Message of Abbot Paul - Saturday 18th June

Message from Fr Paul for Saturday, 18th June 2022

 What do you do when a chick falls out of its nest or hasn’t quite got the hang of flying yet? Yesterday, after Vespers, I had to go out to the car and there on the path chirping for its parents was a young green woodpecker. He had no fear, not that I went too close, but I did chat with him briefly. I could hear his parents loudly encouraging him and he was able to leap a few feet at a time. As I write these words, I can still hear him being told off by his parents. I hope he’ll be alright. He’s quite large and has all his feathers. We have several pairs of green woodpeckers at Belmont, such attractive birds and with a mocking laugh, which is why one of its popular names is ‘yaffle’.

 I was able to collect my mother from hospital yesterday morning and take her to the nursing home, where she’s having a few days respite care. I was amused by the nurses at the hospital, who told me that my mum had said to them that her son was “an old man, and rather slow.” So, now I know!

 We continue our reading of the Sermon on the Mount, (Mt 6: 24-34), where Jesus warns his disciples against excessive love for material things, especially money, and the accumulation of wealth. He says, “No one can be the slave of two masters: he will either hate the first and love the second, or treat the first with respect and the second with scorn. You cannot be the slave both of God and of money.” He uses the word slave to signify someone who willingly surrenders himself to God or to material things, knowing that surrendering our lives to God results in the freedom of the children of God, whereas enslavement to material things takes any hope of freedom away and we are led to become dependent on sin and evil. You can’t have both, as some people would pretend you can. This opening leads Jesus to speak about Divine Providence and trusting in God to give us what we need. He knows that many of us spend our lives worrying about this and that, often about things of relative unimportance, whereas trusting in God and his providence frees us from worry and wasting our time. What follows are some of the most beautiful and memorable words of Jesus, words that have inspired so many saints, such as St Francis of Assisi. “That is why I am telling you not to worry about your life and what you are to eat, nor about your body and how you are to clothe it. Surely life means more than food, and the body more than clothing! Look at the birds in the sky. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they are? Can any of you, for all his worrying, add one single cubit to his span of life? And why worry about clothing? Think of the flowers growing in the fields; they never have to work or spin; yet I assure you that not even Solomon in all his regalia was robed like one of these. Now if that is how God clothes the grass in the field which is there today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, will he not much more look after you, you men of little faith? So do not worry.”    

 Jesus ends this section with one of his most famous and popular sayings, also one we can live by. “Set your hearts on his kingdom first, and on his righteousness, and all these other things will be given you as well. So do not worry about tomorrow: tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” We pray for the grace to live by Jesus’ words, that we might seek first the kingdom of God, first things first, then God will sort the rest out for us. I’ve always found it to be perfectly true. Lord, may all our worries end in you. Amen.