Gospel Commentary: Where Is Your Treasure?

By Fr. John De Celles
Herald Columnist
(From the issue of 8/5/04)

When Scripture speaks of the "heart" it means the whole person in his most profound self. So in today’s Gospel text, when Jesus says, "Wherever your treasure lies, there your heart will be," He means that the thing that we truly value most will, in some way, direct or shape every aspect of our lives.

What do we treasure? Many would say that our two greatest treasures are life itself and our family. If we look back at the creation of man we find that these treasures are actually the original treasures God gave to man: in the beginning He gave man life and family: "male and female he created them … and said to them "be fruitful and multiply."

But there is still a greater treasure God gives us. As Jesus says in today's Gospel: "It has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom." And the kingdom He offers us is life with God, a life of perfect and eternal happiness — eternal life.

Sometimes we tend to think that the gift of eternal life and the treasures we possess in this world are not connected to each other. But the opposite is true: God's gift of eternal life is the reason for all His other gifts. God gave us life so that we could share in His eternal happiness forever, and He gave us family so that we could love each other and help bring each other to eternal happiness.

Even His lesser gifts are ordered toward our eternal life. For example, the gift of work provides for the maintenance of our life and family, which in turn are ordered to eternal life. Moreover, work done well and imbued with Christian virtue can be, in itself, a witness to our faith in Christ and eternal life.

In the end, the only true treasure, the only place our heart should be set, the only thing that should influence every aspect of our lives, the only thing that gives meaning to the treasures of this world, is our hope in eternal life with God. There is no true treasure if God is not our treasure.

But this must have concrete effect on our daily lives. If we truly set our hearts on the treasure of eternal life, we will act only in ways that pursue that treasure. For example, we will respect the dignity of every human life, honor marriage and cherish our children. And when it comes to our secondary treasures, we won't allow them to dominate our lives — work and possessions will be directed to serve God and family, as well as the lives of all the people around us.

This is truly the Good News of Jesus Christ that we read in today’s text. But Jesus also goes on to tell us about the "severe punishment" that awaits those who abuse the treasures God gives them in this world. To those of us who regularly take God’s gifts for granted or use them badly, this can seem to be very bad news.

In the end, though, we discover that it is more good news. The only reason Jesus tells us these things is that He loves us. In love, He assures us that we have nothing to fear if we direct our earthly treasures toward our eternal treasure and in love He sternly warns us how terrible it would be if fail to do so.

In the end, this text tells us not only that we must set our hearts on God as our treasure, but that we are His treasure, and He has set His heart on us.

Copyright ©2004 Arlington Catholic Herald.  All rights reserved.