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Matthew 6:19–23
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light; 23 but if your eye is not sound, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
Catholic Exegesis:
The Second Vatican Council teaches that if we are to derive the true meaning from the sacred texts, attention must be devoted “not only to their content but to the unity of the whole of Scripture, the living tradition of the entire Church, and the analogy of faith. […] Everything to do with the interpretation of Scripture is ultimately subject to the judgment of the Church, which exercises the divinely conferred communion and ministry of watching over and interpreting the Word of God” (Dei Verbum, 12).
St. John Paul II, when he promulgated the Catechism of the Catholic Church, explained that the Catechism "is a statement of the Church's faith and of catholic doctrine, attested to or illumined by Sacred Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition and the Church's Magisterium." He went on to "declare it to be a sure norm for teaching the faith and thus a valid and legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion" (Fidei Depositum).
Cited in the Catechism:
Passages from this Gospel reading are cited in the Catechism in paragraphs 368, 2533, 2551, 2604, 2608, 2729 and 2848.
Commentary
Trust in God’s fatherly providence
6:19–21. The idea here is very clear: man’s heart yearns for a treasure that will give him security and happiness. However, every treasure in the form of earthly goods—wealth, property—becomes a constant source of worry, because there is always the risk we will lose it or because the effort to protect it is such a strain.
Against this, Jesus teaches us here that our true treasure lies in good works and an upright life, which will be eternally rewarded by God in heaven. That indeed is a treasure which one never loses, a treasure on which Christ’s disciple should put his heart.
Jesus closes the teaching contained in the preceding verses with a kind of refrain (v. 21). He is not saying that people should be unconcerned about earthly things; what he does say is that no created thing can be “the treasure”, the ultimate aim, of man. What man should do is make his way to God, sanctify himself and give all glory to God, by making right use of the noble things of the earth: “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor 10:31; cf. Col 3:17).
6:22–23. Here is another jewel of Jesus’ wisdom teaching. It begins with a sentence that is then immediately explained. The Master uses the simile of the eye as a lamp which provides the body with light. Christian exegesis has seen this “eye”, this “lamp”, as meaning the motivation behind our behaviour. St Thomas explains it in this way: “The eye refers to motive. When a person wants to do something, he first forms an intention: thus, if your intention is sound—simple and clear—that is to say, if it is directed towards God, your whole body, that is, all your actions, will be sound, sincerely directed towards good” (St Thomas Aquinas, Comm. on St Matthew, 6, 22–23).
Source: The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries. Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.
"Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." St Jerome
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