Friday of the 11th
Week in Ordinary Time
June 20, 2014 8:30am
Jesus gives us some nuggets of
practical wisdom today.
He is trying to motivate us to
live wisely and avoid shallow and foolish living.
Jesus knows that we can get caught
up in nice, comfortable material things.
And so, he cautions that moths
can eat holes in our finest clothing.
Metals are subject to corrosion
and rust.
Anything we own can be lost – in
a fire, in a theft or fraud, or in a stock market crash.
But, Jesus adds, there are some
things that are not vulnerable to being lost in these ways.
And those things are the things
of the spirit: our relationship with God that comes from faith and prayer, the
fulfillment that comes from giving of ourselves for the well-being of others,
and the inner peace that comes from living out of the way of love taught by
Jesus.
No thing and no one can take
these inner spiritual treasures away from us.
They are lasting and they will
last.
In fact, we will take them with
us when it is our time to go home to God.
And so, Jesus cautions us about
the use of our eyes.
What we look at is usually where
we look for our treasures.
So, instead of looking at some
lewd internet site, look at a site with a spiritual reflection for the day.
Instead of shopping and looking at
all kinds of clothes or gadgets that we really don’t need, spend some time
looking at a book and reading about how to communicate better or how to deal
with anger.
As Jesus says, “If your eye is sound, your whole body [your
whole self] will be filled with light.”
And, of course, that light will
be part of the lasting treasure “Where
neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal.”
