Gospel in Art: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also

Laying on of Hands by Bishop Davies to Patrick on Wednesday during the Rite of Ordination to the Diaconate

Source: Christian Art

Gospel of 17 June 2022
Matthew 6:19-23

Jesus said to his disciples: 'Do not store up treasures for yourselves on earth, where moths and woodworms destroy them and thieves can break in and steal. But store up treasures for yourselves in heaven, where neither moth nor woodworms destroy them and thieves cannot break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

'The lamp of the body is the eye. It follows that if your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light. But if your eye is diseased, your whole body will be all darkness. If then, the light inside you is darkness, what darkness that will be!'

Reflection on today's reading

We all appreciate the truth of Jesus' words in our Gospel reading today: 'For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.' We give our full heart to whoever or whatever we treasure. Once we have found a treasure we want to protect it, hold it and cherish it.

So the question is what treasure do we want to spend our time on and our lives on? It takes prayer and discernment to discover what is truly valuable…. valuable enough to give our full hearts to. We all have people in our lives whom we come to value and treasure, people who mean a great deal to us and to whom we freely give our hearts. And people will always mean much more than the 'things' that we give our hearts to. But Jesus takes it a step further. He says that God is our ultimate treasure. God is the one who is worthy of ALL of our heart, mind and soul.

In his letter to the Philippians Paul declares, 'I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord'. Christ was Paul's greatest treasure. It was him that Paul gave his full heart to. That is why it was so special two days ago to be ordained over the tomb of Saint Paul.

I share with you the moment Bishop Mark Davies laid his hands on me during the Rite of Ordination to the Diaconate. It was a moment where eight of us gave our full hearts to Christ.

I hope the posts of the last three days conveyed some of the joy I have experienced… and tomorrow, we are back to looking at art!

LINKS

Christian Art: www.christian.art
Today's image: https://christian.art/daily-gospel-reading/matthew-6-19-23-2022/