Storage Issues

Raise your hand if you still have a box of memories in your parent’s garage somewhere and/or if you are storing boxes of memories for your own children in your garage. Today’s gospel contains one of my favorite verses, “For where your treasure is, there also will be your heart.” I used to think that my heart was found in the treasure itself, so if I treasured a particular song or a beautiful memory or a deep friendship or my vocation or even my faith, that is where my heart would reside, in whatever the treasure was. Today it struck me that it says “where” your treasure is, not “what” your treasure is. This made me think more deeply as to how and where I store my treasure. I know for a fact that God is constantly placing treasures in my life in every season and with every new day and collecting them doesn’t seem to be a problem, but like in the natural world, storage is always an issue. Where am I storing these treasures and where is my heart? I think for me that I need to start paying more attention to this and I need to be more intentional with depositing my treasure where it will be most protected from thievery, destruction, and decay. It seems to me that is the heart of God. Depositing my gifts into the heart of God sounds so beautiful and poetic and ethereal, but practically speaking, how do I do it?  I think I just start by asking each day, “Dad, can you hold my treasure?” If I intentionally ask Him to store my loves, then essentially I am asking Him to store my own heart, and when my heart is stored inside the heart of God, then no thief can touch it, no lie can swoon it, and no one can possess it, except the one that keeps it. I feel like this is easier said than done, but for me, I’m going to ponder it today and perhaps this surge of the heart will place my treasures where they belong, “Dad, can you hold my heart?”

The gospel ends with the beautiful image of, “The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light.” I love that he combines vision with sound. It makes me think that when our eyes and ears are bent toward the language and presence of the Spirit, then our being will be flooded with all things lovely and true, noble and pure, and when we see and hear light, we transmit and breathe light into each of our worlds. Want to know how to make your treasure sparkle? Shed some light on it, and let it radiate in the heart of God. It is well with my soul.   

Memorial of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, Religious
Lectionary: 369

Reading 1 2 COR 11:18, 21-30

Brothers and sisters:
Since many boast according to the flesh, I too will boast.
To my shame I say that we were too weak!

But what anyone dares to boast of 
(I am speaking in foolishness)
I also dare.
Are they Hebrews?  So am I.
Are they children of Israel?  So am I.
Are they descendants of Abraham?  So am I.
Are they ministers of Christ? 
(I am talking like an insane person).
I am still more, with far greater labors,
far more imprisonments, far worse beatings,
and numerous brushes with death.
Five times at the hands of the Jews
I received forty lashes minus one.
Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned,
three times I was shipwrecked,
I passed a night and a day on the deep;
on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers,
dangers from robbers, dangers from my own race,
dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city,
dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea,
dangers among false brothers;
in toil and hardship, through many sleepless nights,
through hunger and thirst, through frequent fastings,
through cold and exposure.
And apart from these things, there is the daily pressure upon me
of my anxiety for all the churches.
Who is weak, and I am not weak?
Who is led to sin, and I am not indignant?

If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

Responsorial Psalm PS 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7

R. (see 18b) From all their distress God rescues the just.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R. From all their distress God rescues the just.
Glorify the LORD with me,
let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears. 
R. From all their distress God rescues the just.
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy,
and your faces may not blush with shame.
When the poor one called out, the LORD heard,
and from all his distress he saved him.
R. From all their distress God rescues the just.

Alleluia MT 5:3

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are the poor in spirit;
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel MT 6:19-23

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."