Treasures worth keeping

June 21, 2019 Friday
11th Week in Ordinary Time1st Reading:
2 Cor 11:18.21-30 Gospel:
Matthew 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)
Jesus’ call against storing up earthly treasures has logical basis in the incompatibility between material abundance and heavenly inheritance. The incompatibility is both practical and transcendental. At the practical level it is hard to please two masters. Were one to keep two masters he’d end up spreading his service too thin, to the two masters’ dissatisfaction. That person would be wishing he had two hearts. The song, “Sana dalawa ang puso ko”, is not without basis in reality.
At the transcendental level it deprives God of the totality of our love. The devil sees in the person’s love for wealth an opening to enter and control that person’s heart. Those who are preoccupied with earthly treasures will have more temptations. On this basis Jesus said, “It is easier for a camel to pass through a camel’s eye than to enter the kingdom of God.”
Earthly treasures are not evil in themselves. Otherwise Jesus would have despised any and all things material. On the contrary, Jesus too needed material provisions, and he even assigned an apostle to take care of the meager income of their group. He also befriended a very wealthy man named Joseph of Arimathea. It was this rich man who provided for his burial cave at Calvary. Material treasures become destructive to the spirit only when a person amasses them for his own enjoyment. That is why Jesus’ warning is qualified by “for yourself”. “Do not store up treasure for yourself…” (Matt. 6:19).
Material abundance is incompatible with heavenly inheritance when it is ourselves we seek to pamper without concern for the neighbor who needs a lot of care. The needy deserve some share of the fruits of our labor because we are our “brothers’ keeper”. The best justification for amassing wealth is to have more resources to share. Those who share with the poor won’t be singing “Sana dalawa ang puso ko” because it is Christ they serve in the poor. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.