Matthew 6:24-34

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Psalm 34:8-9, 10-11, 12-13

Matthew 6:24-34

Jesus said to his disciples:

“No one can serve two masters.

He will either hate one and love the other,

or be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and mammon.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life,

what you will eat or drink,

or about your body, what you will wear.

Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds in the sky;

they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns,

yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Are not you more important than they?

Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?

Why are you anxious about clothes?

Learn from the way the wild flowers grow.

They do not work or spin.

But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor

was clothed like one of them.

If God so clothes the grass of the field,

which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow,

will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?

So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’

or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear?’

All these things the pagans seek.

Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

But seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness,

and all these things will be given you besides.

Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself.

Sufficient for a day is its own evil.”

Opening Prayer: Lord God, my heavenly Father, you know what I need even before I ask you. You provide me with earthly food and drink and with heavenly food and drink. You clothe me with the robe of righteousness and shelter me under your wing. Help me to trust in you more fully each day and abandon myself to your loving care.

Encountering the Word of God

1. Pleasure and Possessions? In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus hints at the question of the meaning of life. He asks his listeners, “Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?” In this way, he eliminates two responses to the question about the meaning of life. In Ecclesiastes, the author pondered whether pleasure could satisfy us (Ecclesiastes 2:1-11) or whether working for possessions was what life was about (Ecclesiastes 2:18-26). Both are judged as vanity. Solomon, in Ecclesiastes, finds these approaches to life to be hebel, meaningless, because all men die and whatever temporal goods they gained – pleasures or possessions - is ultimately for naught, for it all passes away (see Bergsma and Pitre, A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament, 625). Like Solomon of old, Jesus, the New Solomon, reiterates that life is much more than the pleasure of food or the vanity of possessions.

2. Fame? In the Gospel passage, Jesus does not directly address whether or not human glory or fame, or our legacy, is the meaning of life. This is an interesting possibility. Maybe the meaning of life is to prolong our lives through fame, celebrity, human glory, or some other achievement? While our physical life is short, almost always under 120 years, we can prolong it by doing something noteworthy. But even this is short-lived. You could win an Olympic gold medal and be forgotten in a few years. Mark Spitz won 7 gold medals and set 7 world records at the Munich Summer Olympics in 1972, and most young people today have no clue who he is or was. This means that you can win 7 gold medals in a single Olympiad and yet be largely forgotten within two generations. Earthly fame, here today and gone tomorrow, does not last and cannot be the ultimate meaning of life.

3. Love? In his Sermon, Jesus does hint at the answer to the question about the meaning of life: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.” What does it mean to seek the Kingdom of God and God’s righteousness? Seeking the Kingdom of God means seeking to have God reign in our hearts, our families, our community, and our world. It means that the decades of earthly life we have been given are marked by a task: building up the Kingdom of God’s love. We do this by loving God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves. We love God through humbly praying, worshipping him, heeding his word and commands, and serving our brothers and sisters. When we die, we will see our beloved face to face. Death, then, is not the end of life, but rather the mysterious doorway to the glory of eternal life. Earthly life has meaning in the light of heavenly life. It is a journey through the wilderness to the waters of eternal life. It is a struggle up the mountain into God’s glorious presence. It is a wandering through the cloud, guided by the Spirit, into the eternal embrace that awaits us.

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, your Word contains examples of sinners who foolishly chose the path to death and of saints who wisely chose the path to life. I choose life today and ask that you guide my steps always.

Living the Word of God: We are to entrust our lives to our heavenly Father, who knows what we need even before we ask him. Our goal is not to amass wealth here on earth but to collaborate with God in the extension of his kingdom of righteousness, peace, joy, and love. God truly reigns in us when we are obedient to his loving will, and, as a good king and Father, he will give us subjects and his children everything they need (our daily bread, forgiveness from sin, perseverance when tested and tempted; deliverance from evil).