Consider the lilies...

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will 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 of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?"

Jesus of Nazareth, Matthew 6:25-30

Jesus first spoke these words to first century Judeans, most likely peasants. How much more should his words apply to twenty-first century Americans? Most of us do not seriously worry about whether we will have food or clothing tomorrow. But many of us do worry about money, some of us regularly, most at least occasionally. Will we be able to pay the bills on time? How will I ever pay off my student loans? Will I be able to support my children in college? Where will I live when I retire?

Jesus' words sound good, but how can we live them in practice? How should day laborers - who never knew whether or not they would be able to buy food for the day - take these words? To this day, there are individuals who die from starvation and exposure. And what of us, we who have larger incomes, but correspondingly larger fiscal responsibilities? Peasants didn't have student loans and car payments to deal with.

I believe Jesus' words are intended to be words of comfort, that he meant them to be taken seriously by the people of his day, and that they are meant for us as well. These words are spoken to a community - all of the "yous" are in the plural - and they speak the truth: the Church has enough food and clothing to take care of its own. We, the Church, are not intended to worry about money. Worrying will not make us richer. It will make us live shorter, not longer, lives. 

The resources we have are not always distributed to those who have need, but let us begin with this fundamental belief: God has given the Church enough.

What do you think?
Are these words for the Church as a whole, or for each individual? Are individual faithful Christians sometimes left without enough food and shelter? As an individual, how can I not worry when my debt payments are as large - or larger than - my income?