A LESSON FROM THE IRRATIONAL

After enjoying comparatively mild and pleasant winters for the last couple of years—with light snow and tolerable weather—severe winter blizzards and snowstorms forecast two weeks ago caused alarm across the country. There was the usual rush of people who emptied supermarket shelves as they prepared to face the fury of Mother Nature, which lasted from just a few hours to many days depending on the area.

I do not know whether this kind of reaction was in response to lingering subconscious fears—residual anxieties from the shortages during the Great Depression of the 1930s or the Second World War. Nevertheless, it has been a consistent response when weather forecasts raise red flags.

As I was contemplating from my window the beauty of snow purity the day after the great blizzard, I saw birds flying over my small yard. And I wondered: What kind of sustenance they might find in this weather?

Inexplicable bliss flooded my soul. The fresh and everlasting voice of the Master resounded in my mind:  ^“Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?” (Mt 6:26-27).

There is no doubt that as humans we plan, we organize, and provide for ourselves and our loved ones, sometimes not only for days, months or years, but even for generations. But where is our faith in God’s Provision? When will we free ourselves from the worries that suffocate our essentials of Faith and Hope?

Let us, rational beings, every once in a while, be steered by irrational ones who urge us not to worry about temporary insignificant things and instead concentrate more on those qualities that will safely lead us into the Heavenly Harbor.

ARCHBISHOP ANOUSHAVAN
Prelate