Catholic Dads

Building a Firm Foundation

March 4th, 2011

In the gospel last Sunday, we heard “therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear.” It was all about trusting in God–about not worrying about your needs. God will provide for us everything I need. My diocese, whether intentionally or unintentionally, decided to choose last Sunday as “commitment Sunday” for the Diocesan Annual Appeal. At first glance, it seems as these two things are in direct opposition to each other. On the one hand, we have Jesus in the gospel telling us not to worry about tomorrow, and on the other hand we have my pastor telling us to give money to the diocese. It could be seen that the diocese is “worrying about tomorrow”.

Upon further reflection, these two concepts are not at all incompatible. God does not want us to worry about tomorrow. He wants us to trust in Him and rely on Him to provide us with everything that we need. We are more important to Him than the birds in the sky. God takes care of the birds. He will take care of us, too.

Just because we know that God will take care of us, that does not mean that we can just sit back and do nothing. The Diocese of St. Petersburg, (or any diocese for that matter), has to work to provide for its needs. We, too, have to work to provide for our needs as well. We need to work for our corporal needs. We also need to work for our spiritual needs.

This Sunday, we hear Jesus say, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” We need to be like the wise man who built his house on rock. We need to build a firm foundation. Yes, we have to trust that God will take care of us, physically and spiritually. We should not worry about tomorrow. But, at the same time, we need to work to build that foundation in our lives. We need to work to build a firm foundation to take care of our physical needs. We also need to work to build a firm foundation in our spiritual lives.

We need to do the will of our Father in heaven. The key word is “DO”. It implies that there is an action required. God presents Himself to many people throughout the bible. Never does He appear to someone without calling them to action. We need to bring that action to our lives. We need to spend time in prayer–EVERY DAY–conversing with our heavenly Father, asking what His will is for us. We need to read scripture and other spiritual writings. We need to receive the sacraments regularly–even Reconciliation! Just as we can’t just sit back and think about money and have it drop in our laps, we can’t just sit back and say “Lord, Lord” and expect to get into heaven. We need to back all of that up with action. Having that firm foundation build will make it easier for us to not worry about tomorrow.

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