don't worry! Don't worry! ” But it doesn’t work. Worrying involves a great deal of `self-talk.’ At the end of the day, controlling our worrying requires that we command our `self-talk’ to `Shut-up!” “This may sound too easy,” writes one psychiatrist, “but it really works!”

Conclusion
Called to worry and not to worry

The gospel does not challenge us to choose between worrying and not worrying. Rather, it calls us to both: to worry as responsible people when there's something we can and must do, and then not to worry but to trust the Father in heaven, when there's nothing we can do. The gospel challenges us to worry, as `rational’ Anna worried, and at the same time not to worry, as `irrational’ Francis of Assisi (like the birds of the sky) did not worry. The gospel bids us to keep one eye focused on our barns and bins, and the other eye peeled upon the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. That’s the only sure, sane and safe way to live. For at the end of the day, sooner or later there comes a time in all our lives when the barns and bins dry up on us, and we are reduced to birds of the sky and lilies of the field with only the Father in heaven to bank on.