Reflections of Caritas

GOSPEL: LUKE 12:32-48

"FOR WHERE YOUR TREASURE IS, THERE WILL YOUR HEART BE ALSO!"

Dear Friends,

Jesus says in today’s gospel, “For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.” We can ask ourselves:  “where is my heart, what is my treasure.”  Answering that will give us immense knowledge about ourselves and we will also see the direction of our lives.

Christ warns us to pay attention to what we value in life, because this is what we will retain in eternal life. He tells us that what we treasure will control our hearts. What we value will determine the way that we live. This is important because we do not have enough time and energy to treasure all things equally. We therefore need to make decisions for what we will place first, what we will value most, what our treasure will be. Christ calls us to invest in a treasure that will last, a treasure that cannot be stolen or destroyed. Real wealth is obtained by investing in “treasures in heaven.” How do we secure such a treasure? By choosing to love one another.

In our heart of hearts, we all know that love is necessary to build a lasting treasure. The love we give to others is something eternal. The time and energy that we give to our children, our spouses and our friends, even to strangers will not die. I am witness to this from personal experience. I have been privileged to be with people at the moment of death. I will tell you in those last hours the only thing that matters is love. Nothing else has importance. It is the pride parents feel in their children, the years that someone has shared with a spouse, the good times and the intimacies that have been shared between friends which count. When the heart is given to love, when love is its treasure, then the heart is at peace. Even in the face of death, the heart knows that it possesses something which time cannot destroy.

No one is an island all to themselves. We need one another’s support, and concrete help, to help us make it to our Father’s kingdom. Let us commit ourselves again to the Lord. We may not be perfect yet, but we know the road and can keep walking, no matter how often we fail. Just as our ancestors knew that God loved them, so we also know that God loves us. Walking in faith, let us allow this love of God and neighbor to shape our lives.

God Bless,

Rev. Father Frank Kyazze