Saturday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
«Set your heart first on the kingdom and justice of God and all these things will also be given to you»
Fr. Jacques PHILIPPE (Cordes sur Ciel, France)
Today, the Gospel clearly speaks of living the "present moment": not to keep thinking about yesterday, but abandon yourself to God and His mercy. Not to torture about tomorrow, but to entrust it all to His Providence. Saint Therese of the Child Jesus said: «the spirit of self-abandonment is my sole guide – I have no other compass!».
Preoccupation has never solved any problem. What solves problems is self-assurance, faith. Jesus says «If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will He not much more clothe you – you of little faith?» (Mt 6:30).
Life per-se is not too problematic; it is man who is deficient in faith... Existence is not always easy. At times it can be stressful; we frequently feel injured and shocked by what is happening in our life or in that of others. But let us face it with faith and let us try to live, day by day, by trusting God will fulfill His promises. Faith will lead us to salvation.
«Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.» (Mt 6:34). What does that mean? Try, today, to live equitably, according to the logic of the Kingdom, with trust, simplicity, seeking God, with reckless abandon. And God will take care of the rest...
Day by day. It is very important. What so often wear us down are all these comebacks to the past and our fear of the future; whereas, mysteriously, when we just live in the present moment we find strength. What I have to live by today, I have God’s grace to live it. If tomorrow I must cope with more difficult situations, God will increase His grace. God's grace is given every moment, day by day. To live the present moment means to accept weakness: to give up redoing the past or to dominate the future, to be contented by the present.
«Not to be worried about food and drink for yourself. Do not worry about tomorrow»
Today, Jesus tells us: «You cannot at the same time serve God and money» (Mt 6:24). With these words He confronts us with our own uncertainty, which we try to alleviate by leaning on the conviction that we have, not only what we need, but also what we want, which, in turn, leads us into consumism and waste.
«Let the avaricious hear these words; let the Christian who thinks he can serve both Christ and money, hear them too. For, He did not say: he who has riches but he who serves riches; nor he who is enslaved by riches and keeps them like a slave; but he who has cast off the yoke of slavery and distributes his wealth in a lordly manner» (St Jerome).
Today, as in the beatitudes —or in the key passage of the new commandment (Jn 13:34-35)—, the Lord urges us to settle for an unlimited confidence in the Father, who offers Himself to us as the Divine Providence, for our quest for the Kingdom of justice, peace and joy, and for a true simplicity of our soul, that turns round, time and again, «with groans that words cannot express» (Rm 8:26), to the Only One who can fill to the brim our longing for plenitude and eternity. While conscious of the temporality of our existence, through our own self-denial, we must be certain of our desire to follow the Christ.
Seeking God's forgiveness for past sins and throwing away any fears and worries for a future yet to come, Jesus invites us to live the present day, which is the only thing we can be more or less sure of. And this “today” is given to us as our daily bread. «We only own the present, while the hope for the future is uncertain (...). Each day has enough trouble of his own. So why worry about?» (St Gregory of Nyssa).