Is it worth worrying?

Wilson SVD

VIII Ordinary Sunday

 1^st -  Isa 49: 14-15,  2^nd - 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…..