by Michael Maciel
“Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” – Matthew 6:21
Jesus is telling us that we want what we value.
This is actually a straightforward observation of human nature. Whenever we move towards a goal, whether it’s a career move or a tasty snack, we say—via our actions—that the thing is more valuable than what we have now, that it is preferable to where we are in the present moment.
Jesus was using this basic fact of life to get his listeners to use this primary motivating factor of human nature to orient themselves towards spiritual goals. He knew that nothing in this world could be ultimately satisfying because nothing in this world lasts. If your value structure is based on material well-being, you will be continually disappointed, because conditions always change, and they don’t usually change for the better, given that all constructed things tend to decompose over time.
So, he was advising people to value things that do not change over time, namely the underlying principles of Being itself, which mostly have to do with higher states of consciousness and the beings who live there. He was saying that the real world is not the world that appears but is of a higher order that is motivated primarily by love, not by domination and exploitation, which seems to be what motivates people, mostly, here in this world.
It’s important, therefore, that we choose our values very carefully because they will be the predominant orienting factors in our life. We must have a North Star around which our lives revolve. It’s not enough to say that one value is no better than another, that all truths are merely opinions, and that there are no grand narratives by which we can orient our society in a direction that is both viable and sustainable.
If we abandon such narratives, we will drift, and drifting is no way to conduct oneself or one’s society. As the saying goes, “If you stand for nothing, you will fall for anything.” Abandoning our cultural narratives—our mythic tales, the ones that represent our highest spiritual ideals—can only lead to disaster, because those stories exemplify the intrinsic value of the individual, and if we abandon that notion, then all we have left is tribalism—the antithesis of civilization.
Jesus’ teachings were not only for the individual but for society as a whole. They pointed to levels of cooperation and harmony that depend on voluntary participation. As such, they are extremely sophisticated in both their scope and their depth. Each person must accept the principle and own it personally. Otherwise, voluntary participation is impossible.
“Without a vision, the people perish.”
The Mystical Christ 