Where Is Your Treasure?
Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your belongings and give alms. Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.
Unless you happened to buy a Lottery ticket in Des Plaines a few weeks ago, I am assuming that none of us won the $1.3 billion dollar jackpot. It’s probably just as well. Many of us fantasize about the fun and the ease that such a windfall could provide for us and, of course, all the good things that we could do with all that money. It’s a nice day dream that, should it become a reality, has the real possibility of becoming a nightmare. A jackpot could buy many things, nice things, but just that…things and things of the world, which are all finite and thus have the potential to lead us to great sorrow.
In last Sunday’s first reading from Ecclesiastes, we heard the emptiness that Qoheleth felt regarding the vanity of the things of the world as well as their finite nature. This Sunday’s readings continue to invite us to look beyond the things of this present life, placing our faith and hope in that which is eternal. Jesus tells us this Sunday that our heart will be wherever the things are that we place value in. Again, we are faced with the question: is my treasure here in this life or is my ultimate fulfillment yet to be revealed in heaven?
The world does not place much value, if any, on faith, at least not in faith in something other than itself. Sadly, neither do many Catholics. Faith is paid a good lip-service by many, but is it a priority in our lives, something that is worth spending our time and energy on to cultivate? For the true disciple, faith is more precious than gold because, as the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews tells us, faith is the realization of what is hoped for and the evidence of things unseen. If our faith is in the things of this world, the realizations of our hopes will come to nothing. If our faith is in God and the things of heaven, then what we will come to know will exceed all expectations and that same faith will give us glimpses here and now of those greater things still to come.
You know the old saying, only two things are certain, death and taxes. Some people manage to avoid taxes, but no one can avoid death and standing face to face before God. So where is our faith placed; where is our treasure? If our faith is in God, and if we have placed God as our greatest good, then we can go forward in true hope. If this is not the case, then it’s time to reprioritize our lives.
Blessings to you and yours for the week ahead!
Father Chris House