Saturday of Week 11 in Ordinary Time
2 Chr 24:17-25
Mt 6:24-34
“Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
I have recently been watching a lot of short one-person skits on YouTube about Clair and Ann. Clair is this character who has firm work-life balance boundaries and refuses to work after working hours. One of her famous lines is, ‘That becomes tomorrow’s problem.’ This resonated so much with me as I read today’s Gospel, especially with the line, ‘Each day has enough trouble of its own.’
Mental health issues have been on a rise these years. Maybe it’s because there is a proliferation of awareness campaigns going on; but, I also think that it’s because there are genuine factors contributing to this. We have become a society that worries a lot. We have become a society who aims to solve every single problem we encounter. And what we have traded this for is restlessness and lack of sleep.
A recurring theme in the Bible, and in our relationship with God, is his invitation to us to enjoy periods of rest. It breaks my heart to think that many of us may have become incapable of truly understanding what it means to have a good rest. Maybe some of us have fallen into the trap that we have to be doing something so the problem goes away. But there are problems that may not be ours to solve. There are problems that require no action, but time. There are problems that no longer need any action from us; and there are even problems that do not need us as part of the solution. So, what do we do?
We let go, and we let God. And we go to sleep.
This sounds easy, but a lot of us struggle with it. I’m guilty as well. I think of work, I think of things I did wrong, I think of all the time I wasted since I didn’t have the motivation to work. But what if we could make it different? What if, instead of turning in worried, we have a short chat with our Mother Mary and ask her to sing us a lullaby to sleep? What if, instead of rushing through our day, we plan our day with moments of work and rest with our Guardian Angel? What if, instead of holding our phones/tablets as the last things before we drift off to slumber, we hold on to our rosaries?
Brothers and sisters, I really believe all of us have been blessed by God. When I was having my counselling sessions, my counsellor told me that the main cause of anxiety is that there is a gap between what we want to happen, and what actually happens. I was told to let go. But as a Catholic, I know there is something better than letting go, and it’s letting God.
So, for tonight, I wish you all a good sleep with our Lord.
(Today’s OXYGEN by Stephanie Villa)
Prayer: Dearest Father, help us do what we must do today, so we can rest well tonight.
Thanksgiving: Thank You for not just commanding me to work, but to rest as well.
OXYGEN 
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