Jesus said to his disciples:
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,
where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal.
But store up treasures in heaven,
where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal.
For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.” (Mt 6:19-21)
I do a lot of fretting about the weather at festival time. I know that worrying doesn’t do anyone any good at all. However, I worry nonetheless. I worry at festival about the weather, about people’s safety, about whether or not people will enjoy themselves at the festival, and a myriad of other worries.
One of the reasons that I fret about the weather is that it affects the “bottom line” of our annual event: finances. A rain day or a number of rain days can greatly decrease what the parish makes on the festival. The income from our past festivals has gone to many significant parish improvements: windows for our school, the replacement of our parking lot, new roofs, et cetera. Without that income, as well as donations from our annual CSA, the parish improvements that we have made would not have been possible.
However, in the final analysis, there truly is nothing that I can do about the weather except to embrace whatever God gives to us. Ultimately, that is what I do. Oh sure, I do it with a lot of kicking and screaming; but, I do accept it. God, and my relationship with Him, is much more important than weather or anything else that may come my way. That is because I look, hopefully, to the Kingdom of Heaven rather than to anything that this world can offer.
That is what the Lord asks of all of us. In today’s Gospel, He reminds us that we need to “bank” on Him and His love rather than on anything the world can give to us. Because the most perfect day in this world, all the riches of this world, all the hope that this world may have to offer is transitory. It will all pass. What is eternal is God and His glory.
That is where we need to set our sight.
That is where we need to rest our heart.
That is where we need to place our trust.
That should be our goal this day.
FAITH ACTION: Ask God to give you the grace needed to look less at the things of this world and more to what He has in store for you.