Gospel (Mt 6.24-34)
24 No one can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other, or the one and despise the other can not serve God and mammon.
25 Therefore I tell you about your life Do not worry about what you will eat or drink, nor about your body, what you will wear Is not life is worth more the food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air do not sow or reap or store in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they? 27 And who of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his life? 28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Observe how the lilies of the field do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of them. ; 30 Now if God so clothe the grass of the field, today and tomorrow is cast into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? 31 not worry, saying, What shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear? 32 all these things do the Gentiles, your heavenly Father knows that you need. 33 Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its ".
The child who loses his parents can not be alone, needs to have someone to put his trust, someone who will give him security. He seeks a voluntary model, a reference point in life.
also happens with God: no one can do without, can not be remain orphans, and whoever rejects it, replace it immediately with a replacement. The danger is not atheism, but the choice of the wrong god.
Many believe that, in the highest, there is a Father who cares for them, they are convinced that he feels for them even maternal feelings: he is interested, with affection and solicitude to their needs. If he is the father of all, people are not traveling companions, neighbors, more or less sympathetic, more or less deserving of attention are not the antagonists with which to compete, or even worse, enemies to fight, but the brothers to love and help.
Not everyone accepts this Father. To those who reject it looks now, with all its enchanting charm, the most seductive, the most devious of idols, money. Today's Gospel begins with a complaint of dangerous quest'idolo (v. 24).
Matthew has preserved the Aramaic - Mamone - used by Jesus is significant: it derives from the root 'aman which means provide security, be solid, reliable. The money, as God provides all good things to those who pay worship donates food, beverages, health, pleasure, fun, but what does he ask in return? Like any god, requires everything.
God is the Reference thoughts and actions, of human life and wants to be loved "with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might" (Deuteronomy 6:5). The money demands the total involvement of his devotees. For his sake we must be prepared to surrender their dignity, cheat, steal, to destroy others, to lose friends, even to the neglect of his wife and children (for them there will be no more time!), Must also be prepared to kill. People who love to have all the money, but are no longer men, they become slaves. "The love of money - the author of the letter to Timothy - is the root of all Mali ; for this craving that some have wandered from the faith and are, themselves through with many sorrows "(1 Tim 6:10) and is idolatry (Ephesians 5:5). The first
madness in which drag the worship of Mamone is the accumulation. Who builds the illusion of having found a concrete goal and rewarding to give meaning to life, but he only discovered a makeshift room to dispel the thought of death. "Leaving a legacy" is a palliative.
Father in heaven is situated at the antipodes: Calls to the renunciation of the use of selfish money. He does not ask for "Do not steal," to give alms, but to establish a new relationship with the goods, and proposes sharing, attention to the needs of others. Any form of self storage is a violation of the First Commandment: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3).
No man can serve two masters, either he will hate the one and love the other, or the one and despise the other. You can not serve God and Mamone. We want good tenerceli
both, convinced that what we do not grant him to give the other one. But no two are business partners, are antagonistic, can not be together in the human heart, give the opposite order. The Father in heaven repeats: "Love, help your brother, gives food to the hungry, clothing the naked, sell your house to those without a home." The money order instead: "It exploits the poor, not taking anything for free, do not worry about those in need, respect and appreciate the people in proportion to what they have."
The detachment from the goods is a recurrent theme in the gospel and is one of the most difficult to assimilate. For man becomes attached to the treasures of this world is prone to idolize to forget the inheritance which is imperishable, it does not stain and will not rot, that is kept in heaven "(1 Peter 1:4).
Since his first speech - one of the mountain from which the song is taken today - Jesus warns his disciples: "Do not store up treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal: But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, your heart will be also "(Mt 6, 19-21). Who wants to follow the calls to give your cloak as well and advised not to turn their backs on the party seeking a loan (Mt 6,40.42).
Requests for Jesus are paradoxical and puzzling. Before deciding to accept them, one can not but wonder: What will become of my life? What do you eat, what to drink, how I dress? Who do I ensure that I will have enough to live then? I do not regret having declined to safety in the money accumulated and enjoyed? It will not be better simply to lavish some charity?
to these questions is answered in Jesus second part of today's Gospel (vv. 25-34) which calls for confidence in the Father who is in heaven, that takes care of the children and that will not fail the necessary to those who believed in him.
images with which it is presented in the care of God for his creatures are delightful: "Look at the birds of the air do not sow or reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they? Observe how the lilies of the field do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of them "(vv. 26-29). It gives the impression of being a naive dreamer, to bring a carefree, joyful, but completely detached from reality.
Not so. Jesus does not suggest the hallway, laziness, disinterest or resignation, proposes a new relationship with the goods, not hoarding, but the sharing based on trust in the providence of God
The recall is the experience of the exodus, Israel was a people on pilgrimage, could not accumulate , planted temporary tents, constructed warehouses not solid and immovable, and the manna could not be collected in greater quantities than is necessary for a day otherwise filled with maggots and rotting (Ex 16.17-20), the land was not owned by No, each had only for a moment, that little area that trampled, then, when his foot moved forward, the land did not belong to more, it became the property of those who followed him. In this way God had brought his people to detachment from the goods which, although necessary for life, are corruptible and passengers, but seduce, enchant and make your eyes off the goal.
The rabbis noticed that the Israelites who followed Moses in the desert without ever asking: "How can we cross the desert, with no commissions to take with us for the journey."
Jesus does not condemn the planning, foresight, but worry about tomorrow, the anxiety that lose the joy of life and leads inevitably to accumulate and transform into idols dehumanizing the goods of this world.
not worry, do not inquietatevi : verbs that are Today in the song are repeated six times. Are an echo of the wise reflections of Sirach: "A lot of kills and there is concern nell'affanno utility. The concern for the livelihood lose sleep, it leaves more of a disease "(Sir 30.23 to 31.2).
The trouble is common to both the poor as the rich, the money not only eliminates the worries and concerns, but sharpens and exaggerates. We know the sleepless nights of the fathers of families unemployed, without money, with his wife and children to support, but we know that the fears are of no use, do not solve the problems of food and clothing, are an unnecessary expenditure of energy.
Jesus suggests its remedy to this disease: looking up to heaven, to the Father in heaven. This is not to remain with our hands, but face reality with new hearts. Jesus echoes the words of the author of Hebrews: "Let your conduct be without covetousness, content with what you have, because God has said, I will not leave and will never leave you" (Hebrews 13:5).
Even in the face of serious difficulties, he invites people to maintain peace of mind because the man's life is in the hands of God who never abandons his children, accompanying them at all times, bless their efforts and their commitment.
Fernando Armellini (biblical scholar)
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