Praise be Jesus and Mary.
I took my trip out to La Crosse, I had to pass through Chicago, and I stopped in at
St. Peter's Church, where I saw there were flyers advertising a day's workshop, a series
of conferences on anxiety.
They were inviting all people who were suffering from anxiety to come in and participate in
these workshops to try and resolve the problem in their life.
And our Lord addresses this issue of anxiety.
In today's Gospel, he says,
And it's a real shame that so many people are suffering from anxiety today.
And I think at least a partial cause, if not a primary cause, of the anxiety is that they
either don't know, don't understand the Gospel.
Or don't live the Gospel.
Now, our Lord says,
So again, this should be one thing that will help us to overcome anxiety in our lives.
To have our loves properly ordered.
To love God and to not love mammon.
To love the world and the things of the world.
Our Lord says that we should seek first his kingdom and his justice.
And all those other things, those secondary things of the world, will be given to us.
And so I think one of the problems with people who suffer from anxiety today is that they
don't have their lives properly ordered.
They are loving and serving mammon, the world, and not God.
That they are seeking first the things of the world.
And secondarily, they seek God.
Our Lord says that we should not be anxious about what we eat and about what we wear.
Now,
these things are essential.
Eating food to stay alive.
Clothing ourselves to protect us from the elements.
And our Lord says,
Don't even worry about these essential things.
But how many people out there are worried and preoccupied about non-essential things?
About getting the best job.
Having the best car.
Going on the bus.
Going on the bus.
Going on the bus.
Going on the bus.
Going on the bus.
Going on the bus.
Going on the bus.
Going on the bus.
Going on the bus.
Going on the bus.
Going on the bus.
Going on the bus.
Vacation.
Which oftentimes creates more anxiety than anything else.
All the planning for the vacation.
Seeing all the sights.
And they come back more stressed than when they left.
And so our Lord says,
Not only don't worry about those non-essential things,
but don't worry about the essential things.
And here we see,
My brothers,
the great grace of religious life.
We don't have to worry about what we eat.
Because you will eat what the cook has prepared.
And the cook is going to prepare what our generous benefactors have brought us.
We don't have to worry about what we wear.
Because you're going to wear the same habit you wore yesterday.
You see, these essential things are even taken,
um,
care for us in religious life.
Why?
All so that we can dedicate ourselves totally
to seeking first the kingdom of God
and his justice.
Seek first the kingdom of God,
heaven,
that is, your soul's salvation,
and his justice,
that is, the soul's sanctity,
sanctification.
These should be the first things we seek in our lives.
If we want to avoid anxiety
and have peace in our lives,
we have to have these things properly ordered.
Seek first the salvation of our soul,
the sanctification of our soul,
and then all of the other things
will be given unto us.
In the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit.
Thank you for watching.