Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6:33

Jesus cured the sick who suffered from “all kinds of diseases;” and He “drove out many demons.” (Mark :34). He also fed the hungry (John 6:1-14). Yet, His main mission was to proclaim the good news of the kingdom for that was what He “came to do.” (Mark 1:38).

What mission could be more important than healing the sick and restoring them to good health? Isn’t that essentially what Jesus came for? Well, not according to Jesus Himself who said He came to bring good news to the poor (Luke 4:18). The good news of Jesus is both spiritual and material because the human person consists of soul and body. When it comes to which is more important, however, the spiritual comes first. This order of importance is emphasized by Jesus when He states: “Seek you first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33). The things that Jesus is talking about are food , drink, clothing, shelter, and peace; all the things we need “in order to stay alive.” (Matthew 6:25).

What Jesus came to do is to invite all humankind to let God reign in their hearts, and to be reconciled with God and with our fellow man. Much of the sickness, poverty and suffering in our world are traceable to the disharmony that separates mankind from God and from one another. By healing the root cause of disharmony in our lives we position ourselves to receive God’s grace in all areas of our lives; spiritual as well as physical; moral as well as material; social as well as psychological. But to try to solve the world’s problems and our own without first making peace with God is to miss the whole point. It is putting the cart before the horse, and it does not work.

When a delegation of Lakota Indians arrived in Washington in the late nineteenth century to negotiate with the “great white father,” they were appalled at the state of poverty and disharmony in the white man’s culture in spite of enormous wealth. What Jesus asks of us in today’s scripture is to put God’s kingdom and His approval first in our lives as a condition to avoiding such disharmony and inequality.

People often come to church looking for Jesus but they do not find Him. Why? Because they are looking for Him for the wrong reasons. They are looking to get what they want from Jesus; and they are not interested in what Jesus can give them. Jesus is interested in our welfare, but the spiritual must come first. To avoid disappointment the thing we need to do is to forget our personal problems and seek first the kingdom of God that Jesus came to proclaim.

When we find the kingdom of God and His approval then God Himself will see to all our other needs of soul and body.

Fr. Hugh Duffy

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