What Are You Looking At?

Matthew 6:22-34

'The lamp of the body is the eye. It follows that if your eye is clear, your whole body will be filled with light. But if your eye is diseased, your whole body will be darkness. If then, the light inside you is darkened, what darkness that will be!
'No one can be the slave of two masters: he will either hate the first and love the second, or be attached to the first and despise the second. You cannot be the slave both of God and of money.
'That is why I am telling you not to worry about your life and what you are to eat, nor about your body and what you are to wear. Surely life is more than food, and the body more than clothing! Look at the birds in the sky. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they are? Can any of you, however much you worry, add one single cubit to your span of life? And why worry about clothing? Think of the flowers growing in the fields; they never have to work or spin; yet I assure you that not even Solomon in all his royal robes was clothed like one of these. Now if that is how God clothes the wild flowers growing in the field which are there today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, will He not much more look after you, you who have so little faith? So do not worry; do not say, "What are we to eat? What are we to drink? What are we to wear?" It is the gentiles who set their hearts on all these things. Your heavenly Father knows you need them all. Set your hearts on His kingdom first, and on God's saving justice, and all these other things will be given to you as well. So do not worry about tomorrow: tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.'

After Jesus finishes discussing the three major "do's" of the Catholic Faith: Almsgiving, Prayer, and Fasting, and teaching that it's not just enough to do them, but we must do them with the right motives--out of sincerity, rather than showing off--Jesus continues to discuss the motives of the heart very directly in this text.

He starts off with a proverb about being able to see, that at first glance, sandwiched as it is in Matthew between a discussion about true treasures and serving either God or money, seems completely random. If this section is about wealth vs. God, then why is Jesus talking about our eyes? In fact, this parable is the key to really understanding what it is that Jesus is getting at when He talks about finances. And, not surprisingly, it's the very same point that He's been making all along. Just as our eyes allow us to see, and if we can't see, everything is in darkness, spiritually, we need to have our heart focused on the things of God. If we allow distractions to take our eyes off of Him, then our hearts will grow spiritually dark.

Jesus then turns His attention to an issue that was as distracting for people as they tried to serve God in His day as it is now. In fact, it's such a huge issue that Jesus isn't content to refer to it as a "distraction." He's pretty graphic as He calls people "slaves" to it. And He's right. We cannot be a slave both to God and to Money.

Here in North America, especially, it seems to me, in our town of Oakville, the distraction, enticement, and downright slavery of money is very prevalent. People work long hours in order to provide the best sort of life for their family: the biggest house, right down on the Lake, the nicest cars, biggest television, etc. They think that if they make enough money, and get enough stuff, it will fulfil them, and they will be happy. The problem is, though, there is always something more to get, something more to "fill" that void in our hearts, and we never do get to the point where "enough is enough."

Now please hear what I am saying: money in and of itself is not a bad thing. As St. Paul said, "'The love of money is the root of all evils' and there are some who, pursuing it, have wandered away from the faith and so given their souls any number of fatal wounds" (1 Timothy 6:10, emphasis mine). Money, when it serves our needs, is a good thing. But there can easily come a point when money becomes not the servant, but the master, and we must be on guard against that!

As Jesus said, it's about what we are focussed on, and He continues to talk about where our focus should be. When Money is our master, our focus is on ourselves and all the things that we need. We begin to stress and worry over food and clothing and everything else, because "What if we don't have enough?" Rather, Jesus tells us not to worry about any of that, because God knows our needs and promises to take care of us! If He can take care of birds and flowers, giving them all that they need, then how much more is He aware of and willing to meet our needs, who are created in His Image, and are infinitely more valuable than flowers and birds! So He asks us to trust in Him and work with Him, instead of trusting in money and working for money.

This is not an easy thing. I get that. As a youth minister, my salary is far from lucrative! My wife is a supply teacher, trying to get a full-time job. In the meantime, she doesn't know if, when, or where she'll be working next! It's very difficult to trust that Jesus will supply our every need. It's very tempting to worry and get stressed out. It's very tempting to look into a better-paying job so that we can be secure enough to start a family, have a house, and all the other things that we think would make us happy. But we have faith in God, knowing that He's taking care of us, and has called us to the place where we are. As long as we cooperate with Him, He will not only meet our material needs, but our spiritual needs as well. As hard as things may get, He will fulfil that void in our hearts.

So don't worry about all these things. Seek God's Kingdom, and His saving justice! He'll take care of the rest. That's the beauty of having God as Our Father!

God bless!