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“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.” Matthew 6:22–23
Every Scripture passage, in a spiritual sense, can teach us many
lessons. Saint Thomas Aquinas, in his commentary on Matthew’s
Gospel, offers one interpretation to the passage quoted above by
saying that the “eye” in this passage refers to your intention and
“your whole body” refers to all of your actions that follow from
your intention. Therefore, when your intentions are in line with
God’s will, the actions that follow will be also. This is a very
practical and useful lesson for your journey toward holiness.
With this insight from Saint Thomas, we must look at our intentions
in an honest and complete way. What are your intentions in life?
It’s easy for us to form various intentions that may seem good as
well as some that are contrary to the will of God without even
realizing it. We may intend to get a good night's sleep on one
occasion. Or intend to have fun with family and friends on a
certain day. Or we may intend to cook a good meal, clean the house,
do well at work, etc. There are many momentary intentions that are
good and are a normal part of daily living. However, the most
important intention to consider is that which is the deepest of
them all. What is the most central, foundational, and fundamental
intention by which your life is directed?
The primary intention that you should work to acquire is to give
God the greatest glory possible in all that you do. Giving glory to
God is accomplished when you choose Him and His holy will above
everything else in life. When this is the deepest and most
fundamental intention of your life, everything else will flow from
it. All secondary intentions and actions will align with this
central focus and work toward its accomplishment. But when there
are other “first intentions” that you have on the most fundamental
level, then all the rest of your intentions and actions will be
misguided and directed in a disordered way.
Reflect, today, upon the most fundamental intention you have in
life. Doing so will require a considerable amount of interior
reflection and honesty. It will require that you sort through the
many things that motivate you and the decisions you make each and
every day. Reflect upon the primary purpose of your life, which
must be to give God the greatest glory possible by choosing and
living His perfect will. Do all of your daily actions align with
this ultimate goal? Commit yourself to the holy work of examining
all of your actions in this light so that you will more fully
achieve the purpose for which you were created.
God of all glory, You and You alone are worthy of all my praise.
Your will and Your will alone must become the foundation of all
that I choose in life. Give me the spiritual insight I need to look
deeply at all that motivates me and all of my most interior
intentions in life. May all of my intentions and all of my actions
have as their goal Your eternal glory. Jesus, I trust in
You.
Image: Károly Ferenczy, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia
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