9781644135945

The Light of the World
what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed, for after all these things do the heathens
seek. . . . Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God and His justice; and all these things shall
be added unto you” (Gospel).
“Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God.” A Christian’s first duty is to live for God and to
obey His will and commandments, that he may try to please Him before all things. God made us
for Himself; He is the source of our being and the only true goal of our life. “Thou hast created
us for Thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee” (St. Augustine). In
order that we may live for God again, He sent His only-begotten Son into this world; for when
through sin we had turned to the world and worldly interests, our life and our best efforts were
without any real meaning; they were without God. God then sent His Son that He might lead
us back to God, that we might find Him again and as His children live entirely for the Father.
In order that we may serve God more perfectly, He unceasingly pours into our souls power and
light; He desires to free us from attachments to the world and to the vanities of life, which are
our main obstacles to fulfilling the will of the Father in heaven. Day after day He invites us to
the Holy Sacrifice and gives Himself to us as the food for our souls in Holy Communion, that
we may leave all things and live for the Father. He thus permeates our spirit more and more with
His spirit and thoughts, making us strong to renounce faithfully and perseveringly all that is
not God’s, and to live for Him alone. To live for God must be our only care; for here not merely
our honor and our temporal welfare are at stake, but our fate for all eternity. To live for God,
therefore, must be our one concern, compared with which all other matters and interests are of
secondary importance. We cannot postpone this matter a single day, not even a single hour; for
it is a matter most pressing. The entire life of man is to live for God. Whatever does not serve
this goal is vanity and death, and whatever within our soul may be opposed to God and His will,
is an evil, an aversion from the right purpose, the destruction of life. “Seek ye therefore first the
kingdom of God.” There is no other alternative.
“All these things shall be added unto you.” “Be not solicitous therefore, saying, what shall
we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed.” We have only this one care: to
live for God. If we live for God, we do whatever God asks of us and suffer whatever He wishes
us to suffer; and we fulfill His will as He desires us to, motivated particularly by the thought that
it is He who wills it. God wills that we do our part by fulfilling His will, and He will take care of
the rest; all other things “shall be added unto [us].” “Behold the birds of the air; for they neither
sow nor do they reap, nor gather into barns, and your heavenly Father feedeth them.” They do
what God expects them to do by virtue of the instincts given to them; God takes care of what
may be wanting. “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they labor not, neither do
they spin; but . . . not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these” (Gospel). God
determined for them the laws of growth, and they develop according to these laws, thus producing
their fruits. God provides the conditions necessary for their growth. “Are you not of much
more value than they?” If we have lived to the best of our ability for God and His holy will, we
have done our part; God the Father will take care of what may be wanting in our life. “For your
Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of
God and His justice [His desires and commands], and all these things shall be added unto you.”
“Be not solicitous” does not mean that we ought not to be careful and conscientious in fulfilling
the duties of our vocation or our state of life; but we should not pursue them in such a manner
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