Forty years ago, as a young priest, I would have never preached “To seek God’s kingdom first and the rests will be given you.” After all, in my order, we always worked hard to have an income. In fact, in our school, I had to hold at one time, four positions or offices to increase the income of the order. In my preaching, I had to water down the Gospel, which Pope Benedict XVI said we should never do.
Most of the religious congregations, I have noticed, are all working so hard to have enough income for their communities. So where does “Seek first the kingdom of God” come in? Where does all “the rest will be given you” come in? The text seems to infer that if you seek God’s kingdom fully, He will provide all your needs. Maybe, most religious orders are not seeking God’s kingdom fully, that’s why they have to work for an income or solicit donations.
Unfortunately, I have never seen this promise fulfilled in actuality. So why should I preach it? I wasn’t sure it was true. I have never seen any religious community, not even the strictest contemplative, free from having to work for an income for their sustenance, at least by selling Holy Cookies and the like.
In the life of St. Benedict of Nursia, which I am sure Pope Benedict is conscious of, there was an incident where the monks had to give away all their supplies to the needy. And St. Benedict told them not to worry. Assuring them there will be much food the next day. And true enough, when the procurator opened the monastery gates the next morning, ample supply of food was there waiting.
I have read many times in the lives of saints where they did not have to work to have any means of income. They simply served God with all their hearts, etc…. and everything else was given to them. Wasn’t St. Francis of Assisi another example?
In the lives of the saints and even ordinary Christian with great faith, it is noticed that those who observed the fulness of the Gospel, i.e. having the maturity of faith that Our Holy Father described, did not have to do anything to earn an income or even to solicit donations to sustain themselves. Everything just came….whatever they needed. But when they did not observe the fullness of the Gospel, the promise of the Gospel did not apply and they ended up needing to do something to sustain themselves.
“Ora et Labora” is a Benedictine motto. But the monks do not work as a means of income. They work as a means of disciplining themselves. Their sufficiency is completely in the providence of God which could come from their manual work but most of it comes from nowhere… or more exactly from the promise of the Gospel. Now I preach the Gospel without watering it down, “Seek first the kingdom of God”. . . but I sound like an economic impossibility.