Where your treasure is, there your heart also will be.
O man, if you are going to remain here on earth, store up your treasures here. But, if you are going up to heaven, why do you leave them here below? The man caring for treasures destined to be left behind is caring for others' treasures, not his own. Living here below, where we are pilgrims, we find it rather hard to be poor, sad, and without honor, even for a while. Then, when we shall be among the eternal citizens of our everlasting country, what will it be like for us to endure pain because of our showing contempt, punishment because of ignobility, shame over our nakedness? What will it be like to be sentenced to torments when others are being promoted into possession of the kingdom? When the poor man is led to sit with God, and the rich man is dragged to the assembly of the damned? Oh, how lamentable will be the reversal of the situation when those whom men despaired of will acquire hope divine, and those who possessed human treasures will defraud themselves of the heavenly ones!
All this is what that treasure brings about. Either through alms-giving it raises the heart of a man into heaven, or through avarice it buries it in the earth. That is why He said: For where your treasure is, there your heart also will be. [Mt. 6, 21] O man, send your treasure on, send it ahead into heaven, lest you bury your God-given soul in the earth. Gold comes from the depth of the earth; the soul, from the highest heaven. Clearly, it is better to carry the gold to the abode of the soul than to bury the soul in the mine of the gold. That is why God orders those who will serve in His army here below to fight as men stripped of concern for riches and unencumbered by anything. To these He has granted the privilege of reigning in heaven.
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