SEEKING HIS KINGDOM FIRST!

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

St. Felix Porri of Cantalice, Capuchin, Religious (Feast)

By Lorenz S. Centino, Jr.

Luke 12: 22 - 31
22	And he said to his disciples, "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat, nor about your body, what you shall put on.
23	For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.
24	Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!
25	And which of you by being anxious can add a cubit to his span of life?
26	If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?
27	Consider the lilies, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
28	But if God so clothes the grass which is alive in the field today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O men of little faith!
29	And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be of anxious mind.
30	For all the nations of the world seek these things; and your Father knows that you need them.
31	Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things shall be yours as well.

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS:

A BLESSED WEDNESDAY TO ALL!!!

Everybody has the desire for a BETTER LIFE, a life free from troubles and difficulties. Even the proposed Reproductive Health Bill, which is currently debated in Congress while I am making this reflection, has the main intention to promote a BETTER life of the Filipino people through population management, or should I say population control, and maternal care. We are bombarded almost daily with slogans through mass media that express the resolved of people to end poverty and curve graft and corruption, and other social problems that are threatening, if not yet destroying, the well-being and better-life of the people. Everybody, in short, is very ANXIOUS about the “QUALITY of LIFE” one must have in order to live a COMFORTABLE and HAPPY life.

In the Gospel today Jesus is challenging us to look into those that make us anxious about life. Jesus is straight forward in admonishing his disciples saying “do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat, nor about your body, what you shall put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.” If we are not to be anxious with our life, or the quality of our life, should we stop working for food? Should we stop from being concerned with our health by stopping discovering new ways in addressing and curing different kinds of illnesses? Should we stop being concerned with the corruption in our government that wasted people’s taxes and makes the life of the poor more miserable? Shall we simply sit down, armed with strong FAITH in the Divine Providence that will provide us with all that we need the way He takes good care of the birds and the lilies?

Jesus never asked us to be complacent and passive and never work for food, nor stop being creative in addressing diseases that destroy our health, nor indifferent to the injustices and various forms of oppression and exploitation happening in society that make life miserable. Jesus asked us NOT to be ANXIOUS about these concerns, for LIFE is more than these. Jesus rather is challenging us to be ANXIOUS in SEEKING the KINGDOM of GOD. Jesus is leading us to where our HEARTS must be CONCERNED about FIRST. If we seek the Kingdom of God, everything that we need will be ours as well. If we seek God’s Kingdom, we will have FOOD on our tables, we will have CLOTHES to wear, we will have the CURE to different illnesses that threaten the integrity of our body, we will have QUALITY of LIFE that we desire, and above all we will have the taste of the FULLNESS of LIFE.