Sunday 20 April
Fifth Sunday of Easter • John 14:1-12
Anxiety and worry are very much part of being human. Who does not worry or get anguish about all sorts of things? Jesus addressed the issue of a fearful or anxious heart head on in his teaching. In his Sermon on the Mount he urges us not to worry about our life in terms of food, drink and clothing, explaining that none of us by worrying can add a single hour to our lives on earth. In other words, worrying is futile. For proof he points to nature, specifically the lilies of the field which neither toil nor spin but yet are the most beautiful of flowers.
Jesus’ teaching is grounded in the revelation that God is our loving Father who knows all our anxieties and worries and has promised to take care of all our needs and wants (Matt. 6:25-28). Worry could be described as carrying a burden God never intended us to bear. So often it is the case that today is the tomorrow we worried about yesterday! We can’t change the past but we can ruin the present by worrying about the future.
The other problem with worry is that it is a thin stream of fear which trickles through the mind. If we encourage it, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained. And that is exactly what anxiety and worry are: draining and exhausting! As the novelist Mark Twain observed on reflecting on his long life: ‘I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them have never happened.’
Jesus is explicit about the cure for this aliment of the heart. We are invited – not forced or compelled but simply encouraged – to trust in God and trust in Jesus. ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me’ (v. 1 NIV). The great orator and teacher of the faith Bishop Fulton Sheen spoke these words against the sin of anxiety: ‘All worry is atheism, because it is want of trust of God.’ Harsh but true. Today, turn your life over to the Lord, trust him with every detail of your life, cast all your anxiety on him and you will know his love and providence.
‘Oh how great peace and quietness would he possess who should cut off all vain anxiety and place all his confidence in God.’
(Thomas à Kempis)
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