🕊️ Born in Vicenza, Italy, in 1480, Saint Cajetan (Gaetano dei Conti di Thiene) was a jurist and priest who lived during a period of great turmoil for the Church. Moved by a deep desire for clerical reform and the renewal of spiritual life, he renounced his wealth and, together with the future Pope Paul IV, founded the Order of Clerks Regular, known as the Theatines. His spiritual work is centered on a radical trust in Divine Providence, establishing that his order should live exclusively on charity and spontaneously offered alms, without ever begging for them, as a living witness to the Gospel that preached the primary pursuit of the Kingdom of God.📖 Introit (Ps 78:11, 12, 10 | ibid., 1)
Os justi meditábitur sapiéntiam, et lingua ejus loquétur judícium... The mouth of the just shall meditate wisdom, and his tongue shall speak judgment. The law of his God is in his heart. Ps. Be not emulous of evildoers; nor envy them that work iniquity. ℣. Glory be to the Father.
🙏 Collect
O God, who didst grant to Thy holy Confessor Cajetan to imitate the apostolic life, grant us, through his intercession and example, to trust always in Thee and to desire only heavenly things. Through the same J. C.
📜 Epistle (Ecclus 31:8-11)
Blessed is the man that is found without blemish: and that hath not gone after gold, nor put his trust in money nor in treasures. Who is he, and we will praise him? for he hath done wonderful things in his life. Who hath been tried and hath been found perfect, he shall have eternal glory. He could have transgressed, and did not transgress: and could do evil things, and did not. Therefore are his goods established in the Lord, and all the church of the saints shall declare his alms.
🌱 Gradual (Ps 91:13, 14; ibid. 3 | James 1:12)
The just shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow up like the cedar of Libanus in the house of the Lord. ℣. To shew forth Thy mercy in the morning, and Thy truth in the night. Alleluia, alleluia. ℣. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he hath been proved, he shall receive the crown of life. Alleluia.
✝️ Gospel (Mt 6:24-33)
At that time, Jesus said to his disciples: No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than the meat: and the body more than the raiment? Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns: and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not you of much more value than they? And which of you by taking thought, can add to his stature one cubit? And for raiment why are you solicitous? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they labour not, neither do they spin. But I say to you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these. And if the grass of the field, which is to day, and to morrow is cast into the oven, God doth so clothe: how much more you, O ye of little faith? Be not solicitous therefore, saying, What shall we eat: or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the heathens seek. For your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.
🤔Reflections
💡 In forbidding service to two masters, Christ does not speak of a servant who has two masters, but of one who attempts to serve two masters with opposing devotions, for their commands will be contradictory (Saint Jerome, Commentary on Matthew). Regarding the search for the Kingdom, when the Lord says, 'Seek first the Kingdom of God,' He does not mean we should seek it first in time, but in importance; we seek the Kingdom for eternal life, while necessary things are sought for the needs of the present time (Saint Augustine, On the Sermon on the Mount, Book II). He who gave the greater thing, the body, how would He not give the lesser, clothing and food? He did not say 'Do not work,' but 'Do not be anxious'; not to lead us to idleness, but to free the soul from cares while we work with our hands (Saint John Chrysostom, Homilies on Matthew, Homily 21).
🔄 The Gospel of Saint Luke (Lk 12:22-34) presents this same discourse of Jesus, but places it in a different context, immediately after the parable of the rich fool, thereby intensifying the warning against avarice. Luke adds a direct command not found in Matthew: "Sell what you possess and give alms. Provide for yourselves purses that do not grow old, an unfailing treasure in heaven." Furthermore, while Matthew mentions the "birds of the air," Luke specifies "the ravens," which were considered unclean under Jewish law, reinforcing that God's care extends even to what is deemed contemptible.
✉️ Saint Paul deepens the teaching on trust and detachment in his epistles. In Philippians, he testifies to have learned to be content in any and every situation, in abundance and in need, for "I can do all things through him who strengthens me" (Phil 4:12-13), echoing the serenity proposed in the Gospel. In the First Epistle to Timothy, Paul explicitly warns that "the love of money is the root of all evil" (1 Tim 6:10), offering the theological reason behind the impossibility of "serving God and mammon." He also assures the Corinthians that God is able to provide them with everything in abundance, so that, always having what is necessary, they may be generous in every good work (2 Cor 9:8), which complements the promise that "all these things shall be added unto you."
🏛️ The Roman Catechism, promulgated by the Council of Trent (1566), deepens the doctrine of trust in Providence when explaining the petition "give us this day our daily bread" from the Lord's Prayer. The document teaches that with these words, we do not ask for riches or an abundance of luxuries, but only for what is necessary for life, according to each person's state and condition. The word "today" reinforces the need not to be anxiously concerned with tomorrow, but to entrust the future to the providence and power of God, thus condemning the excessive solicitude that the Gospel reproves in the pagans and which arises from a lack of faith in the goodness and power of God the Father.
