Friday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
WHERE IS OUR TREASURE?
In defending his ministry, Paul boasts of all he has done and suffered in the service of the Gospel of the young Christian communities. These sufferings affect and hurt him, for they bring out his human frailty. But he goes on single-mindedly, because God is his strength and his treasure, the light brightening his whole being.
What are the things that preoccupy us, that are constantly on our minds? The answer to this question will indicate what our values are, “where our heart is.” For many high-minded and dedicated Christians, these values will rarely be as crude as mere pleasure seeking and a hunger for material wealth and comfort, though these too, are not always ruled out completely. But what about the ambition for power and promotion, the tendency to dominate others and to shape others in our own image and likeness rather than God’s? What about making ourselves the center of the world? Where do we look for “the one thing necessary”?
Reading 1: 2 Cor 11:18, 21-30
21-23 Since you admire the egomaniacs of the pulpit so much (remember, this is your old friend, the fool, talking), let me try my hand at it. Do they brag of being Hebrews, Israelites, the pure race of Abraham? I’m their match. Are they servants of Christ? I can go them one better. (I can’t believe I’m saying these things. It’s crazy to talk this way! But I started, and I’m going to finish.)
23-27 I’ve worked much harder, been jailed more often, beaten up more times than I can count, and at death’s door time after time. I’ve been flogged five times with the Jews’ thirty-nine lashes, beaten by Roman rods three times, pummeled with rocks once. I’ve been shipwrecked three times, and immersed in the open sea for a night and a day. In hard traveling year in and year out, I’ve had to ford rivers, fend off robbers, struggle with friends, struggle with foes. I’ve been at risk in the city, at risk in the country, endangered by desert sun and sea storm, and betrayed by those I thought were my brothers. I’ve known drudgery and hard labor, many a long and lonely night without sleep, many a missed meal, blasted by the cold, naked to the weather.
28-29 And that’s not the half of it, when you throw in the daily pressures and anxieties of all the churches. When someone gets to the end of his rope, I feel the desperation in my bones. When someone is duped into sin, an angry fire burns in my gut.
30 If I have to “brag” about myself, I’ll brag about the humiliations that make me like Jesus.
Gospel: Mt 6:19-23
“Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.
22-23 “Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a musty cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!
Prayer
Lord our God,
you are the origin and purpose of all,
the meaning of our existence
and the goal of all we do.
We pray you today:
draw us out of our little self-created worlds
and open us to you and your kingdom.
Be yourself the precious pearl of our lives
and let each person around us be
the oyster shell in which we find that pearl.
We ask this through Christ, our Lord.