Dear Friends in Christ,
A sparrow is a small bird which was the cheapest meat poor people could buy at the market to eat during Jesus’ times. In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus uses the sparrow to teach us about God’s love and providence. He makes it clear that “not one (sparrow) falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge.” Jesus goes on to teach disciples “do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”
The United States Catholic Catechism for Adults teaches us that divine providence is “God’s loving care and concern for all He has made; He continues to watch over creation, sustaining its existence and presiding over its development and destiny.” In our own daily lives, divine providence works so that God’s plan for our lives and the life of the world is carried out.
If we believe in divine providence we must also have confidence in God’s love for us. We are not simply a random collection of atoms and molecules, thrown together by chance. We have been created for a specific purpose by God and our vocation reflects the existence of God’s providence in the world.
In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus explains that even tiny sparrows are loved and cared for by God. God holds their lives in His hands and knows what happens to them. Jesus is clear that God cares for us, as human beings, much more than “many sparrows.” This means that God is deeply concerned for us, aware of all that we go through and caring for us intimately.
As we reflect upon divine providence at work in our lives, what are specific times we recall knowing that God was taking care for us? What are the ways that God has shown us that He is concerned for us? Our memories of such experiences help us to understand God’s love and have confidence that God has loved us in the past, loves us now and will love us always.
In Christ,
Fr. Michael