Do not be Anxious about your Life.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us, “Do not be anxious about your life.” (Matt 6:25, 6:25, 27-28). St. Paul admonishes us, “Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God” (Philippians 4:6). Likewise St. Peter reminds us, “So humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your worries upon him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:6–7).

If we are honest, this is a lofty goal. We often do feel anxious. It could be about our finances, or about our health, or our safety, or the security of our closet relationships. During the pandemic, all of these concerns have increased.

Jesus says to us, “Peace be with you!” but how can we walk in this peace?

On a purely human level, there are things we can do. First, I would like to recommend the book by George R. Faller, and Heather Wright, Sacred Stress: A Radically Different Approach to Using Life’s Challenges for Positive Change, (2016). This book integrates new understandings from psychology with a Christian perspective.

Research has shown that if we change the way we think about stress, we will find that our bodies react differently. If we reframe our thinking to expand our perspective on potentially stressful events, then our body will feel less stress.

We need to reframe stressful events as a challenge rather than as a threat. I love the following quote by Abraham Lincoln, “We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”

We have a choice. We can complain and enter into negative thinking and as a result feel distress, or we can rejoice and enter joy and peace. The same rose bush can create two entirely different realities.

It is easy to see how we could make this a part of our prayer. When faced with a threatening situation we could take this concern before our Lord in prayer. Prayers of thanksgiving to our Lord for the many blessings we have received can also help us avoid complaining and negative thinking.

A modern stress management model involves knowing, naming, and reframing our stress. First, we need to recognize that we are entering into stress, then name it, then reframe the experience.

The first step is to recognize that we are feeling stressed. The reason this is necessary is that we are often unaware of what is happening. Psychologists call this emotional self-awareness or mindfulness. There are many ways to understand mindfulness, but I would recommend the book by Gregory Bottaro, The Mindful Catholic: Finding God One Moment at a Time (2018). We need to become aware of our emotions in the moment.

The second step is to name our emotions. Very often, our body may be giving us signals that we are experiencing a stressful emotion. It is very healthy to take ownership of these feelings and to try to gain clarity and name the emotion we feel. Naming the emotion helps us to gain control and calm ambiguous emotional reactions.

The third step is to reframe the stress. Research on people in stressful situations has shown that “naming our anxiety and then reframing it as excitement” has a huge impact on our performance under stress. Reframing our stress can also help us to place God into the equation. Only then can we walk in the advice of St. Paul, “Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God” (Philippians 4:6).

Through deepening our relationship with God in prayer, we can experience his peace in our life. God desires our happiness and calls us to experience his joy.

A Heart for God

The late nineteenth century author, Lewis Carol, (author of Alice in Wonderland) begins his famous poem, Jabberwocky, with these famous words,

 

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

      Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

      And the mome raths outgrabe.

 

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

      The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

      The frumious Bandersnatch!”

 

Lewis’ words are, of course, are sheer playful nonsense.

 

I think there is a chance that someone today might hear Jesus warning, “Beware of the scribes" (Mark 12:38) in a similar manner. After all, have you ever met a living real life Scribe? Certainly, no one uses that title in the Church.

It might be good to note that at the time of Jesus most people were completely uneducated and illiterate. The Scribes were experts in the law, or religious leaders who used their skill at being able to read the Jewish Scriptures to teach others about the faith. Some of them were lay people, often from the Pharisees, but most were part of the Priestly class or the Levites who served in the Temple in Jerusalem.

While we may not have scribes today, we do have religious leaders who help others to learn about their faith. Today lay catechists, deacons, priests and bishops fill this role. Performing this task in the Church is a very important and honorable task, as it was in Jesus day. In last Sunday’s Gospel reading, Jesus compliments a scribe for being “close to the kingdom of God.”

While being a catechist or teacher of the faith is a very good thing, at times the people who fill this role can destroy the good effects of their teaching by lacking what today we might call authenticity. The personal failings of such individuals are denounced by Jesus.

Jesus says that the scribes “like to go around in long robes and accept greetings in the marketplaces” (Mk 12:38). Jesus notes that they also liked “the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts” (Mk 12:39). In other words, they like to show off and to display their wealth to others through their elaborate robes and to have others treat them as better than everyone else.

The most common type of outer garment in Palestine was a “cloak” consisting of a rectangular piece of fabric of varying size that was draped around the body. Wealthy people, on the other hand, would wear a long flowing robe that signified their wealth. In the Old Testament, such long flowing robes might be worn by the high priest or a king, and so by association wealthy people would wear these robes to display their importance.

Ironically, when God established the tribes of Priest and Levites to serve the Jewish people, he did not allow these tribes to have any land of their own. They were to live off donations from others.

At the time of Jesus, scribes were forbidden to receive payment for teaching; they depended on private donations for their living. Subsidizing a scribe was an act of Jewish piety. While scribes should be honored and respected for their office, it is hard to imagine how they would become so wealthy that they could afford expensive robes. Jesus is pointing out that their hearts are in the wrong place.

This behavior is hypocritical, and Jesus says so in Matthew's Gospel. Jesus warns, ““But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you shut the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither enter yourselves, nor allow those who would enter to go in” (Mt 23:13). Hypocrisy damages people's faith and in many cases even causes them to reject the faith.

Does hypocrisy affect religious leaders today? A recent survey of Millennials who don’t go to church reveals their complaint that Christians are judgmental, hypocritical and insensitive to others. While their perceptions may not be entirely accurate, we definitely have some work to do. The number one thing our Millennials and Gen Z youth are searching for is “authenticity.”

Hypocrisy is very bad, but Jesus points out even worse behavior by the scribes. He says they “devour the houses of widows and, as a pretext, recite lengthy prayers” (Mk 12:40). Jesus uses the word “devour” metaphorically to denote an unethical appropriation of the property of widows. 

Moses instructed the people; “You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, or take a widow’s garment in pledge” (Dt 24:17). In the ancient world, widows were among the most vulnerable members of society. Many of the Old Testament prophets repeatedly condemned the exploitation of widows (Isa 10:1–2; Jer 7:6; Ezek 22:7).

“Devouring the houses of widows” could mean fleecing their estates by charging excessive legal fees or sponging off their hospitality. There is extremely unholy irony in this accusation. Like the Priest and Levites, the widow and the orphan were to be protected and cared for by the Jewish people because of their vulnerability.

Finally, in order to cover up for their fraudulent activity, the scribes made an empty show of piety, by reciting lengthy prayers. Empty ritual cannot camouflage a lack of authenticity and hypocrisy.

The final scene of our Gospel reading shows us the counterpoint to this bad behavior. While sitting in the Temple, Jesus observes wealthy people putting large sums of money into the Temple treasury.

Finally, he observes a “poor widow” who contributes “two small coins worth a few cents” (Mk 12:42). The word used for the coins is a lepton. The copper lepton was the smallest Greek coin denomination, so small in fact, that it took two of them to equal a quadrans, or the smallest denomination of Roman coins.

Jesus says, “Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood” (Mk 12:43–44).

Clearly, it is not the amount given that matters, but the heart. This poor widow was able to trust that God would take care of her. She contributed everything she had. She was completely humble and detached from earthly things. Her heart was open to God. Out of her poverty, she was not trusting in ritual, or prestige, or good reputation, but in a profound relationship with her creator. Jesus was pleased with her and recognized the gift of her heart.

Like the scribe in last Sunday’s Gospel, the poor widow understood how to love God with her whole heart. Perhaps each one of us needs to examine our hearts today and to ask him:

What am I doing merely for the sake of appearances?

Am I too attached to things of this world?

Am I truly seeking to love God with my whole heart?

Am I willing to give him everything, and yet to trust that he will take care of me and lead me to happiness?

 

Mark 12:38–44      THIRTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME: YEAR B