June 17, 2016 Friday
11th Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading:
2 Kgs 11: 1-4. 9-18. 20Gospel: Mt 6:19–23
Jesus said to his disciples, “Do not store up treasure for yourself here on earth where moth and rust destroy it, and where thieves can steal it. Store up treasure for yourself with God, where no moth or rust can destroy nor thief come and steal it.“For where your treasure is, there also your heart will be.“The lamp of the body is the eye; if your eyes are sound, your whole body will be in the light. If your eyes are diseased your whole body will be in darkness. Then, if your light has become darkness, how dark will be the darkest part of you!”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
If you feel that not owning a piece of land is bad, think about the troubles land ownership imposes. The landowner will have to fence his property, make it productive, and pay taxes for it lest he gets into trouble with the government. The burden gets heavier as the land holding increases. Thomas Drummond (Letter, 1838) knew what he was saying when he wrote: “If a man owns land, the land owns him.”
This is true for all material possessions. Russell Baker wrote in New York Times: “The goal of all inanimate objects is to resist man and to defeat him ultimately.” It is of little wonder why a man can be so consumed by greed. Earthly treasures are possessions that possess.
Possessions can be very draining. Arthur Young observes in his “Travels in France”: “Give a man the secure possession of a bleak rock, and he will turn it into a garden; give him nine years’ lease of a garden and he will convert it into a desert.” And don’t you find it funny that a man should work hard until he gets sick only to spend his wealth to recover his health? We’re back to zero in the end.
The amount of energy we expend to pile up wealth is better spent on heavenly treasures. We can start with the acquisition of self-knowledge. Knowing ourselves leads to deeper knowledge of the Creator.
“Lord let my know myself and know thee (“Noverim me, noverim te”), wrote St. Augustine in a prayer that has come down to us as prayer for discernment. Another treasure worth acquiring is the virtue of humility. A person who stays really low is not afraid of any fall.
When self-knowledge is sealed with the virtue of humility, a person gains profound spirituality that opens the soul to all other spiritual treasures. By then material wealth loses power over the person, so that no matter how much possessions he amasses by honest toil, possessions fail to possess him because he rises over and above material wealth and emerges as real master of creation. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: [email protected].
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