Deacon Tom Anthony

Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 82

Reading 1 Is 49:14-15

Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me;
my LORD has forgotten me."
Can a mother forget her infant,
be without tenderness for the child of her womb?
Even should she forget,
I will never forget you.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 62:2-3, 6-7, 8-9

R. (6a) Rest in God alone, my soul.
Only in God is my soul at rest;
from him comes my salvation.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
my stronghold; I shall not be disturbed at all.
R. Rest in God alone, my soul.
Only in God be at rest, my soul,
for from him comes my hope.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
my stronghold; I shall not be disturbed.
R. Rest in God alone, my soul.
With God is my safety and my glory,
he is the rock of my strength; my refuge is in God.
Trust in him at all times, O my people!
Pour out your hearts before him.
R. Rest in God alone, my soul.

Reading 2 1 Cor 4:1-5

Brothers and sisters:
Thus should one regard us: as servants of Christ
and stewards of the mysteries of God.
Now it is of course required of stewards
that they be found trustworthy.
It does not concern me in the least
that I be judged by you or any human tribunal;
I do not even pass judgment on myself;
I am not conscious of anything against me,
but I do not thereby stand acquitted;
the one who judges me is the Lord.
Therefore do not make any judgment before the appointed time,
until the Lord comes,
for he will bring to light what is hidden in darkness
and will manifest the motives of our hearts,
and then everyone will receive praise from God.

Alleluia Hb 4:12

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The word of God is living and effective;
discerning reflections and thoughts of the heart.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel Mt 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."

MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS,

 Do we really think that God can forsake us? Many times in our lives we may feel that way because of the situations that we find ourselves in. This is what self-justification is all about. Whatever problems we face or situations that we find ourselves in, it is very easy to blame someone else instead of reflecting on the decisions that we made that brought ourselves to the present situation. If only everyone else thought the same way we did, everything would be okay. In reality, we always have a major influence on where we are and what our present situation is. Free Will is a wonderful gift from God yet we tend to abuse it and try to dismiss it when circumstances suite our needs. It is never God’s fault. In the Scripture Reading today, God sounds a little exasperated as He speaks through the Prophet Isaiah:

“Can a mother forget her infant,
be without tenderness for the child of her womb?
Even should she forget,
I will never forget you.”

This is His promise to us. We as Christians should come to the understanding that it is we who forget God as we chase after all those temptations and allures that we find within our lives. As we proceed forward chasing after our dreams and fulfillment of our earthy desires, God can easily become an afterthought. Acting like children, we chase after what we want and many times we feel that nothing will get in our way as we try to achieve what we want to achieve. What do we really want to achieve? How important is it really to us? Is what we are chasing after something material which will not really matter in the end when we are taken from this earthly existence? It can easily be stated that the answer to that question is a resounding “YES.” In our human nature, influenced by Original Sin, we will find ourselves focusing our time and energy on things that might make us happy in the short term but destroy us in the long term. How easy it is to forget God as we pursue what we want to pursue even if it is against our best interests. God always has our best interests as His central concern. It is us who find it very easy not to have God as ours. Our challenge is to love God as much as He loves us. He will never forget us. We, on the other hand, commonly forget Him.

Jesus simplifies this predicament: Have total trust in God. As Christians, this is obligation that will bring us closer to him and father away from sin. God created us. God loves us. God will never abandon us. If we live our lives with these precepts central to our decisions then we will experience the joy of being His children. We are not the most important thing when it comes to living. The world and all it offers does not recognize us as its central point. We all are part of something bigger which is God’s Creation. God is throughout this creation which means that He also dwells within us. If He is within us, is it even possible that He could remove Himself from us? Of course not. Even if He pulls Himself away, it is only so that we can search for Him and become closer to Him. Because of this, we can always turn to Him and offer everything to Him knowing that we will be safe and secure.

All of us have probably struggled with the concept of God being our Father at one time or another. We are so used to controlling everything. Yet, this control is superficial. We are not in control of anything. In fact, it can be argued that we are actually out of control in comparison to where we would be if we just surrendered everything over to God. It is that simple: To experience true joy we do not have to search for it. We just have to know that God is with us and walk with Him.

Deacon Tom