This week’s gospel reading includes texts from the third major section of the Sermon on the Mount. The organization of this entire unit (6:19-7:12) has been likened to that of the wisdom books (Proverbs, Sirach) wherein various short units are put together according to like subjects. Thus while this third unit combines forms (such as commands and illustrations) and a coherent summary (7:12), there are general themes that link these diverse styles together.

In today’s text that theme is “faith,” specifically faith in an Omni God--an omniscient, omnipresent divine being who loves and cares for all of creation.

While this may hardly sound like a radical claim to our 21st century ears, in the first century’s religious milieu such a declaration was strikingly strange. The Greek and Roman pant…