Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time A.  February 27, 2011.  Our Lady of Grace 5:15, 7:30, 9:30.  Isaiah 49: 14-15.  I Corinthians 4:1-4.  Matthew 6:24-34. 

This past week a young father told me that he and his wife had just seen an ultra sound image of their baby.  He was every excited.  He said that the image of their child was so clear that it appeared to be in 3 D. He said, “We are still two months away from holding the baby in our arms. But we have already seen our child.”  Seeing the child made them love their little stranger even more.  Another parent showed me a baby picture of the little girl he was dropping off at kindergarten.  He told me that they had gotten the little girl from China, but they loved her the moment that they saw her.  She was their little girl.  Many years ago a mother brought her teenage daughter to me with the very distressing news that her daughter was pregnant.  What were they going to do now?  Teenagers and babies don’t mix very well.  We all agreed on that.  Over the next several months I talked to the teenager often and supported her decision to have her baby.  I lost contact with that family because I moved from that parish.  Many years later a much older woman called to tell me that her son Ryan was graduating from high school.  She reminded me that her mother and I were the people who talked to her and supported her in her difficult decision to have the baby.  She said, “Now Ryan is the joy of my life.  He is such a wonderful young man. I want you to meet him because you are an important part of the reason he is with us.  I will never stop being grateful to you and my mother.  I am married to a wonderful man and we have other children.  Everything turned out better than I could ever have imagined.”  My sense is that a woman who will keep and love an unplanned and unwanted child is a very special woman, and a man who will marry a woman and love a child that is not his own is a very special man. 

This young woman had courage beyond anything I am conscious of in my own life. I am sure that there were people who told her that there were reasons to justify having an abortion. But whatever the circumstances that led to her being pregnant this young woman decided to remain faithful to her child.  This unexplainable, powerful and mysterious faithfulness of a mother for her child is used by the Prophet Isaiah to teach us about God’s faithfulness to each of us.  “Zion said, ‘The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.’  Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb?  Even should she forget, I will never forget you.  I have engraved you on the palms on my hands.” (Isaiah 49:14-16)    The image of the crucified Christ reminds us that we are engraved on the bleedings hands of Christ.

What about the woman who is unexpectedly pregnant?  What about the young people risking their lives on the streets in the Middle East?   What about us when the moral decision we know we must make seems to challenge us beyond our strength and our resources.   Jesus says to us today, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you besides.”  The advice that Jesus gives us is to always stay focused on the Kingdom of God.   God’s loving care guides our lives in ways that we are not able to see or predict.  We are to seek the Kingdom of God and to trust in God’s providential care for us.

Jesus said, “Therefore I tell you, 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?  So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear?’  All of these things the pagans seek.  Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.  But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness …do no worry abut tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself.  Sufficient for a day is its own evil.”

John Henry Newman made a lonely journey from a prominent role in the Church of England to the Catholic Church.  Most of his friends thought that he was out of his mind. Trusting in Divine Providence Newman saw much of his world crumble or turn against him. On his recent trip to England Pope Benedict moved Cardinal Newman closer to sainthood by naming him “Blessed.”  This poem - now a hymn - tells us how Newman saw his life journey:

Lead, kindly Light, amid th’encircling gloom, lead me on!

The night is dark, and I am far from home; lead me on!

Keep my feet; I do not ask to see the distant scene; one step enough for me.

I loved to choose and see my path; but now lead me on!

Pride ruled my will. Remember not past years!

Lead, Savior, lead me home in childlike faith, home to my God.

To rest forever after earthly strife

In the calm light of everlasting life.

For the wisdom to seek first the kingdom of God and to trust in God’s goodness and providence always we give God thanks and praise.