Contemplating today's Gospel: 200 priests comment on daily Gospel each day
Today's GospelListen to audio
Liturgic day: Saturday 11th in Ordinary Time
Gospel text (Mt 6:24-34): Jesus said to his disciples, «No
one can serve two masters; for he will either hate one and love the
other, or he will be loyal to the first and look down on the second.
You cannot at the same time serve God and money. This is why I tell
you not to be worried about food and drink for yourself, or about
clothes for your body. Is not life more important than food and is
not the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the
air; they do not sow, they do not harvest and do not store food in
barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth
much more than birds? Can any of you add a day to your life by
worrying about it?
»Why
are you so worried about your clothes? Look at the flowers in the
fields how they grow. They do not toil or spin. But I tell you that
not even Solomon in all his wealth was clothed like one of these. If
God so clothes the grass in the field which blooms today and is to be
burned tomorrow in an oven, how much more will he clothe you? What
little faith you have! Do not worry and say: What are we going to
eat? What are we going to drink? Or: what shall we wear? The pagans
busy themselves with such things; but your heavenly Father knows that
you need them all. Set your heart first on the kingdom and justice of
God and all these things will also be given to you. Do not worry
about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has
enough trouble of its own».
Comment: Fr. Carles ELÍAS i Cao (Barcelona, Spain)
Not to be worried about food and drink for yourself. Do not worry about tomorrow
Today, Jesus tells us: «You cannot at the same time serve God and money» (Mt 6:24). With these words He confronts us with our own uncertainty, which we try to alleviate by leaning on the conviction that we have, not only what we need, but also what we want, which, in turn, leads us into consumism and waste.
«Let the avaricious hear these words; let the Christian who thinks he can serve both Christ and money, hear them too. For, He did not say: he who has riches but he who serves riches; nor he who is enslaved by riches and keeps them like a slave; but he who has cast off the yoke of slavery and distributes his wealth in a lordly manner» (St Jerome).
Today, as in the beatitudes —or in the key passage of the new commandment (Jn 13:34-35)—, the Lord urges us to settle for an unlimited confidence in the Father, who offers Himself to us as the Divine Providence, for our quest for the Kingdom of justice, peace and joy, and for a true simplicity of our soul, that turns round, time and again, «with groans that words cannot express» (Rm 8:26), to the Only One who can fill to the brim our longing for plenitude and eternity. While conscious of the temporality of our existence, through our own self-denial, we must be certain of our desire to follow the Christ.
Seeking God's forgiveness for past sins and throwing away any fears and worries for a future yet to come, Jesus invites us to live the present day, which is the only thing we can be more or less sure of. And this “today” is given to us as our daily bread. «We only own the present, while the hope for the future is uncertain (...). Each day has enough trouble of his own. So why worry about?» (St Gregory of Nyssa).