Question X: On solicitude for the future

Immoderate solicitude for the future is reproved, Matth. 6. Be not solicitous for the morrow. Of this the Saintly Doctor treats in the exposition of cap. 2. of the rule, at those words: And let them not be solicitous.

In Religious, though small, this withdraws from perfection; in a Father of a family, when moderate, it is laudable; in anyone, however, when immoderate, it is culpable; and it destroys that prudence and confidence by which we ought to cast all our solicitude upon God; who feeds the fowls of the air, to die on the morrow; and clothes the lilies of the field, though soon to be cast into the oven.

Of this solicitude St. Bernard says excellently, de verb. Psalm. 23. There are other thoughts, more violent, which pertain to the necessities of nature; For often the Carnal thought about drink, about food, or about clothing so affects us, that it can scarcely be eradicated from our hearts. He gives the reason, because solicitude of this kind, viscous and muddy, will find muddy ground too, to which it may adhere; for man, formed not of other earth than muddy earth, conscious of his need, distrusts the providence of things to come, and directs every thought toward it, that he may follow upon it. But since our providence is uncertain, according to true prudence all our solicitude must be cast upon God; for to trust to oneself in those things whose outcome is uncertain is to distrust, as St. Bernard has it, serm. 5. de vigil. Nativit. Domini.