DAILY GRACE
June 19, 2020, Friday of the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time
Scripture: Matthew 6:19-23
‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there you heart will be also.
‘The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Meditation
““The eye is the lamp of the body.”
In today’s Gospel Jesus gives us the image of an eye that “glows” and sheds light outwardly and inwardly. Commentaries describe the luminous eye as healthy and clear. They also identify it with a sincere and generous person. The opposite is true of the “darkened” eye. The person in whom darkness prevails is devious and stingy.
The passage begins with the exhortation to store up treasures for ourselves in heaven. Because the image of the luminous eye follows immediately, there seems to be an intimate connection: we store up heavenly wealth by being what the glowing eye implies: sound, sincere, and generous. So I have to ask myself: ‘How “bright” is my eye? How “radiant” am I?’
Prayer
Lord, help me to truly walk in your way and be generous, so that I may have the luminous eye.
Contemplation
I want to shine.