GOSPEL POWER |JUNE 19, 2021 | SATURDAY | Saint Romuald, Abbot| 11thWeek in Ordinary Time

Gospel: Mt 6: 24 – 34

Jesus said to his disciples, “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will 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 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 can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry 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 clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the

field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you — you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ or it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”

Reflection

The heavenly Father is the God of the eternal NOW, who  identified himself to Moses as “I am who am” (Ex 3:14).  God can be encountered and experienced not by projecting  oneself into the future, but by being present to what is going on  NOW. Anxiety and worry are caused by pessimistic scenarios of the  future. But such scenarios are imaginations without real substance,  for the future does not yet belong to us. The present moment is the  only one we have. If we stay in it with our whole being — body,  mind, will and heart — then we cannot miss the ever-present God of  the eternal NOW. Living consciously in the present moment is living  trustfully that the provident Father will supply our needs. This is the  best antidote to the stress and anxiety that beset our generation

Prayer

Lord Jesus, deliver us from the temptation of projecting ourselves into  the future. Help us to honor the present moment by consciously staying  in it. Amen