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Friday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time. The reading is from Gospel of Matthew 6:22-23.

The Light of the Body – Matthew 6:22-23

The lamp of the body is the eye.

If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light;

but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness.

And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be.

These two verses Matthew 6:22-23, about the eye being the lamp of the body, are wedged between the command to lay up treasures in heaven (6:19-21) and the warning that you can’t serve God and money (6:24).

Here, though the word “eye” is literally single, it means sight, or what we perceive  in general.

Jesus says that if the eye is good, our whole body will be filled with light. But if the eye is bad, our body will be full of darkness. In other words, how we see the world around us really matters.

Our eyes can be used to see both – good or evil, beneficial or harmful. What we see and perceive affect our whole being. If we see goodness, it will radiate outward from within our heart and mind; but if we allow our eyes to see evil, then, darkness will exude from within our heart and mind and corrupt us and those around us.

Now, it makes us wonder why these two verses about the eye is placed between the two teachings on treasures in heaven and wealth on earth?

Here, we find two issues cropping up. Should we desire heavenly reward instead of earthly reward and whether we can serve two masters – wealth (Mammon) and God at the same time.

So, our eye(s) – the lamp of our body, must choose the path, the light, that is advantageous for the well being of not only our earthly body but also for the well being of our eternal soul.

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