Friday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
(II Kings 11:4-9.9-18.20; Matthew 6:19-23)
It is said that if you give a child a choice between a worn dime and shiny penny, she will choose the penny. This may be true in general, but often enough there is a different result. Since they have difficulty making choices, children generally want both offerings. A sign of maturity is the ability to decide on a goal and to marshal one’s resources to achieve it.
In the gospel today Jesus is calling his disciples to maturity and beyond. He wants us not only to choose a heavenly treasure but to live implicitly righteous lives in order to achieve it. Wealth is a fleeting blessing, he would say, where divine love lasts forever. To achieve eternal life we are to share with others the love which the Holy Spirit pours into our hearts.
