NOTES for Mat 6:19-23

"If the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness?" the Lord says to us today. How can this be - how can light be darkness? Here is one possible interpretation: the question is what serves as light for us, what we choose in that capacity. If we consider a cozy half-light, or even darkness, to be light, then what is darkness? If we do not step out into the light of Christ's commandments, but prefer to be satisfied with the local lighting of selected rules, what are our chances of seeing anything beyond our own nose? What, then, is light for us? The light of Christ, which enlightens all people and all things, or something else?

The Savior's words about treasure and the heart touch on one of the main questions of spiritual life. What is spiritual life? What determines a person's spiritual condition? Speaking in biblical language, it is the condition of his heart. What is this heart on which so much depends? Why, even before the coming of Christ, did the call sound to love God first of all with the heart, with the whole heart, and only then with the whole soul and all one's strength? In the language of the Bible, the heart is the center of the person, his spiritual center.

Creating man, God breathes into his nostrils the breath of life, and man comes alive, acquiring a soul. The soul is human nature, that specific thing that makes man human. Something similar also exists in animals: thanks to their souls, animals possess a certain biological identity.

But the human soul is special, because it appears as a result of the action on nature of God's breath, which, according to God's design, was to determine human life completely. Before the fall, that is exactly how it was. Later, after the fall, the situation changed: the human soul became connected with blood just as the souls of animals are.

The natural component in man prevailed over the spiritual. But even after the fall, the action of God's breath on human nature did not cease completely; otherwise man would simply have turned into an animal, becoming just another variety of ape. It is precisely this breath that gives us the possibility of becoming aware of ourselves, of knowing about our own existence.

Animals are not aware of themselves. For us humans, self-awareness is a psychological axiom: we know that we exist, and this knowledge is for us something self-evident and needing no proof. But this is only the beginning. One can go further, and then in the depth of one's "I" we discover that system of values and life priorities that determines the quality of our life. This spiritual "I" is what the Bible calls the heart. The spiritual "I" manifests itself first of all through the will.

An act of will is the beginning of every choice and every decision. And a choice is made, and a decision accepted, according to the system of values and priorities a person professes, in deeds of course and not in words. These values and priorities are the very "treasure" of which the Savior speaks, because our treasure becomes exactly what is absolutely and unconditionally important for us. Thus our heart turns out to be where its treasure is. And after the heart come the soul, the strength, and the whole life. In short, we ourselves.

Calling us to trust that God knows all our needs and will not leave us without care, the Lord Jesus Christ opens to us a new, almost unknown dimension of our life. We are so afraid of being left without necessities, of losing the means of existence, that this fear takes possession of the whole heart, and the poor are in no better position here than the rich. Yet the Lord speaks of a life that is not enclosed only within the material world and not limited only to the short span of earthly life. Christ's astonishing words about how the heavenly Father feeds the birds and clothes the flowers of the field reveal the meaningfulness and beauty of the world in which God has placed us.

And these words of Christ set before us a choice: what exactly constitutes the goal of our life. It is important that, by choosing God and His Kingdom, we lose nothing, because "all these things will be added to you"; but by choosing momentary well-being, we risk losing something infinitely precious and irreplaceable.

At times the uncompromising demands of the Gospel are simply astonishing. How can one not be concerned about what to drink, what to eat, or what to wear? Is anyone capable of this? Does it have anything at all to do with reality? Is a God who asks such things of people a loving God? As we know, the Lord does not give trials beyond our strength (see 1 Cor 10:13). And if He tells us to seek His Kingdom first, without occupying ourselves with the search for everything else, and promises to “add” everything we shall need, then that is precisely what He means.

After that, much depends on us: are we truly seeking God and His righteousness? Are we really prepared to put Him first “honestly,” without looking around? Otherwise it will turn out as it did with Peter (Matt 14:25-32): we shall neither look at God nor manage to look properly to the side, because we shall begin to sink (there is always plenty of water around us—that is, plenty to worry about and be afraid of)...

Of course, God does not want to leave us entirely without the satisfaction of our basic needs. He is simply “hurt” when they begin to obscure Him. And that happens very quickly. That is why He emphasizes that we must be ready to remain with nothing at all and entrust ourselves to Him and to His care for us. He will see what is best for us, what we “need,” and what will truly lead us to salvation and happiness.

The unfamiliar word "mammon" actually means a "stronghold," something one can rely on, a source of hope. Of course, the Lord understands that all of us need to eat, drink, dress, earn a living, and so on, but He says that in a person's life there cannot be two hopes, two treasures, two goals. He uses little birds and flowers of the field as examples to show that one can be free, happy, and beautiful while hoping not in "treasure on earth," but in God. Moreover, this beauty is purer, this freedom clearer, than anything the "trouble of the day" can offer us. And this is not about fleeing life, not about irresponsibility or getting something for nothing, but about turning to the most precious and most meaningful content of life - to God, who is absolutely more wondrous than any treasure.

The recommendations for keeping the fast sound surprisingly current, as if two thousand years had not passed. Still, when rereading the Gospel, one often remembers the words that "Christianity is only beginning." Imitating piety by keeping a fasting diet with a "fasting face" has turned out to be much easier than growing spiritually by passing through the fast. But it is meaningless to act before the One Who sees the true motives of our actions.

There seems to be nothing to add to what has been said about storing up treasures. Every day we receive many opportunities to observe how what people tried to place their hopes in crumbles into dust. Nevertheless, every day we again and again try to increase those same unreliable earthly treasures. They are not necessarily treasures in the literal sense; their role can be played by everyday trifles and necessary household objects. But even what is necessary can be turned into an idol that blocks out God. And when a hard choice stands before us: God or mammon? - it becomes very easy to choose God in words while rejecting Him by our deeds.

If we are truly with Him, then His light dwells in us and lights our path, keeping us from losing our way on difficult roads. But when we leave Him, we turn away from His light too, though we do not admit it at once. Then with distorted spiritual vision we begin to take the darkness dwelling in us for light.

But if evil that pretends within us to be light, and is therefore "softened," is monstrous even in such a weakened form, then what must be the darkness of undisguised evil, toward which we risk heading when we turn away from the Source of Light?

Have you ever, say, gone swimming while vacationing at the seaside and left a bag with money on the beach? You splash around in the water, but something spoils your pleasure: you keep looking back at your things... "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Of course, this is a very primitive illustration of Jesus' words, but are you and I really such complicated beings? The same mechanism for distributing our attention operates in more "spiritual" situations too. Of course, earthly matters are important, and they must be given attention. Will we be able each time to keep within ourselves the right vertical order of what matters most, where God, the Spirit, and love are above all?

The following words of Christ about God and mammon, or wealth, speak about the same thing. Jesus is not against wealth or well-being. He says that they must not be placed at the center of our service and attention; that place must be reserved for God.

It is probably not so difficult to understand what Jesus means when He says: where your treasures are, there your heart will be also. After all, treasures are not simply money or valuables in themselves, even if they are securely hidden. Treasures become treasures only when, and only for the person for whom, they become the goal and meaning of life. Neither money, nor gold or silver, nor precious stones have anything in themselves to do with spiritual life; but the attitude towards them of the person who possesses them is directly and immediately connected with it. The question of values thus becomes not a question about treasures, but about the system of values that constitutes what biblical language calls the heart. The heart, of course, in the spiritual sense in which the word is used in the biblical books, reveals itself primarily in acts of the will. The life of the heart determines what psychologists today call intentions: impulses of the will together with the external, physical, or internal, psychological objects towards which those impulses are directed (and they must be directed towards something; it cannot be otherwise). But what precisely an impulse of the will is directed towards depends on one's system of values: the real system that actually determines our priorities in life, not the system we profess, which sometimes has little to do with the real one. And Jesus reminds us that the Kingdom must be at the centre of our system of values. Otherwise nothing will come of it: the road to the Kingdom is hard, and under any other arrangement we will not be able to complete it.

Forgiveness Sunday is one of the most remarkable days in the church year. And the old custom comes to mind: when someone asks for forgiveness, to answer, "God will forgive." To a modern person these words grate on the ear. That is the fate of language. But I think our ancestors had no less spirituality than we do, and so let us think about this once more.

We do not value these words because we treat God's forgiveness too easily, as though it were something self-evident because of His great mercy. We say to ourselves: a person, yes, can forgive or can refuse to forgive, and so when we ask for forgiveness we want to hear not "God will forgive," but "I forgive you." And here precisely we must remember the words of today's Gospel reading: if you forgive people their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive people their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. In other words, the situation turns back on you yourself (and that is how it should always be in life!).

But what do we know about forgiveness? At times a person is guided by the common saying: I forgive everyone who owes me. But seriously, in reality the first true teacher of forgiveness is, of course, Joseph, who forgave his brothers. Let us learn from the great teachers.

And I would like to say one more thing. It is no accident at all that the words about forgiveness are joined here in the text with words about asceticism. These two aspects of life have the deepest connection, which can be pictured this way: fasting - humility, in the biblical sense and not the everyday one - the suppression of pride - forgiveness.