Zion was saying, ‘The Lord has abandoned me,
the Lord has forgotten me.’
Does a woman forget her baby at the breast,
or fail to cherish the son of her womb?
Yet even if these forget,
I will never forget you.
People must think of us as Christ’s servants, stewards entrusted with the mysteries of God. What is expected of stewards is that each one should be found worthy of his trust. Not that it makes the slightest difference to me whether you, or indeed any human tribunal, find me worthy or not. I will not even pass judgement on myself. True, my conscience does not reproach me at all, but that does not prove that I am acquitted: the Lord alone is my judge. There must be no passing of premature judgement. Leave that until the Lord comes; he will light up all that is hidden in the dark and reveal the secret intentions of men’s hearts. Then will be the time for each one to have whatever praise he deserves, from God.
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘No one can be the slave of two masters: he will either hate the first and love the second, or treat the first with respect and the second with scorn. You cannot be the slave both of God and of money.
‘That is why I am telling you not to worry about your life and what you are to eat, nor about your body and how you are to clothe it. Surely life means more than food, and the body more than clothing! Look at the birds in the sky. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they are? Can any of you, for all his worrying, add one single cubit to his span of life? And why worry about clothing? Think of the flowers growing in the fields; they never have to work or spin; yet I assure you that not even Solomon in all his regalia was robed like one of these. Now if that is how God clothes the grass in the field which is there today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, will he not much more look after you, you men of little faith? So do not worry; do not say, “What are we to eat? What are we to drink? How are we to be clothed?” It is the pagans who set their hearts on all these things. Your heavenly Father knows you need them all. Set your hearts on his kingdom first, and on his righteousness, and all these other things will be given you as well. So do not worry about tomorrow: tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.’
Just three days from now, we will be entering the Season of Lent through the Ash Wednesday. Let us start reflecting once more on the greatest gifts given to us by Christ, Salvation and Eternal Life with God.
The Psalmist gives a very simple yet striking summary of today’s Gospel: “Rest in God alone, my soul.” Jesus tells us in the Gospel that we can never serve two masters at the same time. God or money, we need to choose one. This is a challenge for a culture that has grown believing that money makes the world go round.
God invites us to live according to His will by trusting fully in Him alone. Many times, it seems that God has forgotten and forsaken us. With all the conflicts and worries of the world: poverty, crime, war, oppression, and suffering, we sometimes ask, “Where is God in all of these?” That is the same question that the First Reading is trying to present. In the midst of our doubts about our God, we are being reminded that God is not like us humans who forget easily.
Living an independent life is never easy. When I moved to Manila for work, I worry a lot of what will happen tomorrow especially about my status as a faculty member. It came to a point that I was already giving up. I felt that God has forsaken me. But then God cleared those doubts away and gave me an assurance that He is my hope and that I need not worry, I just need to trust Him fully. Many things have happened to me that made me suffer and grieve a lot. But in all of these, I tried to ask God’s help and guidance and He never stopped working in my life. Last December, my health problem struck me once more. I have Hypokalemia Periodic Paralysis which could attack any moment and it happened on the night of Christmas. I asked God to heal me completely by morning for I need to attend to my affairs. When I woke up, the pain is gone!
This is what the Gospel asks of us. We don’t need to worry what tomorrow brings and should focus on the present. We need to live in the present and trust God to guide us in solving our problems, to take care of our needs. If we can only see the small blessings that God gives us every day, our problems will surely be outnumbered by the graciousness of God. He looks after the birds in the sky and the flowers in the field, He will also look after all of us who are made in His own image. He loves us so much that He gave us His only begotten Son for the sake of our Salvation.
As we begin trusting God, we will encounter problems along the way. Let us remain faithful. Let us set our hearts in seeking righteousness by becoming servants of Christ and stewards of the works of God. If we trust fully in His Providence, everything will follow.
Prayer
For our prayer, let us dwell on the words of the Psalmist: “My soul rest in God alone, my salvation comes from Him. He alone is my rock, my salvation, my fortress. I shall never be afraid!”
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