8th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Mar.

2, 2014 (Isaiah 49:14-15; 1 Corinthians 4:1-5; Matthew 6:24-34) Zion said: The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me. This cry came as a result of the Babylonian exile when Jerusalem, the city built on Mt. Zion, and the Temple had been destroyed and her leading citizens had been marched into exile as the spoils of war. The Lord responds through Isaiah the prophet, reflecting on the unimaginable situation of a mother forgetting her baby, or being without tenderness for her newborn. The Lord says, even if that unthinkable situation were ever to occur, I (the Lord) will never abandon Israel. The perspective from which Isaiah writes is probably that of an exile waiting to return to his homeland in Judah. He hears the cry of his contemporaries uttering their complaints against the Lord for what they have found in their beloved Jerusalem. Isaiah offers these verses as a response with this image of God as like a mother protecting her infant. As we return to Matthews Sermon on the Mount we hear the famous saying about not serving two masters. It implies the relationship of a slave to his/her master. Jesus applies it to serving God or serving mammon (which is money or wealth or property in practical terms). This follows the earlier instruction of Jesus: Do not lay up for yourselves treasure on earth... for where your treasure is there will your heart be also. The point is clear if we understand serve as meaning be a slave to. The whole idea of wealth is a human creation. To worship that which is made by human hands is to worship an idol. Thus, we cannot worship the one true God and idols at the same time. Matthew next teaches us not to be concerned about what we are to eat or drink or what we are to wear. That should bring guilt pangs

when we think of what we accumulate in various types of clothing and footwear. The varieties and amounts of food and drink we see advertised and served up to us should give us pause, especially when we look at what goes uneaten. On the other hand we balance budgets by cutting funds for food for those who need it. The arguments we hear revolve around cutting budgets for various governments so more people can have more money to buy more things so that more people can pile up more wealth (especially the ones who are already wealthy), and we do it by telling those who have no wealth and no hope of ever amassing wealth that they will have to do without some of the little they have. Then we hear Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil. We must ask ourselves who is worried about tomorrow. Does the wealthy person of means ever worry about tomorrow? Does the hungry person without a home worry about tomorrow when he/she has no bread today? How much do the wealthy ever really worry about the poor in our midst? Jesus addresses those who, like him, believe that God will care for them in the same way that God provides for the birds and dresses the flowers of the field. In this he shares belief with all his contemporaries who saw Gods hand alive and involved in all of life. For such people, worrying about what God would provide was useless, because God always provides. Worrying about the necessities of life, or worrying in general has been the downfall of many a person, who seem to find no way out of misery and suffering. Jesus says not to worry. So why worry?

Fr. Lawrence Hummer