CEBU, Philippines - "Do not be anxious about your body, what you shall put on"
"Do not be anxious about tomorrow."
Nice words to hear on Sundays. But how do you tell that to the people sleeping on the sidewalks? To the refugees driven from their homes by the wars? How do you tell that to the victims of earthquakes or floods and typhoons?
We have a problem here - not artificial, but terribly real. It is a question of trust in God's love and providence, in His care for the human creature that is created on His image and likeness.
Let us try to face the problem in three stages: 1) have a bit of background, 2) read the Gospel text, 3) look at ourselves. First, the text from Isaiah. Our two verses are part of a dialogue between Yahweh and Jerusalem.
In 587 B.C., Jerusalem had fallen to the Babylonians. City and Temple were destroyed. Thousands of Jews were deported to Babylonia. Yet amidst all these, the Jews remain steadfast in their faith, in their identity as the people of God.
Yet there were days when they feel down. They felt perhaps that God had abandoned them.In the first reading: "Zion [Jerusalem] said: 'The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.' (Isaiah 49:14)"
"Yahweh answered: 'Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the baby of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.' (Isaiah 49: 15)"
This love like a mother's, this love greater than any mother's is followed by another striking image: "Behold, I have carved you on the palms of my hands." (v. 16) A symbol of permanent attachment, a permanent commitment. Jerusalem's wall would be rebuilt; the city would have more people than it could contain; the nation that enslaved her would become her slaves.
Yes, Yahweh does care. He never stops caring, even when His children stops caring.
The Gospel text: What was it saying there? To understand it, you must put it back in context. There are verses before it that give the true and whole meaning to it. All the sayings have a common theme: singleness of purpose.
Stay in focus. If you are a disciple of Jesus, you must fix your eyes only on God, on serving Him; you shall not let yourself be distracted from that.
The first saying (vv. 19-21): Pile up treasures not on earth but in heaven. "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (v. 21) Where you see lasting value, there will your interest lie.
The second saying (vv. 22-23): Your eye must be sound, healthy; that is, your intention simple. This is clarity of vision by which you see true treasure and serve only one master.
The third saying (v. 24): You cannot serve both God and material possessions.
The fourth saying (vv. 25-34) is our passage: no anxious care about food, drink, clothing, about your most basic needs. In this context, what kind of worry is Jesus up against? Not, planning your future. You don't just lie down and wait, "Bahala na," expecting a gourmet chef to deliver your next sumptuous meal.
No, you sweat as profusely as the unbeliever, plan as shrewdly as the pagan. What Jesus is criticizing is the kind of worry that leads to a divided loyalty, leads ultimately to an exclusive concentration on possession - where God takes a back seat in your life and home.
But this does not solve the most perplexing problem in today's Gospel. Jesus seems to be saying that if his disciples focus on him, if they make him the center of their life, they will not want for food drink or clothes. Seek first the kingdom of God, and God will provide the necessities of life. If you walk the way of life God requires of His followers, "all these things shall be yours as well. (v. 33)
The trouble is, God does not seem to provide - at least not always. The thousands who starve or freeze to death each day around the world are hardly all pagans or lukewarm Christians. They include men and women who have fixed their gaze on Jesus, who love God above all else and love their fellowmen as much as they love themselves. They trust in God for a loaf, a scoop of water, a warm jacket - and they do not get it; they die in agony.
This calls for a third point: What does today's Gospel say to you and me? The answer would be simple if Jesus had limited himself to the striking question: "Which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his stature?"
If he had only said, "Don't worry about your basic needs, about food, clothes, and shelter. Why not? Because worrying about them won't do any good. It will merely irritate your ulcers, give you heartburn or migraine." Psychologists would nod in agreement. Unbelievers would see how sensible Jesus is.
I could just say learn positive thinking. But Jesus says more: "Trust in God, make me your only master, and you won't have to worry; you'll get everything you need." And our experience says, "No, not true!" Some get what they need and some don't; you cannot guarantee it.
So where does that leave us? Did Jesus know what he was talking about? There is much mystery here. How can it not be when we are speaking of God, of His providence, of evil?
Perhaps one way of looking at the Gospel is to move back more than 21 centuries, to the social situation of the early Christians. In the early days of Christianity after the death of Jesus, you had relatively small communities, and you had people who cared. Not that they never argued. Most were conscious of their being community, the Body of the risen Christ.
And those who lived the Christian life, those who put all their trust in God, did experience what Jesus promised. They had enough to eat, to drink; they had clothes on their backs. The community saw to that. "There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of what they sold and laid it at the apostles' feet; and distribution was made to each as any had need." (Acts 4: 34-35)
Jesus was not laying the whole burden on his Father. In practice, He left that to His people, to the community, to us. So then, when I look on the homeless, the people in need, stop asking question about a God whose providence we fail to understand, whose ways are not our ways, and turn my thoughts to the Christian community that is not really a community unless it cares.
It is not a question of food and clothes. All around us are well-fed people who are empty of hearts, wasting away deep within. All around us are finely dressed men and women who are cold in spirit, icebound in a thousand and one fears, shivering in a dark night of the soul.
And where is the compassionate community, the caring Christian? An email video I received summarizes in practical terms the lesson from today's Gospel: A group of successful professionals decided to get together and visit their old professor. During their visit the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work.
The professor asked if his guests wanted coffee, went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee, and an assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass, and crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, and some exquisite. He told his guests to help themselves to the coffee.
After everyone had a cup of coffee in hand the professor said: "If you noticed - all the nice looking expensive cups have been taken up, leaving the plain and cheap ones.
While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. Be assured that the cup adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it's just more expensive; in some cases even hides what you drink. What all of you really want is coffee, not the cup. But consciously, you went for the best cup. And then you began eyeing each other's cup.
Now consider this - Life is the Coffee. The jobs, money, possession, and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold the coffee. And the types of cup we have do not define nor change the quality of life we live.
Sometimes - by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee. Savor the coffee not the cup! The happiest people don't have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything!
Live simply. Speak kindly. Care generously. The richest person is not the one who has the most - but the one who needs the least. Life is like Coffee.