Saturday, Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

We know from our own experience that we can become very preoccupied about matters that, in reality, are not that important. The preoccupation with food and dress that Jesus refers to in today’s gospel reading has a contemporary ring to it. It is evident from the gospel as a whole that Jesus is very concerned that people have enough to eat, drink and wear and he wants his followers to share his concern. Towards the end of this gospel of Matthew he identifies himself with the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the stranger and the sick, calling out to us through them. To be deeply concerned about the basic needs of others is one expression of what Jesus calls in the gospel reading setting our hears on the kingdom of God first, because the kingdom of God, the will of God, is a community shaped by God’s love, in which the basic needs of all are met and everyone is equally cherished. What Jesus warns against in this reading is excessive anxiety about our own personal comfort and wellbeing. We are not to be so preoccupied with our own needs that it becomes a strain on everyone else. Jesus is not calling on us to be without a care in the world. Rather he calls on us to centre our care in the right place. We are to care about what matters to God. God’s passions are to become ours. God is passionately concerned about well-being, both material and spiritual, of all. To have something of God’s passionate concern for each other’s well-being is one expression of seeking first God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness, the way of life that corresponds to God’s will. This is the fundamental goal in life that is to shape all our other goals and targets, all our aims and objectives. If we are to be excessively concerned, that is what we are to be excessively concerned about. Jesus wants his disciples to have the same preoccupation and worry that he has, so as to create openings in our world for the coming of God’s kingdom.