Today's Gospel

The Anxiety Epidemic

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant. Where each day we have the privilege to reflect on the Gospels. Remember, Jesus said, so many went before you who wished to see what you saw and hear what you heard. He said that to people when he was alive, you know, and it's true in spades for us, right? How many people would have loved... A thousand years ago, two thousand years ago, five thousand years ago, to reflect on the scriptures, on the gospels. And of course, we go to Mass, we receive Jesus in the Eucharist. How many people, prophets and saints, never even imagined such a thing being possible as receiving the Messiah into ourselves?

Today's reading is from the Gospel of Matthew chapter 6 verses 24 to 34. No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat. What you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and a body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them.

Are you not of more value than they? And which of you, by being anxious, can add one cubit to the span of his life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.

They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of those. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown in the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith? Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear?

For the Gentiles, seek all of these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these shall be yours in addition. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own troubles be sufficient for the day.

You're have your troubles today. I don't know what they're going to be, but you're have them. I have my troubles today. I don't know what they're be, but I'm going to have them. And what is Jesus saying? He's saying, stay present. You're going to have troubles today. Don't worry about your troubles tomorrow or next week or next year. It's interesting Jesus talks about anxiety here and there's such an epidemic of anxiety in our society. Think about myself when I get anxious. I have departed the present moment. Guaranteed. I have departed the present moment. I'm anxious about something that might happen in the future and I'm probably imagining the worst case scenario. You know, as a leader, organization, leader of a family, you do envision worst case scenarios so you can be as prepared as possible for them.

But if I'm getting anxious, I have departed the present moment. I'm in the future or I'm in the past. I'm anxious about something happening in the past and what it means to the present or how it's going to affect my present or how it's going to affect my future.

And God is saying, Jesus is saying in the reading, he's just saying, just come back here to this moment, just one moment, and be present with me.

And let me be present to you. Come back to this moment and let us be present to each other. The other thing that strikes me in the Gospel today is the line: but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things will be yours in addition. There are these parts of the gospel, these lines, phrases, paragraphs in the gospel, they're like mini gospels under themselves.They're like master navigating charts for out there in the world. And this is one of them, right? You get in a situation, you genuinely don't know what to do. That happens. We don't know what to do sometimes. Sometimes we tell ourselves we don't know what or we tell other people we don't know what to do, but we actually do know what to do. We just don't want to know it. And more than that, don't want to do it. But there are situations when we genuinely, we are confused, we're perplexed. We do feel a little lost and we do genuinely not know what to do. And this is one of those mini gospels for moments like that. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. All the other stuff takes care of itself.

And so, when we get in those situations, we don't know what to do, we've got to ask ourselves: if I'm seeking first the kingdom of God and God's righteousness, what would I do in this moment? It's amazing the clarity that can emerge. In moments like that from single lines in the scriptures. Seek first the kingdom of God. Let's go out in the world and whatever it is we're going to do today, let's seek first the kingdom of God. And let's ask ourselves different times throughout the day, in different moments, different activities, situations. What am I seeking right now? What is my heart seeking? What is my heart chasing? What is my heart craving? Am I seeking first the kingdom of God? Have a great day. And remember, don't just be yourself. Be the very best-version-of-yourself, all that God created you to be.