Day 30

To the words ‘ be not solicitous * which St Matthew has recorded, St Luke adds : ‘and be not lifted up on high ’ 1 : — as if in danger of falling, 1 Luke xii. 29.

and always quaking with fear ; for this is the result of over-anxiety. Let your state be, always, not that of a man hanging in the air, but of one firmly supported by Divine Providence.

[ 106 j Cbirt^first 2>a$ We are not to be like the heathen . — Matt. vi. 32.

R after all these things do the heathens seek.’ Observe how constantly Our Lord requires us to rise above the vices — and even above the virtues — of the heathen. Just before this, He had said : c Do not even the publicans do the same ? ’ 1 Let us consider well wherein we surpass them. Jesus Christ did not say without reason that i the men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it.’ 2 Ofwhat use to us is Christianity, if we lead heathen lives ? Y et, alas ! how much paganism there is amongst the faithful : — how many Christians living as though they knew not God ! There exists, in fact, no God for them. Where shall we find tears enough wherewith to mourn our blindness ?

1 Matt. v. 46, 47. 2 Ibid. xii. 41.

GMyt^seconb 2>a$ Of seeking God and His justice , and in what manner . — Matt. vi. 33, 34.

EEK ye therefore first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.’ Observe : — we are to seek the Kingdom of God and His justice ; not a merely moral justice, after the fashion of the heathen ; but Christian justice, founded on the example of Jesus Christ, and on these rules of the Gospel that we have just considered. This is a justice that will make us live differently to those who know not God, and also to those who lived before the coming of Christ : — a justice suited to our calling, to our state, and to the graces we have received : — for these are what is meant by the Kingdom of God and His justice.

c Seek 9 : In all the other things that He has spoken of, Our Lord has not used the word ‘seek’; for He assumes that God, in His good-