Commentary
Sunday, 2/26/2017, Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
God Never Forgets Us
First Reading Commentary Isaiah 49:14-15
Who is the one person in life who we can count on at, all times? No matter how great our needs or how much trouble we are in, who is the one person who will always be there? If we are blessed, each of us has such a person in our lives. It may be a parent or best friend or spouse. Whoever it is, that person is always there.
I said, “If we are blessed.” The truth of the matter is that we are all blessed! Some of us do not realize it because we are not as close to our Creator as we should be but it is God who is always there. That is the message from Isaiah’s prophecy today.
But we cannot call God and ask Him to loan us money to get out of a financial jam. We cannot call God and ask Him to help us with anything in the same way that we would expect another person to help us. So, we sometimes fail to realize that God is always with us and is always there for us.
Unless we are in the habit of giving our problems to God in prayer, we don’t even think about God being able to help us. And, if we do, we make the mistake of trying to think of God in a worldly way expecting Him to care for us and provide for us in a worldly—tangible way. In either case, we fall into the trap of feeling like we are abandoned.
Isaiah’s prophecy asks the question, “Can a mother forget her infant?” The answer is no. But none of us are perfect and sometimes, even a mother will falter in spite, of her love for her child. So, Isaiah gives us this promise from God: “Even should she forget, I will never forget you.”
The point is that there is no one on earth that we can count on absolutely one hundred percent of the time. But we can always count on God. Only He has the perfect love and the means to always provide what we need to achieve eternal salvation.
The Lord Will Manifest the Motives of Our Hearts
Second Reading Commentary 1 Corinthians 4:1-5
Today, Paul tells us that we should serve the only one who can judge us and that is Christ. We cannot be judged, by anyone else and we should not attempt to judge another person.
Paul made the point that he had no respect for the decisions of any court in this life when he said, “It does not concern me in the least that I be judged by you or any human tribunal…” Paul went on to say that he did not even pass judgment on himself.
The bottom—line message is that we should not judge each other nor should we submit to judgment from others. We should not judge ourselves either because we will either be too hard on ourselves which will cause us to think badly about ourselves which could lead to emotional disorders or we will run the risk of becoming egotistical or narcissistic.
Christ told us to serve one another in obedience to His Second Greatest Commandment many times but Paul is talking about a different kind of service than helping each other out of love for each other. Paul is talking about being good stewards of our faith by giving God all praise and honor and glory.
We may help other people when they are in need and we should. We may share our faith with others and we are being good stewards if we do. But we must not give our praise and worship to anyone or to anything on earth. All praise and honor and glory belongs to God and God alone.
When Christ comes again on the last day, He will bring to His Light, all that is hidden within our hearts. Will Christ find that we serve Him with our praise or will Christ find that we serve someone or something else? We cannot fool the Lord. He will know and He will judge us accordingly. If all, of our praise belongs to God; we will receive praise from God and He will show His praise by receiving us into the glory of eternal life in heaven.
You Cannot Serve Two Masters
Gospel Commentary Matthew 6:24-34
Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters…You cannot serve God and mammon.” This is at the heart of today's liturgy and Jesus is telling us very directly that you cannot serve God if material wealth (mammon) here on earth is your top priority. If you are going to serve God, everything which is of this earth has, to be secondary in your life to Him.
Jesus tells us not to worry about our lives, food, drink, or clothing. Life is more than food and the body is more than clothing. Jesus said, “Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they?”
This does not mean that we should have no concern for the things needed for daily sustenance nor does it mean that it is wrong to have more than we need. Jesus is telling us that nothing should be more important in our lives than God is. If God takes care of everything else in nature, He will surely take care of us because we are most dear to Him. Consider the story of creation in Genesis. What did God make in His image? People; He made us in His image. Why did the Father send the Son to die on the Cross? To save us because we are that important to Him and He loves us that much.
Jesus said, “O you of little faith…Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself.” God knows what we need here on earth but His main concern is with providing us everything that we need to be with Him in heaven.
Jesus is telling us to keep our eye on the prize. He is telling us to not be distracted by wealth and physical pleasures. He Said, “Sufficient for a day is its own evil.” The message is that if we make our physical wants and desires top priority in our lives, we will take our eye off of the prize of heaven and if we do that, we will loose the prize of heaven.
