Word to the Wise
Friday, June 21, 2024 - Friday in the 11th Week in Ordinary Time
[2 Kgs 11:1-4, 9-18, 20 and Matt 6:19-23]"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decayn destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is , there also will your heart be." [Matthew]
JUNE 21 ST ALOYSIUS GONZAGA sj
"Treasures," by definition, are things of great value. We even use the word "treasure" as a verb meaning to place great value on something. "Treasure" usually means something external to ourselves until something essential that we take for granted disappears, like good health. Treasure can be something that is not material, like friendship or faith or power. It can be something we don't have but really crave - a "buried treasure," if one takes a traditional image - and one may spend a lifetime looking for that "buried treasure." If there is something in our lives that is "non-negotiable," it can have the status of a "treasure."
The Sermon on the Mount challenges us to identify what we consciously or unconsciously "treasure" in this world and place it in the larger context of the "treasure" Jesus offers. Is our treasure more in the realm of appetite - food, sex, substance, money, possessions? The story of the Rich Man and Lazarus in the Gospel According to Luke [16:19-31] is really worth reading in this regard. The Rich Man's "treasures" blinded him to the treasure on his doorstep - Lazarus!
Jesus' statement - "For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be." - in today's gospel scripture is a call to a sober self-evaluation. What treasure do we treasure? AMEN