Matthew 6; 24-34. Eight Sunday in Ordinary Time. March 2nd, 2014
Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself.
Sufficient for a day is its own evil.” So ends the Gospel we just heard. In our world today, it’s so very easy to worry about tomorrow, there is so much that we can be anxious about. But today Jesus gives us advice on how to handle our worry. And if we put these words into action with the help of the grace of His Holy Sacraments, we will be able to cry out in the words of today’s entrance antiphon: “The Lord has been my strength; He has led me into freedom. He saved me because He loves me.”
Jesus teaching to us today can be summed up in this way: Learn to live in the “Sacrament of the Present moment.” The words and the lives of the saints teach us how important is to learn to live in the present moment, that God and His voice can be found only in the present moment and that His grace is always available to us in the present moment. The “Sacrament of the Present Moment” reminds us that the most important moment in our life is the right here and now. Yesterday is over, and tomorrow is not yet come.
We can in fact do nothing about yesterday. We can only give God thanks and beg his mercy. We can Give Him thanks for the many blessings that He has given us yesterday and all the days before it; especially for those people that He has put into our lives, asking God to bless them for their goodness toward us and to forgive and help us to forgive, those who did us any wrong. We can beg for God’s Mercy for yesterday and all the days before it, by seeking His forgiveness for for our sins, errors and omissions and the sins of others, asking for His Divine help, that is His Divine grace, to live trying to make amends for them in what ever time we have remaining.
With regards to the future, the future doesn’t exist and if we try to imagine it, our imagination can go wild. The dangers in the future we create in our minds make us live our lives in fear, out of touch with reality, not living in the joy of the present moment, even if the present moment contains a cross. We then fear the cross instead of accepting it and carrying it with great joy, seeing in it a chance to carry it in imitation of Jesus in order to grow in love and charity. We then begin to distrust the Father’s great love for us, saying, “what’s He going to allow to happen to me next?
Recently I read a blog by Mark Mallet that was about the Present Moment. Mark wrote:
“I define the present moment as the “the only point where reality exists. I say this because too many of us spend most of our time living in the past, which no longer exists; or we live in the future, which hasn’t happened yet.” “By not living in the present moment,” he goes onto write, “we are living in realms that that we have little or no control over. To live in the future or the past, is to live in an illusion, for none of us knows if we will even be alive tomorrow.” Mark then used a very simple analogy for understanding the Sacrament of the present moment:
It’s like riding on a merry-go-round like you played on as a child. The faster it went the harder it was to hang on. But if you remember the closer you came to the center of the merry-go-round the easier it was to hang on. In fact, at the very center you could just sit there-hands free—watching all the other kids, limbs flailing in the wind, bodies flying through the air crashing to the ground, rolling in the dust. (my additions).
The present moment is like the center of that merry-go-round; it is the place of stillness where one can rest, even though life is raging all around. What do I mean by this, especially if in the present moment I am suffering? Since the past is gone and the future is not happened, the only place where God is—where eternity intersects with time—is right now, in the present moment. And God is our refuge, our place of rest. If we let go of what we cannot change, if we abandon ourselves to the permissive will of God, then we become like a little child who can do nothing but sit on his papa’s knee. And Jesus said, “to such as these little ones does the Kingdom of Heaven belong.” The Kingdom is found only where it is: in the present moment.
The kingdom of God is near (Matt 3:2).
The moment we begin to live in the past or the future, we leave the center and are pulled to the outside where suddenly great energy is demanded of us to “hang on” so to speak. The more we move to the outside, the more anxious we become. The more we give ourselves over to imagination, living and grieving over the past, or worrying and sweating about the future. The more we are likely to be tossed off the merry-go-round of life. Nervous breakdowns, temper flare-ups, drugs, drinking bouts, indulging in sex, pornography, or food and so on and so on..these become ways in which we try to cope with the nausea of worry consuming us.
And that’s over the big issues. But Jesus tells us, 'Even the smallest things are beyond your control' (luke 12:26)."
How truly senseless is to be anxious about anything, what matters is today, the present moment. It is today, right now, that we have in which to strive to grow in love for God and one another; to grow in holiness, that is intimacy with God through consoling the heart of Jesus, through those countless little occurrences that make up everyday life. Some will be annoying others pleasant. But all are allowed by Our Father in Heaven to help us grow in holiness and so get closer to Him.
Each thing that happens to us in the present moment can be made an offering of love to our God. The difficult tasks and the many daily annoyances that instead of making us loose patience or become angry can instead become for us, by offering them to God, the little pieces of sand that we can make into pearls of great worth. It is only the present moment that we have in order to live as beloved sons and daughters of the Living and true, almighty God, to not only accept little crosses but also to offer little acts of love done for love of Him and for love of those around us, so that these acts can become little gems of love stored for us in Heaven that produce great diamonds of grace on earth.
I also agree Mark Mallet the writer of the blog I just mentioned when He said, “Today God wants to open heaven’s treasures upon us in a way never seen before. God is pouring tremendous graces and blessings our day upon those who but ask for them. These are times of great change, but above all these are times of God’s Mercy. Jesus once lamented to St. Faustina (as recorded her in the Diary of Divine Mercy):”
The flames of mercy are burning Me—clamoring to be spent; I want to keep pouring them out upon souls; souls just don’t want to believe in My goodness. (Divine Mercy in My Soul, Dairy of St. Faustina, n.177).
It is only by living in the Sacrament of the present moment that we can receive these incredible graces from Jesus (cf. Mark Mallet). Through the Sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist and Confession we can open our hearts to these graces, but they take effect in our lives only through our faithfulness lived out in the present moment of our daily lives and its duties.
In other words, God’s mercy is to be found in the present moment. To receive this Mercy we need not do great things, but only our daily duties for love of God and neighbor, and to accept all things as coming from the hand of the Father, to see all things as gifts of love, the good and the bad, the roses and the thorns, the consolations and the crosses, to be accepted and offered back to God in Love in order that they would become for us not only our treasure in Heaven but sources of grace and mercy for the salvation of countless souls.
It was Padre Pio who said Pray, hope and don’t worry!” We should worry about nothing. Because worry does nothing. But, it’s so hard for us not to worry. I know this myself with my recent serious illness. “I am going to get better: is the cancer going to come back; am I going to die? Worry, worry, worry…the problem is, worry is that which will make us sick again, not to mention make us lose our peace.
God knows it hard for us not to worry, so Jesus today reminds us that we also need to let go of our worry by giving it to Him, trusting Him. This begins now at this present moment, at this Holy Mass…give your worry now into the Hands the Blessed Virgin Mary and ask her to place all of it onto the paten next to the host so that it can be transformed at the consecration by the Holy Spirit from worry into trust….And then ask her to cut any strings remaining to your worry and obtain for you the grace to live from this point on in the comfort, security and the peace and joy of the present moment, with the Love of God that is in the present moment. Ask her then to let you know her smile.
And then, in the daily events of life when the worry tries coming back, simply stop what you are doing and recognize you are helpless to alter the past or the future—that the only thing in your dominion now is the present moment, that alone is reality for you. Right here and right now is where God is for you. And then talk to God who is truly present. Tell Him in prayer that you are struggling not to worry. Be honest with Him and give him again your worry by offering it in union with the Holy Masses being offered through out the world at the very moment. If needed repeat this prayer over and over every time the useless worry returns.
And along with this prayer, place your trust in Jesus is the Mercy of the Father, place your trust in Him for the past, and put your trust in His love for you for the future. This trust can also be expressed in that short but very beautiful prayer found at the bottom of the Divine Mercy Picture… “Jesus I trust in You.” By the way, implied in the prayer of trust is also a plea to ask Jesus in the Holy Eucharist to increase our trust in the Father’s mercy and love for us, in the Father’s Holy Will for us… “Jesus I trust in You, now please help me to trust in you more.” We should pray this pray often but most especially when ever we can before the very Heart of Divine Mercy, Jesus, physically present in the Holy Eucharist.
Speaking of this complete Trust in Jesus, St. Faustina wrote in her Dairy:
“O My God When I look into the future, I am frightened, But why plunge into the future? Only the present moment is precious to me, (my emphasis) As the future may never enter my soul at all. It is no longer in my power to change, correct or add to the past; For neither sages nor prophets could do that. And so what the past has embraced I must entrust to God.
“O present moment, you belong to me, whole and entire. I desire to use you as best I can. And although I am weak and small, You grant me the grace of Your omnipotence. And so, trusting in Your mercy, I walk through life like a little child, offering You each day this heart Burning with love for Your greater Glory.” -St. Faustina
Let us pray;(please join me if you know this ending prayer from the Divine Mercy Chaplet) Eternal God in Whom Mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase Your mercy in us, so that in difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to Your Holy Will which is Love and Mercy Itself.
Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life our sweetness and our hope…to thee do come poor banished children of Eve, do thee do we send up sighs morning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then most gracious virgin thy eyes of mercy towards us and after this our exile show unto us the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, Oh loving, Oh sweet Virgin Mary.
Pray for us O holy Mother of God…that we may be worthy of the promises of Christ. Dear Mother of our Hope, let us know your smile! With your smile upon us in the present moment we will have no worries, no fear, no anxiety….Amen.
(The Writing from Mark Mallet was entitled: The Sacrament of the Present Moment...found on his blog: Mark Mallet.com and dated January 21st, 2014.)
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