Jesus in today’s gospel asks a simple, sobering question: “Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?” The obvious answer is “absolutely not.” But this answer reveals why we are often worried in the first place. There is so much that is beyond our control!
Worry is born from a good desire, a desire of survival, of flourishing, of doing well for others. But behind the good desire there can often be fear of not surviving, of not flourishing, of not doing well. Fear is a feeling that never comes from God.
Will worrying add a single moment to our life-span? No. Quite on the contrary, it invades the beauty of the present moment. What we are invited to, instead, is to trust in the force of love and goodness that has gotten us to the present moment and will continue to provide for us, in his way, and at his time. As Padre Pio would say, “Pray, hope, and don’t worry.”