19. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust does corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
20. But lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust does corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
21. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
CHRYS. When He has driven away the disease of vanity, He does well to bring in speech of contempt of riches. For there is no greater cause of desire of money than love of praise; for this men desire troops of slaves, horses dressed in gold, and tables of silver, not for use or pleasure, but that they may be seen of many; therefore he says, Lay not up for yourselves treasure on earth.
AUG. For if any does a work with the mind of gaining thereby an earthly good, how will his heart be pure while it is thus walking on earth? For anything that is mingled with an inferior nature is polluted therewith, though that inferior be in its kind pure. Thus gold is alloyed when mixed with pure silver; and in like manner our mind is defiled by lust of earthly things, though earth is in its own kind pure.
PSEUD-CHRYS. Otherwise; As the Lord had above taught nothing concerning alms, or prayer, or fasting, but had only checked a pretense of them, He now proceeds to deliver a doctrine of three portions, according to the division which He had before made, in this order. First, a counsel that alms should be done; second, to show the benefit of almsgiving; third, that the fear of poverty should be no hindrance to our purpose of almsgiving.
CHRYS. Saying, Lay not up for yourselves treasure on earth, He adds, where rust and moth destroy, in order to show the insecurity of that treasure that is here, and the advantage of that which is in Heaven, both from the place, and from those things which harm. As though He had said; Why fear you that your wealth should be consumed, if you should give alms?
You rather give alms, and they shall receive increase, for those treasures that are in Heaven shall be added to them, which treasures perish if you do not give alms. He said not, You leave them to others, for that is pleasant to men.
RABAN. Here are three precepts according to the three different kinds of wealth. Metals are destroyed by rust, clothes by moth; but as there are other things which fear neither rust nor moth, as precious stones, He therefore names a common damage, that by thieves, who may rob wealth of all kinds.
PSEUDO-CHRYS. Another reading is, Where moth and banqueting consume. For a threefold destruction awaits all the goods of this life. They either decay and are eaten of moths as cloth; or are consumed by their master's luxurious living; or are plundered by strangers, either by violence, or pilfering, or false accusation, or some other unjust doing. For all may be called thieves who hasten by any unlawful means to make other men's rods their own. But you will say, Do all who have these things, perforce lose them? I would answer by the way, that if all do not, yet many do. But ill-hoarded wealth, you alive lost spiritually if not actually, because it profits you not to your salvation.
RABAN. Allegorically; Rust denotes pride which obscures the brightness of virtue. Moth which privately eats out garments, is jealousy which frets into good intention, and destroys the bond of unity. Thieves denote heretics and demons, who are ever on the watch to rob men of their spiritual treasure.
HILARY; But the praise of Heaven is eternal, and cannot be carried off by invading thief, nor consumed by the moth and rust of envy.
AUG. By heaven in this place I understand not the material heavens, for everything that has a body is earthly. But it is necessary that the whole world be despised by him who lays up his treasure in that Heaven, of which it is said, The heaven of heavens is the Lord's, that is, in the spiritual firmament. For heaven and earth shall pass away; but we ought not to place our treasure in that which passes away, but in that which abides forever
PSEUD-CHRYS. Which then is better? To place it on earth where its security is doubtful, or in Heaven where it will be certainly preserved? What folly to leave it in this place when you must soon depart, and not to send it before you thither, whither you are to go? Therefore place your substance there where your country is.
CHRYS. But for as much as not every earthly treasure is destroyed by rust or moth, or carried away by thieves, He therefore brings in another motive, For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. As much as to say; Though none of these former losses should befall you, you will yet Sustain no small loss by attaching your affections to things beneath, and becoming a slave to them, and in falling from Heaven, and being unable to think of any lofty thing.
JEROME; This must be understood not of money only, but of all our possessions. The god of a glutton is his belly; of a lover his lust; and so every man serves that to which he is in bondage; and has his heart there where his treasure is.
PSEUD-CHRYS. Otherwise; He now teaches the benefit of almsgiving. He who places his treasure on earth has nothing to look for in Heaven; for why should he look up to Heaven where he has nothing laid up for himself? Thus he doubly sins; first, because he gathers together things evil; secondly, because he has his heart in earth; and so on the contrary he does right in a twofold manner who lays up his treasure in Heaven.
22. The light of the body is the eye: if therefore your eye be single, your whole body shall be full of light.
23. But if your eye be evil, your whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness!
CHRYS. Having spoken of the bringing the understanding into captivity because it was not easy to be understood of many, He transfers it to a sensible instance, saying, The light of your body is your eye. As though He had said, If you do not knonternal eye. The light is the understanding, through which the soul sees God. He whose heart is turned to God, has an eye full of light; that is, his understanding is pure, not distorted by late influence of worldly lusts. The darkness in us is our bodily senses, which always desire the things that pertain to darkness. Whoever then has a pure eye, that is, a spiritual understanding, preserves his body in light, that is, without sin; for though the flesh desires evil, yet by the might of divine fear the soul resists it. But whoever has an eye, that is, an understanding, either darkened by the influence of the malignant passions, or fouled by evil lusts, possesses his body in darkness; he does not resist the flesh when it lusts after evil things, because he has no hope in Heaven, which hope alone gives us the strength to resist desire.
HILARY; Otherwise; from the office of the light of the eye, He calls it the light of the heart; which if it continue single and brilliant, will confer on the body the brightness of the eternal light, and pour again into the corrupted flesh the splendor of its origin, that is, in time resurrection. But if it be obscured by sin, and evil in will, the bodily nature will yet abide subject to all the evils of the understanding.
AUG. Otherwise; by the eye here we may understand our purpose; if thw what is meant by the loss of the understanding, learn a parable of the bodily members; for what the eye is to the body, that the understanding is to the soul. As by the loss of the eyes we lose much of the use of the other limbs, so when the understanding is corrupted, your life is filled with many evils.
JEROME; This is an illustration drawn from the senses. As the whole body is in darkness, where the eye is not single, so if the soul has lost her original brightness, every sense, or that whole part of the soul to which sensation belongs, will abide in darkness. Wherefore He says, If then the light which is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness! that is, if the senses which are the soul's light be darkened by vice, in how great darkness do you suppose the darkness itself will be wrapped?
PSEUD-CHRYS. It seems that He is not here speaking of the bodily eye, or of the outward body that is seen, or He would have said, If your eye be sound, or weak; but He says, single, and, evil. But if one have a benign yet diseased eye, is his body therefore in light? Or if an evil yet a sound, is his body therefore in darkness?
JEROME; Those who have thick eye-sight see the lights multiplied; but the single and clear eye sees them single and clear.
CHRYS. Or; The eye He speaks of is not the external but the iat be pure and right, all our works which we work according to are good. These He here calls the body, as the Apostle speaks of certain works as members; Mortify your members, fornication and uncleanness. We should look then, not to what a person does, but with what mind he does it. For this is the light within us, because by this we see that we do with good intention what we do. For all which does make manifest is light. But the deeds themselves, which go forth to men's society, have a result to us uncertain, and therefore He calls them darkness; as when I give money to one in need, I know not what He will do with it. If then the purpose of your heart, which you can know, is defiled with the lust of temporal things, much more is the act itself, of which the issue is uncertain, defiled. For even though one should reap good of what you do with a purpose not good; it will be imputed to you as you did it, not as it resulted to him. If however our works are done with a single purpose, that is with the aim of charity, then are they pure and pleasing in God's sight.
AUG. But acts which are known to be in themselves sins, are not to be done as with a good purpose; but such works only as are either good or bad, according to the motives from which they are done are either good or bad, and are not in themselves sins; as to give food to the poor is good if it be done from merciful motives, but evil if it is done from ostentation. But such works as are in themselves sins, who will say that they are to be done with good motives, or that they are not sins? Who would say, Let us rob the rich, that we may have to give to the poor?
GREG. Otherwise; if the light that is in you, that is, if what we have begun to do well, we overcloud with evil purpose, when we do things which we know to be in themselves evil, how great is the darkness!
REMIG. Otherwise; faith is likened to a light, because by it the goings of the inner man, that is, action, are lightened, that he should not stumble according to that, Your word is a light to my feet. If that then be pure and single, the whole body is light; but if defiled, the whole body will be dark. Yet otherwise; by the light may be understood the ruler of the Church who may be well called the eye, as he it is that ought to see that wholesome things be provided for the people under him, which are understood by the body. If then the ruler of the Church err, how much more will the people subject to him err?
Catena Aurea Matthew 6
The Word Among Us
Meditation: 2 Kings 11:1-4, 9-18, 20
11th Week in Ordinary Time<
Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord as one party and the king and the people as the other, by which they would be the Lord’s people. (2 Kings 11:17)
All week long, the first readings at Mass have told the story of the prophet Elijah and his clashes with the leaders of Israel. They have shown us Elijah’s mission, which was to call Israel back to God. Many times along the way, Elijah experienced dejection, but each time, he learned something new about the Lord: who he is, what place his people have in the world, and what his plan of salvation looks like.
In fact, Elijah’s biography reads almost like a pattern of obstacle and revelation. A widow who shelters him loses her son to a serious illness. Elijah cries out and discovers that God answers prayers and even raises the dead. The wicked queen Jezebel pursues Elijah ruthlessly. He slumps dejectedly under a tree and discovers firsthand God’s provision and protection.
After Elijah was taken up to heaven, a righteous king reclaimed the throne and got rid of idolatry. Great news? Well, not really. Before long, Israel and their leaders went back to their sinful ways.
Does this mean that Elijah failed? Not at all! Everything he had learned about God taught him to trust in God’s plan, even if that meant that the good news would unfold well beyond his own lifetime. He learned that God will continue to build his kingdom, no matter what kingdom earthly rulers try to build. He learned the difference between earthly treasures and heavenly treasures. And though he fought for the conversion of Israel his whole life, looking back, we can see that Elijah himself experienced an ever-deepening relationship with God: he learned to listen to God and to follow his word faithfully.
Do you worry that you will fail in what God is calling you to or maybe that you already have failed? Remember: God is more interested in faithfulness than success. By staying close to him, even in the face of discouragement, you will come to know him more. And with that deepening relationship will come the hope, joy, and peace that Elijah experienced.
“Lord, help me hear your voice. Teach me to trust you. Come, Holy Spirit, and give me confident hope in your plans for this world.”
Psalm 132:11-14, 17-18
Matthew 6:19-23
St. Gregory was born on September 16, 1625, and he died in 1697. His family lived in Venice and were held in high repute by the people there. He was the fourth son. He excelled in his studies at an early age and became interested in diplomacy and statesmanship. He knew Contarine, the Venetian ambassador, and went with him on at least one ambassadorial mission.
