The Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Matthew 6:24–34  ²⁴ “No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. ²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat (or drink), or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? ²⁶ Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? ²⁷ Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span? ²⁸ Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. ²⁹ But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them. ³⁰ If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear?’ ³² All these things the pagans seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. ³³ But seek first the kingdom (of God) and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides. ³⁴ Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil.

This final section of the Sermon (6:19–7:29) gives advice regarding the Christian pursuit of holiness – be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect (5:48) – and the basic advice never varies: trust God. The basic theme is expressed as the decision for or against God (esp. see 7:13-27). The section (Mt 6:19-24) which immediately precedes our gospel is replete with dualistic comparisons:

In each case there is the implied choice for God which echoes the OT clarion call: “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the LORD, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him” (Dt 30:19–20).

The major topics of this final, larger portion (6:19–7:29) of the Sermon, bear some relation to the “we/us-petitions” in the Lord’s Prayer (6:9-13):

• trust in God to provide food and clothing (“Give us today our daily bread”),
• avoiding the condemnation of others (“as we forgive our debtors”),
• approaching God as Father with our requests (“Our Father in heaven”), and
• traveling the narrow and hard way (“deliver us”).

Just as the Lord’s Prayer emphasizes our dependence upon and trust in God, the implications of the decision to trust God and chose for Him is the starting point (v.24) of our Sunday’s gospel. Once the disciple has chosen for God, for Christ, that does not mean that problems are gone or the way is smooth. This often gives rise to anxiety about the choices one has made and the consequences of that choice.