OUR HEAVENLY TREASURE


FRIDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

2 Cor 11:1-11; Ps 111:1-4,7-8; Mt 6:7-15

The Father as Our Heavenly Treasure

Life and everything good come to us from the heavenly Father, whom Jesus Christ revealed as the origin of all things and every good. We have understood this truth to be the core message of the Gospel. The simple truth is sown in our hearts as we receive the gift of the Son of God in his human nature in faith. As the heavenly seed germinates in our hearts as a new spirit, it becomes the centre of spiritual life in communion with the Holy Spirit. The spirit is the instance of the life of the Son of God in us. It cannot exist without the Holy Spirit, who causes it to germinate, nurturing and tending it to maturity with our faith and cooperation. Our Lord’s parable of the sower contains the foregoing understanding. Also, in this regard, Saint Paul referred to the Father as the one who provides the seed for the sower and the bread for the eater. As sowers, we cooperate with the Holy Spirit in witnessing the Gospel, and as eaters, we receive all things coming from the heavenly Father for our lives and well-being.

Our growing in spirit and better understanding of God as our heavenly Father correspond to our growth and maturity in the life of Jesus Christ. Our prayer is that we come to the fullness of this spiritual growth and development when, like Jesus Christ, our food would be to do the will of the Father in heaven. The admonition of the Lord to the disciples in the Gospel translates to this. “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.” Our growth in divine filiation daily is the transfer of our treasures to our heavenly Father. Each day, as we call God our Father in obedience to the teaching of the Son of Man, we learn to lay down our lives in imitation of the Son for the love of the Father. The heavenly Father, who raised Jesus Christ from the dead, would raise us after him. For by faith, we now share the death of the Son; we shall also share his resurrection and eternal life in the Father. When this understanding illuminates every aspect of our lives, we shall truly be light for all to see. But the lack of this understanding is the cause of darkness in a man’s life. Thus, Jesus says: “If then, the light inside you is darkness, what darkness that will be!”

The light inside us would be darkness if we were driven only by the desire for material goods and what we would gain in this life, without any thought for the will of the heavenly Father. The foolishness of those who were boasting of their material possession and tribal affiliation was a cause of great concern for Saint Paul. He imitated their foolishness to bring the Corinthians to their senses in their corrupted understanding of the Christian Gospel. “So many others have been boasting of their worldly achievements, that I will boast myself. But if anyone wants some brazen speaking—I am still talking as a fool—then I can be as brazen as any of them, and about the same things. Hebrews, are they?  So am I. Israelites? So am I. Descendants of Abraham? So am I. The servants of Christ? I must be mad to say this, but so am I, and more than they.” After mentioning the transitory glory, he focussed on what made him distinct from others. He gloried in his weaknesses and deaths for the sake of Jesus Christ, through which God was transforming him into Jesus Christ. The heavenly focus of Paul motivated him to follow Jesus Christ in all things and emptied himself of all earthly riches and glories to attain the heavenly ones. It is not an easy road God has called us to walk; only his grace can accomplish the desired transformation in us. “I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise always on my lips; in the Lord my soul shall make its boast. The humble shall hear and be glad.”

Let us pray: O God, strength of those who hope in you, graciously hear our prayers, and, since without you, mortal frailty can achieve nothing heavenly, grant us your grace and help always, that we may follow your commands and fulfil your holy will by our resolve and deeds. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

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