Homily for the week of February 27, 2011

Eight Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2011

Is 49:14-15 • 1 Cor 4:1-5 • Mt 6:24-34

For many years I was assigned by the Bishop to teach at Catholic high schools and colleges. In one of the high schools with which I was associated students organized a few days of prayer each year during the second week of Lent. Students were chosen by students to give some of the talks. One year the choosing of one leader was very controversial. He was a good student and a fabulous football player, but he had been in trouble for drinking on weekends for which he had gotten into serious and public trouble.

The school worked with the boy’s parents to get him into a treatment program for teenage alcoholics. At the completion of the program after nearly a year in the program, the student was readmitted for his senior year. Some parents were not pleased. The young man had created so much upheaval that, even though he was a good player, some members of the football team were also upset. So, to choose him to be a retreat leader was upsetting to many.

The teachers and students listened very closely to this student as he gave his retreat talk. He was amazing. Hiding nothing, he recounted his problems. He spoke of his need to change his life and to seek forgiveness. Then he spoke of the courage he had needed to step back into the school. He related how he had been consumed with worry about how those he had hurt would react to him. He was even worried about his own reaction to other students who no longer wanted him back in school. It was then, he said, that he discovered a truth. It was none of his business what people thought of him. The only way he could defeat his worries and walk back into the school was to trust that this was what God wanted him to do.

The adults and students alike were impressed by his honesty and by the deep truths he had discovered. Worry defeats us. Trust moves us forward. Trust in God makes all good things possible.

In today’s Gospel Jesus moved to the heart of the issue of worry. He preached at a time when almost none of the population had the luxury of thinking about the future. For most people day-to-day survival was all-consuming. Given the terrible poverty, people worried constantly about how they would find enough food, how they would keep their children clothed and how they would manage to stay in their homes. They were preyed upon by corrupt leaders, and their taxes. These all-consuming worries took up time that should have been devoted to praise and thanksgiving. Putting God first had been co-opted by worry. Thus Jesus warned them that misplaced priorities lead to the worst of our worries. What we must find is the willingness and faith to trust God.

About 20 years ago there was a hit song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” which won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year and Record of the Year. The saying “Don’t worry, be happy” is attributed to Meher Baba, an Indian mystic and spiritual master, but it could just as well be derived from Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel. Three times Jesus insists that disciples not worry, whether about life, food or drink, the body or clothing; and he urges reliance on divine providence.

How this instruction is heard and taken to heart depends on one’s financial position. To those who have all they need to eat, drink, wear and sustain their bodily health, Jesus gives a warning not to center their efforts on accumulating more. The Gospel advises those who have enough of life’s necessities not to give in to greedy desires.

But what about those who are struggling just to survive, who truly worry about how they will feed their families? What good is it to voice assurances that God will provide? Trust and God and don’t worry are not much consolation to starving persons. But the key can be found in the words of Jesus “Seek God first, and all these things will be given you besides.”

When our focus is on how and God are relating to one another, those of us who have or more life’s necessities are not concerned about getting more. Rather, we cooperate with God in providing for those in need. Those who are poor can let go of their worries about survival, and those better off can be released from anxiety that derives from enslavement to possessions. These are the kinds of worries that Jesus invites us to let go. It is good when we, who have enough, worry about others who are struggling. Jesus does not say that we should be passive in the face of genuine need, simply tossing off a happy-go-lucky assurance that God will provide.

The help God provides is like that of a mother who could never forget her infant, as Isaiah mentions in our first reading. Likewise, the Jesus speaks of God making motherly provision by feeding and clothing not only her human children but wild flowers and birds and grasses of the field. Since God is both fatherly provider, who sows and reaps, and motherly caregiver, who feeds and clothes, all that has come forth from God is tenderly cared for before their needs are even voiced. As children of the Creator, we too, must let go of worry and trust God who wills true happiness for all. At this Mass, and this week, talk to God about your worries. Listen carefully. What response do you hear God giving you?