"Where your treasure is"

Today’s first reading (2 Kings 11:1-4, 9-18, 20) tells us of a complicated and violent time in ancient Jerusalem, including a Queen who murders nearly all of the royal family in order to hold onto power and who is herself executed when the survivor emerges from a hidden childhood in the Temple and is proclaimed King.

Thus we have the example of someone who commits great evil for the sake of earthly goods (that are ultimately taken away).

In today’s Gospel (Matthew 6:19-23), our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ gives us a much better way:

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.