Have you ever wondered where your heart lives? Of course, your physical heart lives in your body. Your spiritual heart is the seat of your conscience, emotions, and desires. It’s deep within you, yet it can also be elsewhere. Our hearts can be overly focused on gaining money, power, and possessions, resulting in greed; on another person, resulting in obsession; in earthly pleasure, resulting in sin; or even on ourselves, resulting in selfishness. These are dangerous places to allow our hearts to live.
Jesus tells us that heaven is the right place on which to focus our hearts: “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” (Matt 6: 19-21).
Today’s scripture readings explore what happens when one focuses his or her heart on possessions instead of heaven. The first reading laments about the futility of living a life that is focused on toil and labor and the subsequent worry about the products of that labor. “For what profit comes to man from all the toil and anxiety of heart with which he has labored under the sun? All his days sorrow and grief are his occupation; even at night his mind is not at rest. This also is vanity” (Ecc 2:22-23).
In today’s Gospel reading, the rich fool focused his heart on storing up treasures in his barns, thinking his reward would be a life of rest and relaxation here on earth. But he never realized this reward because earthly things are temporary. He should have focused on heaven, which is eternal. Jesus tells us that the moral to this story is to avoid greed: “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions” (Lk 12:15). Instead of focusing on building up wealth and power, Jesus tells us to keep our hearts set on “what matters to God” (Lk. 12: 21). Consequently, the things that matter to God—loving God and others (Matt 22:37-39)—are also the things that help us store up treasures in heaven.
Lord Jesus, I want my heart to live with You in heaven. Help me focus my heart on what matters to You: loving You and others.
Readings for the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
ECCLESIASTES 1:2, 2:21-23
PSALM 90:3-17
COLOSSIANS 3:1-5, 9-11
LUKE 12:13-21