
The Gospel today is from the Sermon on the Mount and is a commentary on the first beatitude: Blessed are the poor in Spirit. Simply, Jesus is teaching that God comes first. Before any material thing, God comes first. This was the Law of Moses: “Thou shall love the Lord with your whole heart and mind and strength”. Jesus states: you cannot serve God and mammon. Does that sound the same?
Jesus says : Do not worry. We all know that worrying can’t change anything. We worry about the future, we worry about the present, we worry about things that will never happen. Jesus asks his disciples to trust him with their lives, their clothing, their food and their families. Is he saying that these things are not important? Certainly not. He is saying that if we seek him first, he will care about all the important things in our lives. He is asking us to be totally dedicated to him and he will care for all else. He is asking us to be poor in spirit, not to trust in material things but to trust in the person of the loving God. “Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice and all these things will be added unto you”.
Paul says somewhere: “Don’t worry, pray….” I often wonder if I spent all my worrying time at prayer, how holy I would be!!!!!
All of the Beatitudes are ideals that we can aim for. We will not reach them till we are in heaven. We fail and we try again. As previously stated, we can be canonised for trying!!!!