The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friends in Christ,

In today's Gospel reading (St. Matthew 6. 24-33), Jesus tells us that we cannot serve God and the world and that we should not be solicitous for the things of this world.

Our very natures are made to serve. God created us to know, love, and serve Him. Our fallen natures, led by the devils and the bad example of others, often transform us from servants of God into servants of the world. As devils and men rebel against God and revolt from serving Him, they enslave themselves to creatures they were intended to be masters over. The correct order of God is inverted.

The proper order is for all the other creatures in this world to serve humans and for humans to serve God. When humans rebel against God, the rest of creation rebels against humans. Humans go from being the masters of other creatures to becoming the slaves of other creatures. The greedy man becomes a slave of money. He labors to acquire it; he builds safes or vaults to store it in, guards it day and night so no one can steal it from him, etc. It is not he who owns the money and controls it, but rather the money now owns and controls the man who serves money. The same can be said with every vice or sin.

The devils want us to believe that in rebelling against God and serving creatures, we are free when the very opposite is true. Rebellion against God is enslaving ourselves to devils or other creatures. Serving God is true freedom. The service we lovingly render to God lifts us from servitude to children and heirs of God.

Loving and serving creatures enslaves us. Many spend their lives serving creatures, and then at the end of their lives here on earth, they are left with nothing. The riches and pleasures of this life cannot be taken with us into the next life. All of our labor was in vain because we are left with nothing.

When we become true children of God, loving and serving Him in this world, we take possession of creatures and use them for God's greater honor and glory. They become tools to advance our happiness in this life and eternity. The key is using them for the intended purposes for which God made them. The children of God do not inordinately pursue things or pleasures in this world, but they find they usually have more than they need at any one point in time.

When we love God, we need not worry about what we will eat, where we will live, or what we will wear. Our Father in Heaven knows what we need, and He takes care of us. His loving children are much more important to Him than the birds of the air or the flowers of the field. If we see how wonderfully God cares for His lesser creatures, we should be able to see that His providence is even greater for us.

The pagans, who do not know God, must worry about the cares of this world because they do not realize they have a Father in Heaven who watches over them and lovingly cares for them. We know better, and so we must behave better.

If our first and primary goal is to obtain Heaven, then we need not worry about anything else because God will provide all that we need. However, this does not mean God's children do not need to work, save, or be prudent. Since the beginning, it has been our duty (labor or work) to subdue the earth and bring all of God's creatures into the right order of loving and serving Him. We must labor for our food, shelter, and clothing. What is different is the intention or motivation we have.

When we go to our daily labors, we should principally focus on loving God. We offer our works to God for the love of Him. He has labored and suffered for us; this is our opportunity to return this Love. We still perform the same tasks, and we still receive the same worldly compensation. The difference is that these things are not our primary purpose or goal. Our primary goal is loving and serving God. For this, we obtain eternal happiness in Heaven and receive all the desired good that we need in this world. In seeking first the Kingdom of Heaven, we obtain eternal happiness and the blessings of what we need in this life.

When our labors are performed for the love of God and with the desire of obtaining eternal happiness in Heaven, we are more likely to do them well. We put our best efforts into them. This increases our merit in Heaven, and it quite frequently increases our temporal rewards as well.

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