March 2, 2014

8^th Sun in Ordinary Time A

Isaiah 49:14-15; 1 Corinthians 4:1-5; Matthew 6:24-34
Lent is coming, Ash Wednesday is this week. So I’m looking at the readings and reflecting on what will I do this Lent? Maybe the question should be more directed as to where is the Lord leading me...what is He telling me...how can I be more in tune with the Lord, His presence in my life and the love and care that He has for me every moment? I find it so much easier to have the Lord lead me versus my ‘doing’ during this holy season. I look at the readings with this in mind.
Isaiah 49 has been one of the most beautiful passages in my life. Too often than not I have felt down in the dumps: why is this happening to me...where will relief come...I can’t seem to locate God...I feel abandoned and lost...I’m loaded with the ‘poor me’s’...and I’m not a very nice person to be around...God can you help me? And Isaiah speaks these wonderful words, “Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you.” A little background: the people were discouraged and depressed. Their kingdom had collapsed and now they are fugitives and exiles far from home...what did they do to deserve this? Some had returned home and had witnessed the destruction and mess and were disheartened. Why did this happen? I have asked the same question...the people were lacking in hope, I know the feeling. They were crying out to God and where is He? Isaiah responds with beautiful female imagery for God, one of the few examples of this in the Bible. Patricia Datchuck Sanchez in The Word We Celebrate says this: “For the first nine months of human life, in the intimacy of an intrauterine environment, a bond is forged between mother and child—a bond that grows and deepens at birth, a bond that will be tried and tested as the years pass, a bond that ideally is never weakened or broken. When Deutero-Isaiah undertook his mission of bringing comfort to an exiled Israel, he relied on that universal human experience of a mother’s love in order to illustrate God’s fidelity and care for His people.” So why am I worried...no matter how strong the love of a mother is, God’s love is even stronger. God’s love for me and each person has no limits. So I am to come to God with my hurts and pains and let His love do all that is needed and more so.
Now the Corinthian community felt that their apostolic leaders were special people who had a special mystical knowledge (gnosis) that they shared with others. Paul is saying that the leaders are nothing special in themselves, they are servants, they have been entrusted with God’s world and are gifted by God and they are to share what they have been given. God is the judge of the motives of each person. So what I must do is just be Jesus...I do not have to worry, just trust in the graces that God gives and know He is leading me to Him through the sharing of these gifts. So I have to realize that I don’t have to worry about the opinions of others, it is all about God and how I am allowing God to work through me to be closer to Him.
Jesus is helping me in the Gospel to rely on His graces. Padre Pio summarizes it perfectly saying, “Pray, hope and don’t worry! Worry is useless. God is merciful and will hear our prayer.” At first the passage seems to imply that the fundamental needs that all people have for food, drink and clothing should not be viewed as important; but that is not what Jesus is saying. Rather Jesus is referring to the anxiety and worry that people have about these things. How true this is in my life, I spend a lot of time in worrying about the many things that I cannot control. This brings anxiety which leads to not trusting in God. This does not mean that I am to spend my day doing nothing, but that I should address the problems, difficulties and challenges each day as they come. I have to trust that God’s care for me will provide what I really need for my life. I have to spend time in reflecting on this each evening...God does care...and I have to reflect and be grateful.
Alice Camille in Exploring the Sunday Readings gives a wonderful reflection:
“Normally when I’m anxious about something, I don’t have the time or patience to take lessons from a flower. I’m in no mood to watch the birds either. But maybe I should. Birds manage to get a lot done in a day without surrendering a minute to the fretting that I do. They forage for food, work on their nests, and call for their mates. They fly all over the neighborhood, exhausting every bit of energy they have getting the day’s work done. They know when it’s time to gather with the community and when to get out of town, too. And they still take time to sit for a while and sing songs that are not mating calls, that are apparently just for fun. They don’t worry about life. They just live it. They take care of many of the details, and the rest take care of themselves. That’s faith.” Then she adds, “Name five things you can learn from a flower that would nourish you own life.”
I have found that it is my prayer life that has helped me in trusting. Reading the Daily Office and the Psalms helps me to organize my priorities and to look at each of those things that bring me worry and to bring to mind that God is in control. God helps me take care of today and tomorrow isn’t here yet. So I ask much more now, ‘Lord I need You to help me with this...today.’ And He does. So I reflect on:

• What material needs do I worry about the most? What things am I not doing because of those worries?
  
• How does the image of a mothers’ love for her child help me to understand God’s love better?
  
• Someone once said, ‘You can tell the size of your God by looking at the size of your worry list. The longer your list, the smaller your God.”
  
• LENT is a journey with Jesus. In going on a trip, I have to make all the necessary preparations.
  
• In the Eucharistic acclamation we proclaim together, “Dying You destroyed our death, rising You restored our life” and “By your cross and resurrection You have set us free; You are the Savior of the world.” Is this at the heart of my Lenten daily life?
  

Sacred Space 2014 shares:

“Jesus shows us that worry undermines faith. I bring my worries before God. I ask for help to bring them into a truer perspective.

As a consumer, I may allow my values to be set by others. I review my wants and desires and ask God’s help to be happy with the good things that I enjoy, to resist being wistful about what I am told I lack.”