Without a care

Not a care in the world

oddly, that phrase entered my consciousness this morning on my way to work, but with an understanding totally different than the phrase is typically taken to mean. Perhaps it was the reading this morning from St. Gregory the Great in the Divine Office, coupled with the reading from Divine Intimacy (on Prudence), but the understanding which presented itself went something like this:

James (4:4b) says, Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world becometh an enemy of God. The detachment that spiritual writers speak of that is neccessary for sanctity, a detached charity which considers God first in all things, eliminates worldly cares which distract us from God. The expression, to be without a care in the world, is usuall applied to one who abandons more or less completely the natural virtue of prudence; and yet when prudence is supernaturalized, one could apply the phrase as well.

I just read Anita's 6th installment of the story of Blessed Margaret of Castello at V-for Victory, and it does seem to me that Bl. Margaret could be said in this way to have had "not a care in the world."

I recognize that symantically, the saint is still in the world and has cares; but consider that, just as our Lord said "Not as the world loves" we can say the saint cares "not as the world cares." The height of worldly imprudence produces the fool without a care, the height of heavenly prudence produces what St. Paul called "a fool for Christ."