Message of Abbot Paul - Friday 18th June
Message from Fr Paul for Friday, 18th June 2021
The Sermon on the Mount is a treasure store of the teaching of Jesus on the Law, which he interprets for his disciples. As Moses gave the Law of God to the people of Israel on Mount Sinai, so now Jesus, the new Moses, gives the New Law to his disciples, who will constitute the New Israel of God, the Church of Christ. We are reading Matthew’s Gospel, (Mt 6: 19-23). After instructing his disciples on prayer, he goes on to distinguish for them what is really important from what is not. “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 treasure that Jesus talks about here is the kingdom of God, in fact, God himself. He is the treasure we should seek, the treasure we should “store up” for all eternity. Yet people seek after any treasure but God and often reject God in order to store up other treasures, treasures that do not last and, in the long run, do not give satisfaction. Only God can satisfy that spiritual hunger we all possess and from which we suffer throughout our lives. We try to feed that hunger with material things that cannot satisfy our desire and need for God. Jesus offers his disciples the joy of knowing the living God.
Jesus then uses another image, that of eyesight, the human eye. He says, “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!” Again, like treasure, the eye conveys an important spiritual principle. The eye is the window of the heart, mind and soul. If this window is dirty, cracked or marred in any other way, then the light it lets in is cloudy and distorted, deflected and diminished. We need to keep our eye sound and clean, crystal clear and focused, that the light of God, the light of truth, justice and love might penetrate and illumine our heart, mind and soul. If we do not allow the light of Christ to enter into our lives, then we will live in darkness and ignorance.
Lord, may we seek only one treasure in our lives, the treasure that will last and grow for eternal life, you, who are the living God. Open our eyes to see the light of Christ, who alone can illumine the darkness of our world. Amen.
