When we live simply, we love God, for then we trust Him. When we live without a huge surplus, we come to rely on God. Content with who we are, dependent on God, we come to praise God, for we know that is who we are, people who God created to adore and praise and glorify Him. Content with what we can do, with how we can serve, we find joy in the little acts of love we can show to our neighbor. Living in love, we find the joy God has always intended for us. So we were told in the Gospel reading this past Sunday, in which
Jesus said to his disciples:
"No one can serve two masters.
He will either hate one and love the other,
or be devoted to one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and mammon."
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life,
what you will eat or drink,
or about your body, what you will wear.
Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
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?
Can any of you by worrying
add a single moment to your life span?
Why are you anxious about clothes?
Learn from the way the wild flowers grow.
They do not work or spin.
But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor
was clothed like one of them.
If God so clothes the grass of the field,
which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow,
will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?
So do not worry and say, 'What are we to eat?'
or 'What are we to drink?'or 'What are we to wear?'
All these things the pagans seek.
Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things will be given you besides.
Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil."*
We are not to worry about what we are to eat and drink and wear. Instead, we are to look at the example of simplicity being lived in front of us. We are to be like the people before us who are grateful to be living with whatever God gives them to eat and drink and wear.
Although I could refer to various indigent persons at this point, I am thinking of a particular homeless man here in Redwood City. Here I'll call him "Manuel." More than once I have heard him softly, politely, meekly ask for food, drink or clothing. I saw too that he was rewarded for his courtesy with all he had requested.
He is well aware that God has been calling him to be humble. Recently Manuel confessed to me that he believes that in his having to wear the particular clothes he wears, that God is calling him to embrace his current circumstances out of humility. Manuel admits that he struggles with this lesson from God, which he believes God has been persistently presenting to him.
Recently all of his property was stolen. He has almost nothing now, but he has been replenishing what he lost. He is truly living in simplicity, yet involuntarily so. I do not mean to insinuate that the simplicity in which I aspire to live can be like the simplicity in which he lives. I am not desperate, but he lives on whatever people are willing to give Him. God loves all of us through our neighbor, yet often the less one has, the more evident this truth becomes.
Manuel gratefully accepts what people give him, which is not much, yet he does receive all he needs. He is not gathering supplies and bringing them back to a safe and secure home. He sleeps in the bushes. He is living on whatever God sends his way.
Yet Manuel gets what he needs. By how he lives, he shows us that we can totally rely on God. When we consider that Manuel is getting all of the food and drink and clothing he needs, we realize that we have no reason to worry about whether God will feed us and clothe us.
Manuel utterly depends on God. He must turn to God. God does not want us to live in destitution, but He does want every one of us to be in constant contact with Him. Insofar as Manuel has to turn to God, he lives in resplendent simplicity. In his circumstances which seem tragic and disastrous to some, he is blessed to be in a position which inclines him to be habitually in prayer to God, continually petitioning God. He is like a little wildflower, clothed in complete simplicity, relying totally on God, and thus magnificently adorned as rich people tend not to be.
God provides for the little flowers of the fields. God gives us all we need too, if we welcome the light of God which enables us to see clearly what God wants to offer to us.
God calls us to have faith in Him. We are not to ask how we will get what we need.
First we are to seek the righteousness of God. If we do, everything else will be given to us.
How can we first seek the Kingdom of God? How can we act so that we value building the Kingdom of God as being more important than everything else, which will then be given to us?
We will succeed as God's servants even if we are only like little flowers. We will thrive if we emulate those who live in simplicity. Just as we can benefit by living in material simplicity, so too we can benefit through simplifying our desires. Like becoming little in how we view possessions, we can also become little in our actions. In seeking to love our neighbor as ourselves,** we are to perform little acts of love for our neighbor.
We are to put first before all else simply loving our neighbor. God calls us to be simple in our desires. We are not to worry about ourselves; we are to focus our attention on loving our neighbor as ourselves.
Saint Therese of Lisieux spoke to this simplicity of spirit. She addressed this simplicity of desire, and wrote about how we will get to Heaven by simply loving our neighbor, whether we seem to be small or great.
Saint Therese, also known as "The Little Flower," since she saw herself as a little flower, mused upon why some saints were towering giants, while other saints were simple little servants. She realized that just as a meadow has many different types of flowers, so the Kingdom of Heaven is populated with many different kinds of saints. The strikingly deep red rose does not deprive the lowly little daisy of its modest charm. And both are infinitely loved by Jesus.
Seeing herself as a little flower, Saint Therese spoke of her little way of getting to Heaven by doing little acts of love for her neighbor. She knew that this little way would get her to Heaven. She insisted, "My way is a sure one."
We are not to worry that we must be doing huge grand works. We are to be content to do what we can. God calls us simply to love the person directly in front of us.
We too can be clothed in abundant simplicity. If we consent, God will clothe us in brilliant majesty.
This way is sure. If we have so little faith that we have no confidence in God, we will not believe in the surety of this way. Yet if we have the little faith of the sure way, then in confidence we will believe The Truth that This Way is The Life.***
God calls us to love our neighbor. If we truly, deeply love our neighbor, we will feel true, profound, eternal joy right now.
If we have the sure trust in God which He wills us to have, we will have the joy that is yet to come, and this is a sure hope we have in His promise. Yet if we trust God with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul, and with all our strength now, we will start to have some of this joy now, while we are still in this life.
This eternal joy is the joy that is born of everlasting love. We can be in this joy right now when we totally love the person right in front of us, when we completely depend on God, when we love God with all we have right now.
* Matthew 6:24-34
** Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14
*** John 14:6
Jesus said to his disciples:
"No one can serve two masters.
He will either hate one and love the other,
or be devoted to one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and mammon."
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life,
what you will eat or drink,
or about your body, what you will wear.
Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
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?
Can any of you by worrying
add a single moment to your life span?
Why are you anxious about clothes?
Learn from the way the wild flowers grow.
They do not work or spin.
But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor
was clothed like one of them.
If God so clothes the grass of the field,
which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow,
will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?
So do not worry and say, 'What are we to eat?'
or 'What are we to drink?'or 'What are we to wear?'
All these things the pagans seek.
Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things will be given you besides.
Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil."*
We are not to worry about what we are to eat and drink and wear. Instead, we are to look at the example of simplicity being lived in front of us. We are to be like the people before us who are grateful to be living with whatever God gives them to eat and drink and wear.
Although I could refer to various indigent persons at this point, I am thinking of a particular homeless man here in Redwood City. Here I'll call him "Manuel." More than once I have heard him softly, politely, meekly ask for food, drink or clothing. I saw too that he was rewarded for his courtesy with all he had requested.
He is well aware that God has been calling him to be humble. Recently Manuel confessed to me that he believes that in his having to wear the particular clothes he wears, that God is calling him to embrace his current circumstances out of humility. Manuel admits that he struggles with this lesson from God, which he believes God has been persistently presenting to him.
Recently all of his property was stolen. He has almost nothing now, but he has been replenishing what he lost. He is truly living in simplicity, yet involuntarily so. I do not mean to insinuate that the simplicity in which I aspire to live can be like the simplicity in which he lives. I am not desperate, but he lives on whatever people are willing to give Him. God loves all of us through our neighbor, yet often the less one has, the more evident this truth becomes.
Manuel gratefully accepts what people give him, which is not much, yet he does receive all he needs. He is not gathering supplies and bringing them back to a safe and secure home. He sleeps in the bushes. He is living on whatever God sends his way.
Yet Manuel gets what he needs. By how he lives, he shows us that we can totally rely on God. When we consider that Manuel is getting all of the food and drink and clothing he needs, we realize that we have no reason to worry about whether God will feed us and clothe us.
Manuel utterly depends on God. He must turn to God. God does not want us to live in destitution, but He does want every one of us to be in constant contact with Him. Insofar as Manuel has to turn to God, he lives in resplendent simplicity. In his circumstances which seem tragic and disastrous to some, he is blessed to be in a position which inclines him to be habitually in prayer to God, continually petitioning God. He is like a little wildflower, clothed in complete simplicity, relying totally on God, and thus magnificently adorned as rich people tend not to be.
God provides for the little flowers of the fields. God gives us all we need too, if we welcome the light of God which enables us to see clearly what God wants to offer to us.
God calls us to have faith in Him. We are not to ask how we will get what we need.
First we are to seek the righteousness of God. If we do, everything else will be given to us.
How can we first seek the Kingdom of God? How can we act so that we value building the Kingdom of God as being more important than everything else, which will then be given to us?
We will succeed as God's servants even if we are only like little flowers. We will thrive if we emulate those who live in simplicity. Just as we can benefit by living in material simplicity, so too we can benefit through simplifying our desires. Like becoming little in how we view possessions, we can also become little in our actions. In seeking to love our neighbor as ourselves,** we are to perform little acts of love for our neighbor.
We are to put first before all else simply loving our neighbor. God calls us to be simple in our desires. We are not to worry about ourselves; we are to focus our attention on loving our neighbor as ourselves.
Saint Therese of Lisieux spoke to this simplicity of spirit. She addressed this simplicity of desire, and wrote about how we will get to Heaven by simply loving our neighbor, whether we seem to be small or great.
Saint Therese, also known as "The Little Flower," since she saw herself as a little flower, mused upon why some saints were towering giants, while other saints were simple little servants. She realized that just as a meadow has many different types of flowers, so the Kingdom of Heaven is populated with many different kinds of saints. The strikingly deep red rose does not deprive the lowly little daisy of its modest charm. And both are infinitely loved by Jesus.
Seeing herself as a little flower, Saint Therese spoke of her little way of getting to Heaven by doing little acts of love for her neighbor. She knew that this little way would get her to Heaven. She insisted, "My way is a sure one."
We are not to worry that we must be doing huge grand works. We are to be content to do what we can. God calls us simply to love the person directly in front of us.
We too can be clothed in abundant simplicity. If we consent, God will clothe us in brilliant majesty.
This way is sure. If we have so little faith that we have no confidence in God, we will not believe in the surety of this way. Yet if we have the little faith of the sure way, then in confidence we will believe The Truth that This Way is The Life.***
God calls us to love our neighbor. If we truly, deeply love our neighbor, we will feel true, profound, eternal joy right now.
If we have the sure trust in God which He wills us to have, we will have the joy that is yet to come, and this is a sure hope we have in His promise. Yet if we trust God with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul, and with all our strength now, we will start to have some of this joy now, while we are still in this life.
This eternal joy is the joy that is born of everlasting love. We can be in this joy right now when we totally love the person right in front of us, when we completely depend on God, when we love God with all we have right now.
* Matthew 6:24-34
** Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14
*** John 14:6
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