Gospel in Art: Store up treasure for yourselves in heaven

Rosary, German, circa 1500-1525. Ivory, silver, and partially gilded mounts © Metropolitan Museum, New York / Gift of J Pierpont Morgan, 1917

Source: Christian Art

Gospel of 23 June 2023
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 the rosary

In the gospel reading this morning, Jesus talks of two kinds of treasures, treasures on earth and treasures in heaven. He teaches that treasures on earth are vulnerable to all kinds of external forces, such as natural decay and the actions of a thief. In contrast, treasures in heaven are totally secure and ever-lasting. That is what it means to be rich in the eyes of God: to store up treasures heaven. It all goes back to what treasure is linked to our hearts. What does our heart long for? Does it treasure the things of this world or does it long for a close friendship with Christ?

Tomorrow morning at 10.30am in Westminster Cathedral, London, I will be ordained to the priesthood. What a magnificent day it will be. It will be a moment where I will tell Jesus that I not only want to serve him for the rest of my life, but that I want to have the closest possible friendship with him. When I started seminary four years ago, my fear was that if I truly let Christ enter fully into my live, would He not take something away from me and demand the impossible? Are all of us maybe perhaps afraid at times to give up something significant, something unique, fearing that we may end up diminished or deprived of some of our freedom? The contrary has happened: I have gained so much. And whilst I can't speak for my fellow seminarian brothers, I think we all have that sense that if we truly let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing. We gain everything! And that 'everything' are maybe the treasures in heaven that Jesus is talking about.

The earthly riches and treasures are indeed temporary. That is what the memento mori artworks have told us throught the ages. This type of art not only serves to emphasise the fleetingness of earthly pleasures, but it also invites us to focus our thoughts on the prospect of the afterlife, prompting us to live good lives right now, in order to store up treasures in heaven.

For our artwork today I share this rather unusual memento mori German rosary dated to around 1500-1525. Each large bead of the rosary (the rim them mounted with the ten decades) represents the bust of a well-fed burgher or maiden on one side, and a skeleton on the other. The terminals, even more graphic, show the head of a deceased man, with half the image eaten away from decay such as the moths and worms mentioned in our Gospel reading. Such explicit artworks served as reminders that life is fleeting and that leading a virtuous life was the only way to store up treasures in heaven.

Please keep the four fellow brethren and me in your prayers as we prepare for our ordination to the priesthood tomorrow. Thank you and God bless you.

LINKS

Gospel in Art: https://christian.art/
Today's reflection: https://christian.art/daily-gospel-reading/matthew-6-19-23-2023/