May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for
us.
I received a message from my mother this week. She said that my pediatrician, Dr. Warner,
had died. Now I am just old enough to
have been away from the care of a pediatrician for as much time as I was under
the care of a pediatrician. Yet, there
are two principle things that I remember about my visits to my childhood
doctor. I was never afraid to see him,
and he always spoke a word of comfort and encouragement.
Today in our readings from the scriptures we receive words of
comfort and encouragement. Our brief
reading from the prophet Isaiah was given to the people of Israel during the
time of their exile in Babylon. During
this time of great suffering when they felt most abandoned by God, the word of
Lord bringing comfort and encouragement came to them. The Lord promised that he would always
remember his people. The tender and compassionate
love that the Almighty God has for his people is even more profound and more
powerful and more enduring than even the love that a mother has for her child. There is no greater expression of how
precious each of us is to God. He has
loved us enough to create us. He loves
us enough to sustain us. We will always
be remembered. We will never be
forgotten in the eternal plan of God.
In our reading from the Gospel today the Lord Jesus comforts
and encourages his disciples to cast out worry from their hearts. The Lord Jesus assures his disciples and he
assures us that the Father in heaven will provide for his children, just as he
provides for the birds of the air and the plants of the earth. The Lord Jesus invites us to declare our
dependence on the providence of God. He
invites us to entrust our daily cares and the cares of tomorrow to the loving
care of the Loving Father. He knows our
needs, and our desires. He knows what is
for our good. The Lord Jesus invites us
to recognize that worry is a pretender to the throne in the kingdom of our
hearts where God shall reign supreme.
Christ conquered our sins by the blood of his cross. It is by the power of his promise that he
seeks to conquer our worry. He invites
us to childlike dependence.
And he also invites us to cooperate with his work. The birds of the air seek for the food that
God provides. The plants of the ground
extend their roots to find the life giving waters. They respond to the divine invitation even as
they rely on divine providence. They
cooperate. In our reading from the letter to the Corinthians, Paul reminds us
that the apostle is a steward of the mysteries of God. The apostles and we who share in an apostolic
ministry have been entrusted with the precious proclamation of the Word of
salvation and the administration of the sacraments of divine life. All of us, however, in the waters of baptism,
have become stewards of the grace of God and the divine life that is entrusted
to our care. Each of us was made a
steward of a temple of divine life, because each of us is a temple of divine
life. We have been washed in water and
anointed with the Spirit. The life that
is so precious to Almighty God has been entrusted to our care. He has shared his life with us, so that we
can share our lives with him.
God has joined us to his mission and his work. We do not need to worry, and we do not need
to be afraid. God, who loves us enough
to create us, loves us enough to comfort us, and to encourage us. May we listen to his words of comfort, and
respond to his words of encouragement, so that freed from the chains of fear
and worry; we may remember that we are beloved children of God. Amen.
Preached at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic
Church, Monroe, NC
