"I should like you to be free of anxieties." These are the words St. Paul shares with us in our second reading, and he has a very specific target in saying this: Concern about the things of the world. Who or what is it that we love? Where is our heart pulled? St. Paul goes onto advise the Corinthians that those who are unmarried should remain so. Our first instinct might be to say that he is calling some of his listeners to sacrifice the goods of marriage, like priests and religious do. But this isn't what he says. He isn't saying "Though it may be the harder path, it is laudable to forego marriage." Rather, he is saying "It will be easier and you will be freed of some anxieties if you forego marriage." It is the easier path. While this truth may seem surprising at first, it actually isn't so shocking.
To take an analogy, consider a high school athlete who does several sports and is good at all of them. Perhaps they might even get scholarships from colleges or universities in their respective sports.
In many of these cases, what will inevitably happen? They will have to choose one sport to specialize in and throw all of their time and energy into. They have multiple good options, but they must choose to prioritize one. So it is with our life on earth: We might have multiple good things in our lives (God, family, work, etc.), but we can't make a// of them a priority. So we end up being a bit divided, not between good things and bad things, but between one good thing and another good thing. We can't focus on all of them as much as we would want.
This is why the Church has always promoted religious life. Marriage is good. Doing great work in a career you enjoy is good. Pursuing your dreams can be good. But all of them require us to strike a balance that is often not easy, a balance between God on the one hand and all the other good things we have going for us on the other. On the other hand, to live as Jesus did, loving chastely, choosing poverty, and acting out of obedience, to do this most easily enables us to make God first priority in our lives. There is less competition. And so we end up less divided in heart (and time) and more able to focus on the things of God. The natural consequence of this is peace and stability (in contrast with the anxiety St. Paul describes).
To the extent we can unite all of the goods in our life under God by living the faith well in our families, not seeking worldly gain over the things of God, and striving to be obedient to Him in things big and small, we can find some of that peace which St. Paul is exhorting his listeners to today.