Friday in the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time, June 20, 2025

Matthew 6, 19-23

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.”

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth.”  The Lord is not speaking literally here, as though advocating fiscal policy, but is warning against holding as precious worldly pleasures and goods.  These, Jesus teaches, are easily destroyed or stolen.  That is, these things easily destroy us and steal our souls.  Instead, he advocates that we “store up treasures in heaven”.  Speaking in this way, the Lord Jesus shows that either we will “store up” earthly things or heavenly ones — and that we cannot do both.  But what does it mean to store up treasures in heaven?  The first treasure is faith, which is “much more precious than gold which is tried by the fire” (1 Peter 1, 7).  The second is good works for, as the voice from heaven said to St. John: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. From henceforth now, says the Spirit, they may rest from their labors, for their works follow them” (Revelation 7, 13).  Their works “accompany” them, as the Greek verb can also be translated.  In the context, it is clear that the works of the faithful act as the “currency” that allows them to enter the place of their rest.  We “store up” faith and good works through their use here on earth, as the Lord teaches in the Parable of the Talents:  “And he that had received the five talents coming, brought other five talents, saying: Lord, thou didst deliver to me five talents. Behold, I have gained other five over and above” (Matthew 25, 20).  The Lord shows himself as the source of all we receive, but we cannot store it in so that it lies stagnant, as in the case of the servant in the parable who received one talent and buried it  The treasures we are given in this life are meant to grow, to increase.

“For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.”  This might be a saying preserved here because of the theme of “treasure” but which was spoken on other occasion, or the Lord may have said it here, as St. Matthew hands it on to us.  Jesus is warning us to examine our lives and our dreams.  Do they center around the things of this world, the sands of which are already slipping from beneath our feet, or do they center around him and eternal life?  If the former, it is necessary for us to see how short-sighted this is and to be converted to the Lord.  If the latter, then we must persevere and make progress in virtue: “To him that shall overcome, I will give to sit with me in my throne” (Revelation 3, 21).

“The lamp of the body is the eye.”  Here the Lord Jesus uses the prevailing understanding of how the eye works in order to make his point.  According to this understanding, the eye itself was filled with light, which it emitted through tiny pores.  This light, interacting with the light of the sun, allowed for objects to be seen.  Thus, the eye is the “lamp” of the body.  Jesus adds that “if your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light.”  A healthy eye emits light into the world beyond it and also throughout the body.  “But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness.”  An unhealthy eye is either limited in its power to emit light, or it cannot do so at all.  For that body, then, the world outside it is dark, but also the body itself is dark.  And with the darkness comes lack of inner warmth and health.  “And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be.”  So, if it there is no light within you because your eye does not function, there is darkness.  But this darkness is not comparable to the darkness that envelopes a person who has no faith.  The one who believe in Jesus Christ walks by him as “the dawn from on high which shall break upon us” (Luke 1, 78).  Everything in the world is seen in the light of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the world, and all that happens is seen as the workings of God’s mysterious Providence.  But for those without faith, nothing makes sense or has purpose.  They wind up inventing meaning for themselves that shifts and changes in accordance with the moment.  Even their treasures on earth are illusory.  Those with the gift of faith hold it aloft like the lamps held by the wise virgins and call for those without it to follow them to the One who is the Author of true sight.