Whether We Should Be Solicitous About the Future?
Objection 1: It would seem that we should be solicitous about the
future. For it is written (Prov. 6:6-8): "Go to the ant, O sluggard,
and consider her ways and learn wisdom; which, although she hath no
guide, nor master . . . provideth her meat for herself in the summer,
and gathereth her food in the harvest." Now this is to be solicitous
about the future. Therefore solicitude about the future is
praiseworthy.
Obj. 2: Further, solicitude pertains to prudence. But prudence is
chiefly about the future, since its principal part is _foresight of
future things,_ as stated above (Q. 49, A. 6, ad 1). Therefore it is
virtuous to be solicitous about the future.
Obj. 3: Further, whoever puts something by that he may keep it for
the morrow, is solicitous about the future. Now we read (John 12:6)
that Christ had a bag for keeping things in, which Judas carried, and
(Acts 4:34-37) that the Apostles kept the price of the land, which
had been laid at their feet. Therefore it is lawful to be solicitous
about the future.
_On the contrary,_ Our Lord said (Matt. 6:34): "Be not . . .
solicitous for tomorrow"; where "tomorrow" stands for the future, as
Jerome says in his commentary on this passage.
_I answer that,_ No work can be virtuous, unless it be vested with
its due circumstances, and among these is the due time, according to
Eccles. 8:6, "There is a time and opportunity for every business";
which applies not only to external deeds but also to internal
solicitude. For every time has its own fitting proper solicitude;
thus solicitude about the crops belongs to the summer time, and
solicitude about the vintage to the time of autumn. Accordingly if a
man were solicitous about the vintage during the summer, he would be
needlessly forestalling the solicitude belonging to a future time.
Hence Our Lord forbids such like excessive solicitude, saying:
"Be . . . not solicitous for tomorrow," wherefore He adds, "for the
morrow will be solicitous for itself," that is to say, the morrow
will have its own solicitude, which will be burden enough for the
soul. This is what He means by adding: "Sufficient for the day is
the evil thereof," namely, the burden of solicitude.
Reply Obj. 1: The ant is solicitous at a befitting time, and it is
this that is proposed for our example.
Reply Obj. 2: Due foresight of the future belongs to prudence. But it
would be an inordinate foresight or solicitude about the future, if a
man were to seek temporal things, to which the terms "past" and
"future" apply, as ends, or if he were to seek them in excess of the
needs of the present life, or if he were to forestall the time for
solicitude.
Reply Obj. 3: As Augustine says (De Serm. Dom. in Monte ii, 17),
"when we see a servant of God taking thought lest he lack these
needful things, we must not judge him to be solicitous for the
morrow, since even Our Lord deigned for our example to have a purse,
and we read in the Acts of the Apostles that they procured the
necessary means of livelihood in view of the future on account of a
threatened famine. Hence Our Lord does not condemn those who
according to human custom, provide themselves with such things, but
those who oppose themselves to God for the sake of these things."
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