Treasure in Heaven (Matthew 6:19–23; Luke 11:34–36)

The texts below are quoted verbatim from public-domain English translations; nothing is paraphrased.

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St. John Chrysostom (c. 347–407)

Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew, Homily 20 (on Matthew 6:19–23), trans. in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 10. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf110/npnf110.iii.XX.html

On the harm of hoarding on earth, even where no thief or moth reaches it:

For though none of these things should come to pass, saith He, thou wilt undergo no small harm, in being nailed to the things below, and in becoming a slave instead of a freeman, and casting thyself out of the heavenly things, and having no power to think on aught that is high, but all about money, usuries and loans, and gains, and ignoble traffickings.

On why He turns from the mind to the eye, the light of the whole soul:

for just what the eye is to the body, the same is the mind to the soul. ... For as he that destroys the fountain, dries up also the river, so he who hath quenched the understanding hath confounded all his doings in this life.

St. Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376–444)

Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Sermon 82 (on Luke 11:29–36), trans. R. Payne Smith, Library of Fathers, 1859. Public domain. Full text: https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/cyril_on_luke_08_sermons_81_88.htm

On the lamp that is set on high, and the Son given as a lamp to the world (the Lukan setting of the eye and the light within):

For a lamp, He says, is always elevated, and put upon a stand, to be of use to those who see. ... And upon the holy church as a lamp-stand, shining by the doctrine He proclaims, He gives light to the minds of all by filling them with divine knowledge.

Blessed Augustine of Hippo (354–430)

Our Lord's Sermon on the Mount, Book II, Chapter 13 (on Matthew 6:19–23), trans. in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 6. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf106/npnf106.v.iii.xiii.html

On the heart that is clean only when its treasure is in heaven:

If, therefore, the heart be on earth, i.e. if one perform anything with a heart bent on obtaining earthly advantage, how will that heart be clean which wallows on earth? But if it be in heaven, it will be clean, because whatever things are heavenly are clean.

On the heaven that is not the visible sky but the spiritual firmament:

For he who lays up treasure for himself in heaven ought to despise the whole world. ... for it is not in that which is to pass away that we ought to fix and place our treasure and our heart, but in that which ever abideth

On the single eye understood as the intention with which a work is done:

Hence we ought to take the eye here in the sense of the intent itself, wherewith we do whatever we are doing; and if this be pure and right, and looking at that which ought to be looked at, all our works which we perform in accordance therewith are necessarily good.

On weighing the mind of the doer above the deed:

It is not, therefore, what one does, but the intent with which he does it, that is to be considered.

St. Jerome (c. 347–420)

Commentary on Matthew (on Matthew 6:19–23), as preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/catena1.ii.vi.html

On the treasure that every man serves, wherever his heart is bound:

This must be understood not of money only, but of all our possessions. The god of a glutton is his belly; of a lover his lust; and so every man serves that to which he is in bondage; and has his heart there where his treasure is.

On the eye that is not single and the soul that has lost her brightness:

As the whole body is in darkness, where the eye is not single, so if the soul has lost her original brightness, every sense ... will abide in darkness.

St. Hilary of Poitiers (c. 310–367)

Commentary on Matthew (on Matthew 6:19–23), as preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/catena1.ii.vi.html

On the praise of heaven that no thief or rust can carry off:

But the praise of Heaven is eternal, and cannot be carried off by invading thief, nor consumed by the moth and rust of envy.

On the light of the heart, single and brilliant, or darkened by sin:

from the office of the light of the eye, He calls it the light of the heart; which if it continue single and brilliant, will confer on the body the brightness of the eternal light ... But if it be obscured by sin, and evil in will, the bodily nature will yet abide subject to all the evils of the understanding.

St. Gregory the Great (c. 540–604)

Moralia in Job, Book XXVIII (on Matthew 6:23), as preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/catena1.ii.vi.html

On the deeper darkness when a good beginning is overclouded with an evil purpose:

if the light that "is in thee," that is, if what we have begun to do well, we overcloud with evil purpose, when we do things which we know to be in themselves evil, "how great is the darkness!"