Monday, January 01, 2007 Alipio: Storing up heavenly treasures By Fr. Jose Alipino Lifelines
THE motive of fear has an amazing staying power in the religious imagination. The only reason some people live a good life is because they fear the consequences if they don't. They fear that they will go to hell when they die if they do wicked things. They fear that they will miss out on heaven if they do not live a virtuous life. Beyond this simple either/or destiny, the motive of fear continues to operate even in the Christian whose eternal salvation is secure. They fear that they will have a diminished happiness in heaven if they do not make sacrifices for their faith. Noting the status of the saints, they strive to work hard in this life in order to enjoy a special largess in the life to come. What is given here, they believe, will be returned with interest in the life to come.
Jesus seems to give credence to this view in these verses from the gospel of Matthew. "Do not lay up for yourselves earthly treasure. Moths and rust corrode; thieves break in and steal. Make it your practice instead to store up heavenly treasures, whether neither moth nor rust nor thieves break in and steal." These words seem to admonish us to take out a Heavenly insurance to insure that we will have plenty of stars in our own crown when we arrive at the heavenside layer. But this interpretation of these words from Jesus stands in sharp contradiction to most of his teaching about doing good for its own good. Maybe, that's the key to a proper understanding of these words. Jesus is saying that the good things we do in this life never perish. They live on forever because the good life is eternal.
