Where is your heart?

11^th Week OT (F)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Dominic Church, NOLA

You may feel it too. Something is changing; something is shifting in this temporary world. I mean, things are always moving, always sliding about. That's the nature of all created things. But right now, out there, it just feels to me like Something Big is coming. Maybe it's b/c the Dominicans have had four deaths in the last two weeks, including our own Br. Roger. Maybe it's b/c we just elected a new Provincial. We're leaving St. D's. Y'all are getting a new Pastor and PV. Fr. John's mother is not doing well. Lots is going on. Lots of moving, shifting, sliding about. And that's just right here in this parish. Don't watch the news if you're prone to angry outbursts. Out there is far, far worse. It's enough to upset the stoutest stomach. As I feel the rolling start, I hear Christ say to his disciples, “Peace be with you.” And the HS comes to reveal the Father's enduring truth. The truth is: Christ doesn't change. He doesn't slip or slide. He doesn't evolve or develop or “grow with the times.” He is the Rock, the foundation stone – the center of the hurricane and the peace which passes all understanding.

Knowing all this, where do you build your faith? On what do you build your faith? Better yet, in whom or what do you invest your faith? Here's what Jesus says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal.” “Treasures” here can be literal stuff like property or money. But you can also treasure ideas, habits, attitudes, preferences, prejudices, politics, relationships. You can treasure people, pets, careers. All of these – money, habits, people – all of them are subject to thieves and death. Anything of the earth and on it is subject to change. That's the nature of created things – to change. What doesn't change? Christ. His truth. Therefore, “store up treasures in heaven,” store your treasures where change is unnecessary b/c your treasures are already perfect. Christ makes this truth easy for us to understand: “...where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.” If you treasure the things of this world, then your heart, your center, is down here in the chaos of creation. If your treasure is kept in heaven – perfect, unchanging – then your heart is in heaven already. Let the world slip, slide, quake, and rattle about. It will burn, heal, and burn again. You, remain in the peace of Christ.  

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