What do we need to destroy? Where are we storing up our riches?

Gift: Piety

Reading: Then Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD as one party and the king and the people as the other, by which they would be the LORD’S people; and another covenant, between the king and the people. Thereupon all the people of the land went to the temple of Baal and demolished it. They shattered its altars and images completely, and slew Mattan, the priest of Baal, before the altars. (2 Kings 11:17-18ab)

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The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light; but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness. And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be.  (Matthew 6:22-23)

Observation: The first reading reminds me that there are plenty of idols and false gods that we worship in today’s society.  Those idols need to be destroyed like they were in this reading from the 2nd book of Kings.  The way we destroy them is by taking away their power and replacing them with the one who is worthy of worship.  As it says in the Gospel reading today, a disciple of Jesus should be careful of what his eyes concentrate on, because if it is not on the light, it will lead to darkness.  As it says in the footnotes in today’s Gospel reading, the riches of this world are transitory, they will pass from one person to the next.  If we focus on the riches of this world, we could very well get them, but we will be in darkness because of the very nature of the riches that we are hoping to attain.  However, in focusing on the riches that are not of this world, we can stay in the light because the treasures in heaven are everlasting.

Personification:  Humility (Gentleness) – An inner strength that permits us to be aware of our own abilities without having to make a show of them. Today, I hope to be able to display the fruit of humility in my life and it is only by the grace of God that I won’t be drawn to show examples of my own strength to others.

Prayer: Lord, help me to stay humble today and for the rest of my life, so that I can be about storing up my riches in heaven and not in this world.  I ask this, as always, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Spirit.  Amen.