Gospel: Mt 6:19-23
Do not store up treasures for yourself here, on earth, where moth and rust destroy it; and where thieves can steal it. Store up treasures for yourself with God, where no moth or rust can destroy it, nor thief come and steal it.
For where your treasures is, there, also, will your heart be. The lamp of the body is the eye if your eyes are sound, your whole body will be full of light. If your eyes are diseased, your whole body will be full of darkness. If, then, the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
REFLECTION:
Windows exist so that the outside light can flood a room and make everything in it visible. But, if a window is dirty, it will not let much light enter. The dirtier it is, the less light it will let in.
In today’s gospel reading Jesus compares our eyes to windows. If they are healthy, they will let the outside light in, and our whole being will be bathing in light. But, if our eyes are diseased, then they will prevent the outside light from entering and our whole body will be in darkness.
All this is a metaphor. The physical eyes here stand for our spiritual eyes, namely, the way we view people and think of them and judge them. Some attitudes of the mind blind us or distort the way we see people. For example, prejudice (about race, color, gender, political affiliation, religion) can blind us about people if we are not careful. Likewise, jealousy distorts our judgments on people. Self-conceit can also completely distort our view of people.
The way to insure the health of our spiritual eyes is to ruthlessly examine ourselves regularly on our attitudes towards other people.
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