Worry and Happiness

Gospel: Matthew 6: 24-24

Everyone is familiar with the phrase - "Don't worry - be happy." Jesus himself said this very thing in the sermon on the mount.  Recall that the sermon began with the Beatitudes, the eightfold pathway to happiness in our life: being merciful, a peacemaker, being poor in spirit, meek, pure of heart.  If we but follow this path to happiness, we would not worry about anything at all.

But we do worry because our hearts are divided.  God's kingdom has provided the Beatitudes as our pathway to happiness, values that are utterly antithetical to every earthly kingdom that exists based on lies and violence.  Worldly kingdoms, in fact, create worry in order to push people to entrust themselves to the strong man, to the worldly powers that promise all sorts of things in the name of security.  

But Jesus tells us not to worry, to trust in God entirely as we go about our daily life.  If we put our trust in these values of the Beatitudes, we will see how false are the promises of worldly kingdoms and possessions.  We will not worry, for we will have the confidence Paul had in saying that nothing can separate us from God's love and mercy, and if we have that then we have everything.