Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, SJ

 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be.”

Jesus of Nazareth wants to make it clear that the true treasure does not lie so much in what has been accumulated here on earth, but in what we add up for heaven, an expression that alludes both to living with a transcendent style and to lending our shoulder to the tasks of the Kingdom of God as the only and best treasure.  We are grateful for the appeal to common sense that these sentences make to us because things, material resources, are worth only that which gives them value. Jesus reminds us at all times that our worth or excellence lies in the life we humanize, in what we do to share life, in rendering dignity to our neighbors, in the daily demonstration that our treasure is in following Jesus. And He asks us to live in a merciful way; if so, we will be very clear about our choice in the face of the usual alternative of God or money. How are our gestures and words? Are they a sign…a sign of what?