Daily Mass Gospel Reflection - As a Fact of Matter

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 06.17.22 | Aux. Bishop R. Barron

[MurphsLaw]

ELEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

MATTHEW 6:19-23

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples not to store up treasures for themselves on earth,
but to store up treasures in heaven,
“where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal.”

St. Augustine once said that since every creature is made ex nihilo,
it carries with it the heritage of nonbeing.
There is a kind of penumbra or shadow of nothingness that haunts every finite thing.

This is a rather high philosophical way of stating what all of us know in our bones:
no matter how good, beautiful, true, or exciting a thing or state of affairs is here below, it is destined to pass into nonbeing.
Think of a gorgeous firework that bursts open like a giant flower and then,
in the twinkling of an eye, is gone forever.
Everything is haunted by nonbeing; everything, finally, is that firework.

But this is not meant to depress us; it is meant to redirect our attention precisely to the treasures of heaven,
to the eternity of God. Once we see everything in light of God,
we can learn to love the things of this world without clinging to them and without expecting too much of them.
Think of how much disappointment and heartache could be avoided if we only learned this truth!

[MurphsLaw]

+++Jesus said to his disciples:
“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 decay destroys,
nor thieves break in and steal.
For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.

“The lamp of the body is the eye.
If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light;
but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness.
And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the
darkness be.”+++