NKCC

Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Reading I – Isaiah 49:14-15 (82A)

Reading II -  1 Corinthians 4:1-5

Gospel – Matthew 6:24-34

This Sunday we hear one of the more comforting passages from the prophet Isaiah: “I will never forget you.” The people of Israel had experienced that gut-wrenching feeling of complete abandonment, and so the prophet reminds them that even should a parent forget his or her child, God would never forget, never forsake his people. In the midst of exile, God still remembers and upholds Israel even in the indignities that it must undergo. It definitely shook their faith. One commentator notes, “Nothing indeed is more painful when one is in trouble than the impression of being abandoned by the very person who had promised to intervene and whom, day after day, one awaits in vain. When the expected helper is God, faith and hope are shaken.” These words are meant to restore courage and hope.

The Gospel is a powerful reflection again on the impossibility about faithfully serving two masters, in this case God and “mammon” (money). This is a saying most likely from common experience. Again and again, Jesus in the Gospel prods the listener’s conscience questioning our relationship to material goods. In speaking of two potential masters here, Jesus is speaking of God and money. Devotion to either one leads to loving that one. Indeed, worry about money can lead to all sorts of mental anguish, so Jesus continues the teaching to say: “do not worry about your life....” The grass of the fields, the birds, the wild flowers….all are taken care of justly by the heavenly Father. Therefore, live free of worry, your eyes fixed on the end of all things. This is the end times perspective of the apostolic Christians and for us. Any worry that obscures the vision of the “things to come” is a lack of faith in God. In a sense, the Gospel is inviting us to seize the day, carpe diem for tomorrow, will take care of itself. The Scriptures remind us again and again that God does not forget his people and he takes care of all our needs.