The Sermon on the Mount (Bossuet)/Day 30
Thirtieth Day
On having no anxiety about this life, but trusting in Providence. — Matt. vi. 25, 26, seq.
'BE not solicitous.’ This injunction does not forbid reasonable forethought, nor well-regulated work; but only anxiety and worry of mind.
'The life is more than the food, and the body more than the raiment.’ God, Who gave you life, and Who formed your body before you were able to take care of it, will not fail to give you the rest. He who has done the greater will not disdain to do the less.
'Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.’ Happy were these little animals — happy the flowers — a thousand times happy every one of these small creatures — could they but know their own happiness in being objects of God’s Fatherly care and receiving all things straight from His hands! Sin has subjected us to innumerable hard labours: but we must not carry these to the point of getting over-anxious. We must work, certainly; this is the penalty that God Himself has imposed for sin; but let us work in the spirit of penance, and leave the fruit of our toil to God. 'O men of little faith!... Your Father knoweth that you have need of these things.' Do you doubt that He knows what you need? He made you: He has promised to see to your wants: do you doubt His will to do it? He Who has forestalled you in all things: — Who gave you your being, which He had not promised to you: —is not likely to refuse you what He promised even before you existed! ' Be not,' then, 'solicitous.'
See how you grow; how your body nourishes itself. Can you add one cubit to your stature? God has been causing you to grow in your sleep, and has made you develop from an infant into a man. Believe, then, that He will do everything else necessary for your body: lean on His power and His goodness.
To the words ‘ be not solicitous ' which St Matthew has recorded, St Luke adds: ‘and be not lifted up on high ’ [1]: — as if in danger of falling, and always quaking with fear; for this is the result of over-anxiety. Let your state be, always, not that of a man hanging in the air, but of one firmly supported by Divine Providence.
- ↑ Luke xii. 29.