Do Not Worry About Tomorrow! – the Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time –Year A

My Sisters and Brothers:

     The lessons of today’s Scriptures speak of God’s great love and care for his children; they also challenge his followers to trust God will always provide for their needs, and will never abandon them.  The faithful are told “not to worry about tomorrow.”

     In the first reading, Isaiah compared God’s love to the great love a mother would have for her child, and he said it was even greater than that. He therefore proclaimed God would never forget his own. Isaiah’s words were meant to give comfort and consolation to people in distress, and were focused on themes of God’s love, forgiveness of sins, and liberation. Of course, these ideas were very powerful when later reinterpreted by followers of Jesus. This is why I believe they serve to frame well today’s Gospel admonitions emphasizing the need for complete trust in an ever-caring God. And this is precisely why Jesus instructed his disciples “not to worry about their lives, to trust God would provide for their basic needs, to seek the kingdom of God and righteousness, and not to worry about tomorrow” (cf. Matthew 6:24-34). These Scriptures revealed a God who loved and cared for his children more than they could have ever possibly imagined! And they challenged them to respond accordingly.

     But what about reality?  While we may long to hear the message of today’s Scriptures, I’m sure all of us can think of affairs and events in our lives that have “brought us down with worries.”  Who among us hasn’t had a difficult moment, a hard day, a challenging situation, a frightening health issue, a draining financial setback, a conflicting relationship, and/or a prolonged drudgery of one sort or another?  Regarding such things, and the worries they’ve caused, most of us can probably remember feeling “at our wits’ end” as we tried to figure out “what to do next” in order to resolve these various kinds of problems and struggles.  That’s certainly been my experience!  And so we may ask: “How can I reconcile these Scriptural teachings with my actual lived experience in this world?”  I suppose this is exactly why the lessons of today’s Scriptures are so pertinent, and why they are worth our careful consideration and attention.

     Isaiah’s words were meant to bring consolation to people otherwise on the brink of losing hope.  “Zion,” the “Chosen People,” had been exiled to a foreign land, and because they had been held captive and had suffered so much, they were tempted to believe God no longer loved them, and had completely abandoned them.  They feared they would be forever punished and never permitted to return home.  It was from this perspective that “Zion” had cried out “the Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me” (see Isaiah 49:14).

     In response to “Zion’s” lament, and with full confidence in God’s never-ending love and desire to protect his own, Isaiah posed an obvious rhetorical question when he asked: “Can a mother forget her infant, or be without tenderness for the child of her womb?” (see verse 15).  Anyone contemplating this question certainly would have known healthy and loving mothers would never abandon their children; such would have been unthinkable because a mother’s love was thought to be perfect and all consuming!  And so by comparison, the people of Zion were encouraged to believe God’s love for them was even greater than love mothers have for their own children.  In other words, God’s love was a type of almost inexplicable “love beyond love.”  And so Isaiah’s words “even should she forget, I will never forget you” were understood to be purely superlative, and were very demonstrative of God’s limitless love for his people.

     Jesus offered nearly the same message when he said “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?”  Jesus didn’t tell his followers they wouldn’t have to live responsible lives, or that they wouldn’t need to labor to better their own lives, and the lives of others.  After all, this was the same Jesus who said “whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (see Matthew 24:16).  He made it clear “discipleship” would often come at a great cost, and it would indeed involve difficulties and challenges along the way.  But Jesus also promised his followers final victory over any affairs and/or events that might have “brought them down” at any one moment or another.  He wanted his disciples to trust God would never abandon them.   And this is exactly the same reason Isaiah had proclaimed “even if a mother could forget her child, God would never forget his faithful ones.”

     And so my friends, let’s trust this same God will also love and care for us more than we can ever possibly imagine!  And let’s respond accordingly by the manner in which we live our lives.  And really, let’s not worry about tomorrow; with God’s help, let’s truly believe tomorrow will take care of itself.

Praise God!  Friar Timothy

 

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