Is it worth worrying?
Wilson SVD
VIII Ordinary Sunday
1st
- Isa 49: 14-15, 2nd - 1 Corth 4: 1-5, Gospel- Mtth 6: 24-34
Sermon on the Mount (Mtth
5-7) is one of the important didactic activities of Jesus in the Gospel of
Matthew. Today’s gospel is an extract from the sermon on the mount (Mtth 6:
24-34). The key concept of today’s readings
is ‘do not worry.’ “Worry” is the key
word and it occurs six times in today’s gospel (vv. 25, 27, 28, 31 and 34). The
day’s gospel is a carefully designed ethical teaching relating to authentic
Christian living.
Worry,
feeling anxious or stressed, seems to plague millions of people in our world
today. what precisely is worry and why do
we worry at all? Worry is part of the human condition. We all experience worry. We worry about
something because we perceive it as a threat to our happy living and worry
causes us to focus on that potential threat and apparently appears to protect
ourselves from that threat. At times, worrying seems to help us to perform well
but in reality, it is not so. It's human nature
to be concerned about the bad situations in our world and in our personal
lives, but if we're not careful, worry can make us miserable. Worry is like a
pendulum oscillating between the two extremities, it's always in motion but it
never gets you anywhere. When one is
excessively apprehensive and obsessed with the threat (negative thinking), it
can turn out to be a highly problematic complex emotion that can eventually but
definitely destroy one’s life.
Therefore, when we worry, we torment ourselves, we harm ourselves. So,
why do we struggle with it? And what good does it do?
The
technological developments may have made our external life comfortable but are
we at peace within? There were times, we wrote letters and waited for days and
weeks for a reply but we were totally happy. And today, we communicate
instantly but we are more tensed. The smaller the world has become, the more
far we are from each other. We have become more delicate human beings. We
easily harbor and nurture concerns and worries and our minds are an ocean of
worries.
We are anxious, troubled, restless
and our heart is heavy. In my anxious search, I fret and fume, and
run from pillar to post. I am full of doubts and worries; Do I look
beautiful? Am I handsome? Am I attractive? Am I too tall or too short or too
fat or too lean or too dark or too fair? Am I losing my charm as I grow in
age? How will I face pain? How can I be successful? Will I be
accepted and appreciated? Will I have more friends? Am I rich enough? Do I have
the latest gadgets? Am I better than him or her? If I were to be like so and
so, I would be better. I
am afraid of failure. I dread making mistakes; conflicts in relationships, peer
group pressure, consumerism and comfort culture, economic struggles, social
security, growing intolerant and violent culture, etc. Truly our mind is an
ocean of worries.
Do you
worry about things that are unreal?
Are
you more anxious than relaxed?
Are
you more unhappy than happy?
Are
you afraid of being happy and joyful?
Do
you hesitate to hang out with friends?
Are you
unwilling to take ordinary daily risks?
Do
your worries affect your normal daily activities?
Are
you an obsessive negative thinker?
Are
you unduly worried about your food, clothing and comforts?
If yes, then the Lord is precisely
talking to us today. Unfortunately, there is no wonder pill that can magically
relieve us of worrying. The human scientists have suggested various ways to
handle our worry, perplexity and the consequent negative complex emotion.
However, they are all a temporary relief and not a permanent solution. Jesus offers
us a simple but a permanent solution through todays readings. Jesus addresses the root cause of the problem
and not just the symptoms.
What is my fundamental choice in life? What am I after in
life; God or Wealth? All my life
activities, choices, actions and preferences depend on this fundamental choice.
The
Greek word ‘mammon’ (μαμωνᾷς ) is
translated from the Aramaic noun mamônā ( מָמוֹנָא), and the word means ‘wealth,
property and material possessions.’ The root of the word has a sense of
pejorative connotation; indicating to the unjustly accumulated wealth, ‘mammon’ of unrighteousness, a fortune more than the need. Jesus
specifically speaks about such wealth because they eventually substitute
everything in life and become source of concern, focus, greed and breed worry
and anxiety. Affiliation to materialism is inevitably in conflict with loyalty
to God. Wealth becomes one’s master. ‘mammon’ of unrighteousness produces disloyalty, worry, anxiety,
jealousy, doubt, fear and makes life miserable on the contrary loyalty to God
provides serenity, peace and harmony. In today’s context ‘mammon’ could
be the desire for power, authority, fame and name, being addicted to electronic
gadgets, social media, drugs, alcohol, pleasure, consumerism and accumulating materials
beyond one’s need, etc. Therefore, what is my
fundamental choice in life?
Jesus emphatically exhorts, ‘not to worry’ (μὴ μεριμνᾶτε). The Greek word, merimna (μεριμνᾶ) here means ‘to be anxious, fearful, to worry anxiously’ and it specifies not
just the mental anxiety but the actions that result from it and so ‘worry’ is an activity of both mind, heart
and physic. The evils of worry are
sleeplessness, jealousy, anger and it brings old age pretty soon (1 Macc 6: 10,
Sir 42: 9 and Sir 30: 24). Jesus urges not to worry about life, what to eat,
drink or about the body. Food, drink and clothing are needs of the body and are
essential to life (τῇ ψυχῇ literally
is ‘your soul’ but ψυχή is regularly used for life in the NT). Jesus establishes a
contrast between life and body (God and wealth). God is the source of life and
if so, will he not provided the essentials to sustain life and supply to the
needs of the body. Hence, worry about even the basic necessities is worthless.
Jesus beautifully illustrates the absurdity of being anxious
by drawing examples from animal and natural world: The birds of the sky (τὰ πετεινὰ τοῦ
οὐρανοῦ) do not ‘sow, reap or gather’, the
verbs ‘sow, reap and gather’ (σπείρουσιν, θερίζουσιν, and συνάγουσιν), point to the human undue preoccupation
with financial security, accumulating ‘mammon’ of unrighteousness, storing grains, fatty bank balances,
properties and the various contemporary addictions. The point that Jesus brings
home is ‘the birds do not store up for future, they neither have bank balances
nor shares in markets but work daily, take one day at a time and the Lord
provides them unfailingly.’ And same is the truth with the beautiful and splendid
flowers of the field that blossom and wither on the same day. The breaking point
here is the rhetorical question, ‘are you not worth much more than these? (οὐχ ὑμεῖς
μᾶλλον διαφέρετε αὐτῶν).
The creation account in the book Genesis states that the human beings are
created in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1: 26-27) and they constitute the
final and climactic act of creation and are given authority over the rest of
the world (Gen 1: 28). Hence, isn’t it futile to worry?
The practical question that proves
the inutility of anxiety is ‘what is the advantage of worrying?’ Worrying is
most likely to shorten a person’s life than to extend it (Sir 20: 21-24). Anxiety
produces stress, and stress pressure and pressure sickness and sickness medical
bills and the medical bills once again produce worry and the cycle goes on and
on non-stop. This elicits that by being
anxious one cannot extend one’s life even by a small fraction of a second. Why
should we then worry at all, when we cannot even change the least of things? Thus,
Jesus promptly establishes the sovereignty and the providential nature of God
and the futility of anxiety.
Therefore, the root cause of worry
is essentially distrust in God. Worry is caused by not trusting God to take
care of the various situations of our lives. Very often we trust our own
abilities and fall short of our own expectations. Hence, if our fundamental
choice in life is God then worry vanishes instead if wealth is the essential
choice of our life then our mind is an ocean of worries. The answer to incapacitating worry is
fundamental option to God and strong trust in God, for we are His precious children
and our Heavenly Father’s love is profound then mother’s love (Isa 49: 14-15) and He takes care of everything (Matt
11: 28-30). Therefore, my friends worry not, give it to God, take one day at a
time and celebrate life for life is beautiful…..
