DAILY- HOMILY

FEBRUARY 27, 2011
8TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – A

Is 49:14-15 / Ps 62:2-3, 6-7, 8-9 / 1 Cor 4:1-5 / Mt 6:24-34

ISAIAH 49:14-15
Zion said: "Yahweh has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me." Can a
woman forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the
child of her womb? Yet though she forget, I will never forget you.

1 CORINTHIANS 4:1-5
Brothers and sisters, "Let everyone then see us as the servants of
Christ and stewards of the secret works of God. Being stewards,
faithfulness shall be demanded of us; but I do not mind if you or any
human court judges me. I do not even judge myself; my conscience
indeed does not accuse me of anything, but that is not enough for me
to be set right with God: the Lord is the one who judges me.
Therefore, do not judge before the time, until the coming of the Lord.
He will bring to light whatever was hidden in darkness and will
disclose the secret intentions of the hearts. Then each one will
receive praise from God."

MATTHEW 6:24-34
Jesus said to his disciples. "No one can serve two masters; for he
will either hate one and love the other, or he will be loyal to the
first and look down on the second. You cannot at the same time serve
God and money. This is why I tell you not to be worried about food and
drink for yourself, or about clothes for your body. Is not life more
important than food, and is not the body more important than clothes?
Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow, they do not harvest and
do not store food in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you less worthy than they are? "Can any of you add a day to your
life by worrying about it? Why are you so worried about your clothes?
Look at how the flowers in the fields grow. They do not toil or spin.
But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his wealth was clothed
like one of these. If God so clothes the grass in the field, which
blooms today and is to be burned tomorrow in an oven, how much more
will he clothe you? What little faith you have! Do not worry and say:
What are we going to eat? What are we going to drink? or: What shall
we wear? The pagans busy themselves with such things; but your
heavenly Father knows that you need them all. Set your heart first on
the kingdom and justice of God, and all these things will also be
given to you. Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry
about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

REFLECTION
One of the realizations, perhaps, that we might come up with as we
contemplate on the mysteries of Christ's life is that God truly cares
about us. There is such a truth as Divine Providence, and that the
scope and expanse of it simply astounds us because Divine Providence
always surpasses human standards and expectations.

Jesus assures his hearers, "Do not be anxious about your life, about
what you shall eat or what you shall drink; nor about your body, about
what you shall put on. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them
all. Rather, seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all
these things shall be yours as well."

God provides. The overall plan of things is in the hands of God and in
that plan, God provides. For God is a responsible God, a responsible
Father. God's program for us is fullness of life and God knows fully
well that we are weak and limited. When God sent His Son into the
world, it was to show us how to be fully human, how to submit
ourselves to His will and His plan, the way a true son or daughter of
a Father would do. And so we see in Jesus the incarnation of a true
Son, perfectly obedient to the Father's will. It is the will and plan
of God to set captives free, and so He provides the captives with
freedom through the liberating words of Jesus. It is God's plan to win
people in sin and darkness to the light of His truth, and so He brings
His forgiveness and light to them through Christ's acts of mercy and
his teachings. It is God's will and plan that the world be healed of
its illnesses, and so He provides those suffering of diseases with the
healing power of Jesus. It is God's plan to liberate people from
hunger and thirst, and so, God shows them His care and compassion by
the solicitous act of Jesus feeding the multitude, a promising
premonition of God's bounty for all who hope in Him. Yes, God has a
plan and He carries it out in His Son who trusts in Him.

Do not be anxious about what you are to eat, or drink, or what to put
on. And, as we can see, God's Providence goes beyond these things. In
truth, there are more important things than these, such as matters of
the spirit that should shape our dispositions towards material things.

There is in us, in varying degrees, from person to person, that sense
of fascination with material things: prestige, power, wealth. These
give us a sense of self-satisfaction, a certain sense of achievement,
a sense of completeness. These also give us a certain sense of freedom
of self-expression. But the ever looming danger of this infatuation
with material things is that of an unspoken but lived out autonomy
from the moral requirements of God, sometimes even a discomfort with
the requirements of God's precepts where these hinder one's liberal
use of things. The attachment to things becomes one's primary
preoccupation, as if it is only he who is responsible and capable of
providing for himself, and in the manner that he chooses. And at some
point, because of the built-in limitedness of the human person, it is
only inevitable and a matter of time that he will touch the edge of
his human boundaries where he will discover, that he cannot truly
fully provide for himself. And for the person who depends on himself
too much and is not humble enough to admit it, this discovery can only
drive him to frustration and despair.

And so Jesus echoes his words of assurance: Do not be anxious of
things. In all circumstances, God will provide for what we need.
Divine Providence has a certain order and plan of things which only
God can draw up because He knows our needs more than we know our own.
And His call is to rest in the assurance that He really cares about
our lives. We can continue to work to provide for our needs, for that
itself is part of God's plan. But He calls us to have greater trust in
Him, to build our plans within the larger plan of God for all of us.

PRAYER REQUESTS
We pray …
… for a deep and profound respect for life, especially for the
unborn.
… for the speedy recovery and healing of
- Jo Marcelo
- Jun Lee
… for the personal intentions of
- Josheil Dapo
- Cherie Torres
… for all the prayer intentions in the MTQ Dailyprayer Diary.
- Birthday: Raymund Joseph Chua
- Birthday: Ma. Angelica P. Tutor
- Wedding Anniversary: Johnson & Veronica Lim Gotamco
- In Memoriam (+): Dr. Jun De Villa
… for world peace and reconciliation.

Finally, we pray for one another, for those who have asked our prayers
and for those who need our prayers the most.

Have a good day!

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