8th Sunday of Year A (Isaiah 49,14-15; 1 Cor 4,1-5; Matt 6, 24-34: )

                                             DOCTRINE  & FAITH

(Isaiah 49,14-15; 1 Cor 4,1-5; Matt 6, 24-34: 8th  Sunday of Year A)

          The gospel reading of today is the continuation of the Sermon on the Mount, which commenced with the Beatitudes. This is a programmatic discourse that summarises the Gospel, (Goodnews) which Jesus Christ came to  spread in the world. Last Sunday, Jesus told us what our attitude should be towards our neighbour and to what point we should love them. His teaching was strong and demanding as he held that we should love even our enemies and all who hurt us and to pray for them.

           Today, Jesus tells us what our behaviour and attitudes ought to be as regards to the goods of the earth and our sustenance in the future.  Jesus said: Do not worry about what you are to eat or drink, nor what to put on...It is the pagans that are to worry about them. Again: Do not worry about tomorrow. Each day has enough trouble of its own. What is Jesus recommendation on these issues? Is it that we should not be interested, at all, in earthly things? Or, that we should cross our hands and expect everything from Divine Providence? Or, that we have to assume a passive or fatalistic attitude? Certainly, Jesus does not recommend any of the above! What Jesus approves is that we should neither worry, be over anxious, excessively preoccupied over material things nor give priority to material things over spiritual ones. Worries, anxiety, excessive concern for earthly things and the future are attitudes or the state of mind of pagans and those who do not place their confidence in God.

          Why should a Christian, not be worried or anxious over material possession and sustenance in the future? This is because God is a Father to him/her, who always provides all his/her needs and who will never abandon any of his sons or daughters. If God cares for the birds of the air and lilies in the field, he will surely take good care of the Christians, the disciples of Jesus. In the first reading, Isaiah compares God to a mother who would never abandon her child, but goes on to state that even if in any given situation a mother does abandon her child, God will never abandon his own children. If God is there for us and provides for us, what is expected of us then? First of all, commitment, hard work and the spirit of sacrifice are expected from us so that we will be able to work out the things necessary for good living in our life situations, and seek ways to improve our social, economic and political situation? The pursuit of our daily needs and effort to improve our life conditions should be done without worry, anxiety, placing higher value on material things or becoming a slave to them.  In doing all these we should repose great confidence in God, and make ourselves completely over to him with the certainty that when we must have earnestly done our duties, God will come to our aid and will show us the way and means to resolve our problems. Nowadays, there is the temptation to plan and execute programmes leaving no space for God’s Providence. Doing so, we run the risk of not resolving our problems and not coming out of them.

          Our top priority should be to do what Jesus told us in the gospel of today; to seek the righteousness of God, that is to say, to seek to know well God’s ways well, his plans for us well and to confirm our will to his own. And in the context of today’s gospel reading, it means that spiritual goods, absolute and eternal values should take precedence over material and earthly goods. At the end of last Sunday’s gospel, we were confronted with the question whether, by our actions and deeds, we were Christians or pagans. If we love those who love us, we are still on the same level with pagans. At the end of today’s gospel reflection, we ask ourselves the same question: Are we Christians or pagans? If we are so preoccupied and worried about what we eat, or how we dress, if we are over anxious in our quest for material goods, if allow ourselves to be contaminated by the mentality that advocates worshipping wealth and seeking wealth and what it procures at all costs (often times by cheating, fraud, injustice, killing, etc), and if we fail to put God and spiritual values as our top priority, then it should occur to us that we are not yet true Christians, (though baptised) and that we have notably very close relationship with pagans. May we in this Sunday Eucharistic celebration ask the good Lord for the grace not to pursue material goods at the detriment of our spiritual life and the grace to repose full confidence on Divine Providence.+John I. Okoye
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(Picture added by blogger)