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Homily for Fri of the 11th Wk in OT, 20 June 2025, 2Cor 11, 18, 21-30 & Mt 6, 19-23
What do we regard as wealth or treasure in life? I think this question can help us see the connection between the two parts of today’s Gospel. Namely, between the first part about Jesus’ exhortation on his disciples to store up heavenly treasures, and the second part about the eye serving as the body’s lamp.
If indeed we regard as treasure what is trash, then something must be wrong about our perception. Jesus says it this way, “If the light in you is darkness, how great will that darkness be.”
In the first reading, writing to the Corinthians, St. Paul is asking himself what there is that he can boast about. He says, “Many people boast according to the flesh.” By this he means, human strengths, virtues and achievements—like those we list down in our biodata or curriculum vitae.
But almost sarcastically, he says, “I wouldn’t do that.” He regards as weakness what others might regard as strength. Then he lists down all the trials, difficulties and adversities that he has been through in his missionary life. At the end of the long list, he concludes, “If I must boast, I will boast of things that show my weakness.” In short, he is saying that it is not human strength that has made him endure all the trials that he has just enumerated.
This should remind us of that passage in 2 Cor. 12, 8-9, where he was almost tempted to despair about his human weakness which he simply refers to as a “thorn in the flesh”. He tells us how he begged the Lord three times to remove it. But the Lord simply told him, “My grace is enough for you, because power is made perfect in weakness.” And then in v. 10 he declares, “For when I am weak, it is then that I am strong.” Meaning, when—in spite of his weakness he is still able to fulfill his ministry—it could only mean it is God’s strength that is at work in him.
He has also expressed that in another way in 2 Cor. 4,7: “This treasure we possess in earthen vessel, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us.” Paul has a simple way of identifying that treasure which he says we possess in our weak humanity in the CHRIST IN US.
