"Love follows knowledge."
"Beauty above all beauty!"
– St. Catherine of Siena

Sunday, August 10, 2025

Sunday Meditation: The Treasure of the Heart

This Sunday, the Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time of Year C, we are still in Chapter 12 of Luke’s Gospel where Jesus, the apostles, and the multitude are walking toward Jerusalem.  Jesus continues His sermon on the treasure of your heart.  There are four things to meditate on in Christ’s sermon: the treasure of God’s kingdom, the faith required to obtain it, the preparation required as a result of faith, and the responsibility that comes with the gift of faith.

 


Jesus said to his disciples:

“Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.

Sell your belongings and give alms.

Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy.

For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.

 

“Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks.

Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival. 

Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself, have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them.

And should he come in the second or third watch and find them prepared in this way, blessed are those servants.

Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into.

You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”

 

Then Peter said,

“Lord, is this parable meant for us or for everyone?”

And the Lord replied,

“Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward whom the master will put in charge of his servants to distribute the food allowance at the proper time?

Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds doing so.

Truly, I say to you, the master will put the servant in charge of all his property.

But if that servant says to himself,

‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, to eat and drink and get drunk, then that servant’s master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour and will punish the servant severely and assign him a place with the unfaithful.

That servant who knew his master’s will but did not make preparations nor act in accord with his will shall be beaten severely; and the servant who was ignorant of his master’s will but acted in a way deserving of a severe beating shall be beaten only lightly.

Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”

   ~Lk 12:32-48

 

Again this week I go to Fr. Tim Peters who walks us through this difficult passage with great skill.



It is of paramount importance to set the treasure of your heart on the proper things.  That is the big take-a-way. 

For the pastoral homily I turn to Fr. Peter Hahn from a homily he gave eleven years ago.  The details may be dated, but the message is universal.

 


So are you comforted or afflicted by today’s Gospel?

 

Sunday Meditation: “Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.”

 

Let us enjoy John Michael Talbot’s “Lilies of the Field.”

 

 

So seek ye first the kingdom of God

And the wealth of His righteousness

For wherever your treasure lies

There will you find your heart

 

That is so lovely.

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