Pope urges keeping hearts and eyes on true treasure
21 June, 2013 – We must leave behind “hazardous treasures’ that seduce, that we accumulate
in life and that is destroyed by death. “I have never seen a moving van behind a funeral
procession,” Pope Francis said at a Mass he celebrated Friday morning at the Casa
Santa Marta residence in the Vatican. He was reflecting on the day’s Gospel about
Jesus differentiating between the earthly and heavenly treasures. The Pope said there
is a treasure that we can carry with us, a treasure that no one can rob, which is
not what we have saved for ourselves self, but which we have given to others. And
this will be our “reward”; it is Jesus Christ who is our reward. Love, charity, service,
patience, goodness and tenderness are beautiful treasures that we carry; nothing else.
The Lord has made us restless to seek Him, to find him and to grow. Pope Francis
also spoke about eyes as a symbol of the intention of the heart that reflects on the
body. A heart that loves make the body luminous, whereas an evil heart makes it dark.
A heart of stone attached to the earthly treasure is a selfish treasure that can become
a cause of hatred and war. The Pope thus urged all to ask God for a heart that knows
how to love that is not led astray by useless treasures.