You don’t belong here.
I don’t mean that in a cruel way. I’m not trying to shoo you off of my blog with a virtual broom. However, the truth is, you don’t belong here. Neither do I. This isn’t our home. This isn’t our stuff. This isn’t our original calling or our Creator’s original intent. We don’t belong here.
In today’s Gospel Jesus tells us just as much. Why are we so concerned about our “treasures” here on earth when, no matter the amount, we must leave it all behind. Those who receive our “stuff” too will leave it behind when they die. The people after them, if rust and moth, decay and destruction, haven’t already laid claim to those items, they too will leave these precious “treasures” behind.
What is it that causes us to give our hearts to the things of this world? Why is it that you and I become so wrapped up in our “stuff” that we fail to see that it never really belonged to us in the first place and we can’t take it with us? Why do I often see myself crouched over some silly thing like a car, clothes, books, homes, boats, or some other object like Gollum (Smeagol) from Lord of the Rings crying, “my preciousssss.“
Jesus gives us the simple, yet difficult, answer in today’s Gospel; your heart and my heart are in the wrong place. If our hearts are in Heaven, detachment from things, voluntarily or involuntarily, should not bother us in any way.
However, too often, we are just like Smeagol. Smeagol was a humble, wonderful Hobbit just like Bilbo, Frodo, and Sam. However, something he found, the Ring of Power, changed him. In fact, it changed his personality, his looks, his attitude, and even his heart until he became Gollum. It changed Bilbo and Frodo too. Stuff changes us and not often for the better.
What about you? Have your possessions changed you? Have you begun to identify yourself by them? Do you drive the car you do or live in the home you have because of status or what others might think of you? Would your world turn upside down if they were taken from you this very day? Would you take someone’s life if they tried to take your stuff?
If you are like Gollum, possessed by your possessions, don’t give up hope. Even the that vile creature still had good in him. The light of Heaven, so to speak, still glimmered deep within the exterior ugliness of Gollum; an ugliness brought about by storing up treasure here on Earth, or Middle Earth rather, than in Heaven.
Gollum further points to today’s Gospel in the fact that he hated the light. His light was darkness. He who once walked in the sun of Middle Earth, free and happy, became enslaved by his “treasure” and this enslavement turned all that was good, true, and beautiful in his world into darkness.
Let us then make Heaven our treasure, ready to forsake all things, all stuff, all treasure, and even those we love for our Heavenly home. Let us make the Gospel our light that leads us to on the place where we have placed our hearts; for you and I do not belong here.
James M. Hahn, Author 