Do not worry about tomorrow

Ash Wednesday began the season of Lent, when the Church observes a 40 day period before Easter. Lent was earlier called the Quadragesima, which comes from the Latin word for forty. Lent means springtime. It is a time to renew our relationship with God - just like in spring everything blossoms with new life, so in our spiritual lives, we should blossom like new flowers.

Jesus said:

Ask and you will receive, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives and everyone who seeks finds, and the door is open to anyone who knocks.

Which one of you hands his son a stone when he asks for bread, or a snake when he asks for a fish? If you, then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will give good things to those who ask Him

Matthew 11:7-11

and:

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 nor reap. They gather nothing into barns, yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not 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 splendour 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?"

Matthew 6:25-32

The common thread in both sayings of Jesus is faith. If one has faith, one would not worry about tomorrow, trusting that God will provide. The sisters of Missionaries of Charity, to name a good example, do not have any income other than donations from people. They live out this trust in Providence, and their needs are actually provided for. How difficult it is to actually trust everything to Providence.

Fasting is a way to leave aside the worry about food, and remember God. It helps to foster solidarity with those who have little to eat. By fasting or abstaining from things that we like, we live out the message of Jesus, that "life is more important than food and the body more important than clothing". We come to terms with what we really are - creatures of God, who enjoy all good things because of His Providence and Mercy, not because of our merit.

Avoiding things of this life that give us joy is one way of living our the sentiment to God that our real treasure is not the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the things we enjoy, but God Himself. God is far greater than any of these. We have the gift of faith, through which we know, more surely than anything else, that God will keep His promise to grant us eternal beatitude if we are faithful. We hope that we will see God face to face and spend eternity with Him, and we live with that hope always.