Friends,
in today’s Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples not to store up treasures
for themselves on earth, but to store up treasures in heaven, "where
neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal."
St. Augustine once said that since every creature is made ex nihilo, it
carries with it the heritage of non-being. There is a kind of penumbra
or shadow of nothingness that haunts every finite thing.
This
is a rather high philosophical way of stating what all of us know in
our bones: no matter how good, beautiful, true, or exciting a thing or
state of affairs is
here below, it is destined to pass into non-being. Think of a gorgeous
firework that bursts open like a giant flower and then, in the twinkling
of an eye, is gone forever. Everything is haunted by non-being;
everything, finally, is that firework.
But
this is not meant to depress us; it is meant to redirect our attention
precisely to the treasures of heaven, to the eternity of God. Once we
see everything in light of God, we can learn to love the things of this
world without clinging to them and without expecting too much of them.
Think of how much disappointment and heartache could be avoided if we
only learned this truth!
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."
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