"Abandonment to Divine providence" is the Spirit that prevails in today's Gospel reading, as reflected in God's care for nature (birds of the air - v.26; flowers in the fields v.28-30).

As His followers today, Jesus wants His disciples and us to put our complete trust in God's care and providence.

To imbibe this Spirit of Abandonment to Divine Providence, we need to have deep faith and inner freedom that frees us from self-centredness and be free for God and others.

When we speak of the Kingdom of God, we mean Jesus and His values of justice, equality, mutual concerns and caring in our relationships with others. Our priority in life will be these values, which allow us to have the deep desire to grow in our relationship with Jesus and others in our lives.

By this, we need to be able to listen to the voice of God speaking to us through our daily events and situations failing which, we can see the consequences faced by King Joash, who killed Zechariah, son of the priest Jehoiada. His deadly action resulted in the fall of the nation.

Are we aware of the happenings in our context today? The impurity of our leaders' hearts has caused the nation's downfall. This keeps us praying for them and our country.