Gospel: Matthew 6: 19-23
If we watch the evening news through the eyes of faith we will find something rather striking. Consider what is reported and what news stories receive the greatest attention: billionaires lost on a submarine, the construction of a new stadium, sports drafts, celebrity/Royal family gossip. By and large these stories reflect our spending priorities both individually and as a society. That we prefer to spend public money on sports arenas instead of education and affordable housing means the media generally have our own preferences in mind in choosing what to cover on the news.
Now consider what receives less attention or none at all: hundreds of poor migrants from Pakistan lost at sea; the struggles of the poor to find affordable housing and good schools; the successful bone marrow transplant for a little girl with leukemia; the homeless couple who finally got off the streets through a good job and people who believed in them. We may have heard feint mention of the first two items, but none about the other.
That faith based media is no better on this score shows us how far we are from what Jesus asks us to consider in today's Gospel reading. We have neglected our moral character and blinded our inner eye so that we may be citizens of the country of the blind, but in so doing we have lost our way to the kingdom of heaven. Happily there is One who can heal us of this self-inflicted blindness and get us back on the Way again.
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