Homily: Sunday of the 8th Week in Ordinary Time - "Do not worry"

Have things ever gotten so bad that you’ve felt as if God weren’t listening, that God had forgotten you? Have you ever uttered those or similar words found in the first reading from the prophet Isaiah today?  “The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me”.

Israel had been conquered, captured, and forced into exile by Babylon.  They were a nation on the verge of annihilation.  Though God had promised centuries before to Abraham that Israel would be a royal dynasty, a blessed nation, now, in Babylonian captivity, Israel had no king, no leader, no army, no homeland.  Israel seemed like a nation without hope.

And in their hopelessness they cried out, “The Lord has forsaken us, the Lord has forgotten us.” Hopelessness, is a real temptation for all those who suffer.

The loss of a loved one, the loss of a job, the loss of health may cause us to question if God is really listening.  The media is almost designed to cause us to worry, about the next winter vortex   Just a few minutes of the nightly news can lead us to worry about what the world will be like for future generations.  The continued attacks on religious freedom by government officials and programs may cause us to worry about what our nation will be like for our future Christians. 

To hopeless Israel, God sent his prophet, Isaiah, to speak a word of hope: “Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you.”  God’s love, his care, is stronger than the greatest human love or care.  God does not abandon or forget even and especially at the darkest hour.

There was a bible study, and the group was reading st. paul and they came across one of St. Paul’s long list of sins.  And the group was being very honest about their own struggle with temptation and sin.  And an older women, who had remained quiet up to that point startled the group when she said, “I’ll tell you what the worst temptation in my life is…what sin I just can’t seemed to overcome…it is the sin of worrying.”

Another member of the group asked, “is worrying really a sin?”  And the elderly lady stunned the group when she said, “you bet it is.  Does not our faith tell us that God has promised that he is in charge? Does not our faith teach us that everything God has promised is in his omnipotent hands?  Does not our faith tell us that God has promised that everything will work out in the end for those who believe?  So if I worry, I’m sinning against faith.”

Jesus says four times in the Gospel today, “do not worry.” Our Lord urges us to believe that our “heavenly Father knows” what we truly need.  He does not abandon us, rather, God provides comfort and strength and guidance when we turn to him.

We worry about the economy, we worry about politics, we worry about the Church, we worry about our health.  Many of our young people worry sometimes incessantly about their physical appearance.  They are worried what their friends will think if they don’t get the new ipad, or the newest fashionable pair of jeans or tennis shoes.  As Clevelanders, this lesson shouldn’t be so hard: we know how useless worrying about things like weather and sports teams actually is.

Now there is a great difference between worry and concern.  Worry and fretting are bad, often sinful.  Concern is good!  Worry is a vice, concern is a virtue.  Worry is counter-productive, concern is helpful and thoughtful.  Concern is when we size up a problem, make a plan, and do something about it.  See, judge, act, pray, and leave the rest to God.

We should be concerned about those in need.  We should be concerned and do something about increasing government pressures upon religious liberty.  We should be concerned about the innocent babies who are aborted.  We should be concerned about the 80% of American Catholics who aren’t going to Mass every week by identifying those people and inviting them back.

The last hundred years produced some of the greatest atrocities in human history:  concentration camps and genocides and economic collapses, wars and the threat of wars.  Yet in those dark years, God was also at work, producing some of the most amazing saints: saints like Maxamillian Kolbe, Mariann Cope, Katherine Drexel whose feast we celebrate tomorrow.

My Church history professor back in seminary used to mention how blessed the Church was during the 20^th century to have such holy popes: Pope Saint Pius X, whose image we have on the stained glass window in our sanctuary. The causes for sainthood have been opened for both Pius XII, Pope during the second world war, and Paul VI, Pope during most of the second Vatican Council. 

And on the second Sunday of Easter this year, Pope Francis will celebrate the canonization of Blessed Pope John Paul II and Blessed John XXIII, Pope from October 28, 1958 to June 3 1963. 

As I thought about our scripture readings about worrying, I recalled a story about Blessed John XIII.  Good Pope John, as he was known in Rome, faced many problems. He met with world leaders about global poverty, famine, and war, particularly the threat of nuclear war.  He intervened during the Cuban Missal Crisis.

Yet, faced with world-sized problems, every night, before he went to bed around midnight, Pope John would go into his private chapel, and he would kneel down in front of our Blessed Lord in the tabernacle, and he would list the problems he had heard that day. Then he would reflect upon what he did about them: the advice he had given, the concern he had exercised.  Finally, he would then look at the tabernacle, and say to the Lord, “I’ve done the best I could Lord, now, I’m going to bed, the Church is yours.”

We would save ourselves a lot of sleepless nights, if we made our peace with God about our worries, as Pope John did.  By the way, John XXIII would also sneak out of the Vatican at night to feed the poor; each of us could use a little more of that too.

As we prepare for the season of Lent beginning on Ash Wednesday, we do well to  show deep concern about our souls and identify those parts of our lives that we need to hand over to God in a deeper way.  

Those Lenten practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are all about surrendering more and more of our lives over to God.  For when we feel that anxious worry tighten around our hearts, we do well, to see, judge, act, pray, and leave the rest to God.

So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’or ‘What are we to drink?’or ‘What are we to wear?’ Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,and all these things will be given you besides.For the glory of God and salvation of souls.