NOTES for Mat 6:31-34
Perhaps one of the most "frequently asked questions" that arises for many people when they think about God is the complaint that we are so unhappy. "Why does this happen?" Different people, with very different motives, ask God and one another this question. Why are we so unhappy? This question implies not only the incomprehensibility and meaninglessness of the existence of evil and suffering, but also the deep thirst for life built into the human being itself. Why do I have so little of it?
And today's words of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Matthew answer exactly this question, but, as often happens, they answer it in a way that is very unexpected for us. Stereotyped thinking locates the meaning of life in possessing something: goods, time, health, or finally simply happiness. The Lord, by contrast, speaks about belonging. Life is not a matter of possessing the blessings of the Kingdom of Heaven, but of belonging to it. Everything else "will be added" and will be the consequence of this belonging.
These words of Christ can become an amazing source of joy for us if we let them penetrate deeply into our hearts. Incidentally, belonging to the Kingdom of Heaven also satisfies the thirst to belong to something great, a thirst that is also built into us and that we try to drown out with all kinds of murky substitutes, such as personal, social, and national pride.