Anxiety and the Economy.

 It seems that every morning the reports on the economy are getting worse and worse. Horrendous reports about men killing their families are on the increase, stress, anxiety, worry, psychotropic drugs are no doubt at an all time high. At my company there has been forty lay offs and I might be on the chopping board by the end of the year. People are describing this time as a desperate time, where they feel a sense of drowning or falling into a hole of darkness and despair. 

     Today in my daily reading of Sacred Scripture the wonderful words of Paul rang with a breath of fresh air in my ears,

 "do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philip 4:6-7. 

     What words of wisdom and comfort in a perilous time! Paul here is echoing the Apostolic Tradition that handed down the teaching of Jesus in Mat 6:25-34 as well as Lk 12:22-32. We, being children of the Kingdom of God - need not worry about earthly possessions, earthly cares or earthly worries, since these are but transient and none will carry over into our eternal existence. We are in direct opposition to the attitude of those in the flesh. For to them today is all you got, so live while you can, party it up, and cross your fingers you don't lose your job. 

 Our hope and trust is utterly different. We are to set our complete and total trust in the Lord. en pantu Paul says, hymon ta aitemata gnorizestho pros ton theon. In consequence, we acquire a complete eirene tou theou he hyperechousa panta noun. It is this realization that we are taken care of that thanksgiving pours out of our hearts. The Greek of thanksgiving is eucharistias, where we as Catholics derive our word Eucharist, the ultimate form of thanksgiving and dependance on the grace of God as Irenaeus said. Those in the world do just the opposite, lost and desperate "For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened." Rom 1:21. Our hearts on the contrary Paul writes in Philippians will be guarded. 

Memorize this passage of Sacred Scripture and comfort those in your lives that feel they are drowning.