Where your treasure is, there also will your heart be

20 JUNE (Mt 6,19-23)

In this day, we can understand what the Lord reveals us through his word, if we remember a fundamental truth concerning the goods of this world. All the earth does not belong to men, even if men appropriate and use it every day according to their will and not according to the will of their Giver. First truth: the earth belongs to God and it must be used according to the will of God and never according to the will of  men. This rule has never been and will never be forfeited. It is the everlasting law of the whole of creation. The Lord God remains forever.

No man is the owner of the earth. He uses it, but it is not his. Another truth is this: the work of the earth is always done in two: man works in it, but so does the Lord. Man puts his sweat and God puts his. Man puts his work and the Lord puts his. Without the work of God, the one of man is vain, fruitless and sterile. Man puts his hands, God puts his rain, his sun, his wind, his warmth; he puts the vitality of the plants themselves and his blessing. The Lord puts the very strength of man, his health, his intelligence and his wisdom.

Of any work that man carries out on earth, half of his fruits, both of his industries and of his trade and of the earth itself is the Lord’s. We must deliver it to the Lord. How do you deliver it? Allotting a good portion for the poor, weak, small, sick, strangers and for any other person that cannot get their bread with the sweat of his brow. In humanity there is the healthy, strong and capable side. The result of the work of God goes instead to the sick, weak and not able to work. This law must always be observed. Even this law will never lapse.

The accumulation is possible only by breaking this law. Never might whoever observes it faithfully accumulate. Whatever is left him is needed for his daily needs and emergencies. He might put something aside for the most difficult moments. But surely the accumulation will be very difficult, if not impossible to him. What is the sign that our heart is a prisoner of wealth? When it confiscates the part of God. When it does not give the poor what belongs to them. This embezzlement reveals the slavery and captivity of our heart. We have become thieves. We have what belongs to others in our coffers.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be. “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.

But God will not tolerate this theft to his injury. What is his, will always be his. We can also confiscate it, but if he will take it back. We will never be able to enjoy it. How does the Lord go about taking back what is his? He does it through thieves, burglars, robbers, extortionists and people of ill repute. This is an army that will never retire, never will be reduced in number. It will never be old-fashioned in its strategies. If all this is not enough, there will be moths and rust. If more must be added, there will always be room for every even incurable and chronic disease. What is of God must always be God’s.

Who wants the blessing in his work, in his house, in his health, in his affections and in all that is his world must always observe these two simple rules. He must use creation according to the rules established by God, not for savage exploitation, but to draw his daily nourishment. He must always give the part to the Lord. It is just that he is settled in what is due to him, because he does the more vital, more challenging and more essential work. It is only fair that you always give the worker his salary. Even God must be given his salary. It is due to him for righteousness.