“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,

and all these things shall be added to you.”

“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

Jesus emphasizes the word “first”. It seems to us a trivial thing; however, if the kingdom of God and the salvation of our soul are given the second place in our life, there is a danger that thousands of good things will deceive us and we will lose God’s kingdom. Seeking is a painful process. And where is the kingdom of God? The Scripture says: “within” or “among you” (Lk 17:21). Indeed, if we seek first the kingdom of God, all other things, the things we really need, will be added to us. You can see for yourself. If your family seeks first the kingdom of God, God will give His blessing to your children, protect your family and fill the family relationships with self-sacrificing love. But if you seek first everything else and move the kingdom of God to the last place, there is a danger that you will lose everything. The crucial word is “first” (Greek ‘proton’)! Whenever you have a problem, first ask: Where is Jesus? And He answers: “I am with you all the days of your life. (cf. Mt 28:20) The only problem is that you are not with Me.” In the next two weeks, try to remember at least several times a day the crucial words: Where is Jesus?

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other,

or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and mammon.”

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other,

or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

The word mammon means wealth and property, especially dishonestly obtained at the expense of one’s neighbour. It also indicates a bribe intended to silence a witness or judge. Jesus points out the demonic enslaving power of mammon: “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” So eventually the faith, in the sense confidence or trust, in mammon excludes the faith in God. Therefore, Jesus contrasts the relationship to God and the relationship to mammon and calls for a personal choice between the two.

Wealth

Wealth is considered in the Bible either as God’s blessing, a reward for justice, or a curse. Depending on who wields wealth and how he uses it. The blessing of wealth is described at length in Job 29, where it is closely associated with the glory of man. According to Scripture, wealth is for others rather than for one’s own needs. Job did not consider distribution of wealth as a duty but as a privilege. This ideal has utterly degenerated.

The light of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.

But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.

If then the light in you is darkness: the darkness itself how great shall it be!

Jesus says: “The light of your body is the eye.” Some translations read: “The lamp of your body is the eye.” Jesus then speaks about a single, or clear, eye, the fruit being that the whole body is full of light.

It is important to know that man has a physical eye and an inner – spiritual – eye. The spiritual eye reflects the inner life. Man either lives by the law of God and so he is wise, or has the light of wisdom, or he lives a sinful life, commits evil and so he is in darkness, spiritually blind. This spiritual eye is an inner look turned toward God, listening to the voice of conscience, perceiving that God sees everything and that nothing is covered that will not be revealed. Each of us will give an account for everything. If man lives his life with God and according to God’s commandments, his inner eye is sound.

The light of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is clear,

your whole body will be full of light.

But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.

If then the light in you is darkness: the darkness itself how great shall it be!

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy

and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,

where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

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

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Jesus shows us in a simple way that it is unwise to lay up for ourselves treasures on earth. He says that moth and rust destroy them and thieves steal them. Moreover, the main thief who steals everything is death. And Jesus says: “Be prepared; you know neither the day nor the hour…”, and He speaks about a man whose land yielded plentifully and who planned to build large barns and thus to be secure about the future. God said to him: “Fool! This night your soul will be required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” These words are not only addressed to oligarchs or rich people but to every one of us. Why? Because it is also written: “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy…” This is a commandment: we are commanded to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven.

“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will

also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses,

neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

In the “Our Father”, Jesus emphasizes seven petitions to the Heavenly Father. One of them is asking forgiveness: “And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” He adds a commentary to this petition. He highlights the fact that we must forgive our neighbours in our daily life. We need to know that God is merciful and forgives all our sins if we ask Him. But there is one condition, namely, to forgive those who have done us wrong. The essential thing we need in order to forgive others as a matter of course is to face the truth about ourselves. It means that we self-critically admit our trespasses against God. We did not seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, we do not care about the salvation of our own souls, we boycott the truth and the reality of death. We bury our heads in the sand like an ostrich to avoid the thought of God’s judgment and then heaven or hell which is in store for us after death. No one will return from there. Time is precious and we live in indifference, or even in rebellion against God; we do not keep His commandments, we do not even know them or seek to know them. We are seduced by vanity and lies, and we embrace it to our own detriment. These sins breed depression, hatred, isolation, diseases, unsolvable problems, broken families, conflict situations, yet we do not want to admit the truth or see our guilt too. We do wrong to others by our carelessness, envy, jealousy, anger, pride – and not only that. We should also be aware of our sinful thoughts, because there is nothing covered that will not be revealed.

“When you pray, go into your room,

close the door and pray to your Father who is in secret;

and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

Jesus gives specific instructions for prayer. The first thing He advises is: “go into”; He does not say: “remain outside”. He also says where to go: “into your room”. There can be a physical and a spiritual room. A spiritual room is our heart. We close the door of our senses which are affected by everyday happenings, and then we are able to focus on the presence of God. God is here, I open the door to Him, and there in my inner room, in secret, as Jesus says, the Father hears. That is why it is here that I need to pray and come into contact with God. The first step in prayer is an act of contrition. Admit before God your faults and sins, self-will, idle words, evil thoughts etc.

Apart from personal prayer there is also communal prayer, but this is not the prayer Jesus speaks about here. You need to go into your room, not someone else’s. You should have a place in your home, too, where you can pray!

“When you do a charitable deed,

do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.”

“When you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.”

These words, which our Lord Jesus tells us, are not intended for discussion but rather for practice, and they have a deep meaning. They involve a double sacrifice: partly you renounce something of your own on behalf of others and partly, if you do it in secret, you renounce human praise. Jesus explains that the purpose is “that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly”. He will give you a divine, eternal reward rather than a human one. It holds true that we lose to gain. We lose the material to gain the immaterial. We offer the temporary to gain the eternal. Remember: Your Father sees what you do in secret, and Jesus reminds you: “He will reward you!”

“You have heard that it was said,

‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’

But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

The Old Testament reads: “You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbour…” (Lev 19:17-18) Jesus explains why we should love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us: “…that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren (friends) only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the pagans (tax collectors) do so? Be perfect, therefore, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (v.45-48)