Sermon for the 3rd Sunday of Matthew
Matthew 6:22-33
Today our Lord speaks to us of the eye. “The lamp of the body is the eye; if therefore your eye be single, your whole body shall be full of light.” He is not giving us a lesson in anatomy but in the heart. The Holy Fathers teach us that this eye is the nous—the inner gaze of the soul, the direction in which we have set our love. They remind us of a profound truth: the Holy Spirit cannot enter and abide in our heart unless that heart—the very centre of our nous—is pure and focussed only on God. When that gaze is single, undivided, and fixed upon Him, the whole person is flooded with the light of the Spirit. We see the world as it truly is: a gift from a loving Creator.
But when this gaze is double, when we try to look two ways at once, the light within us turns to darkness. Christ cries out, “how great is that darkness!”
Serving One Master
This is why He warns us at once: no one can serve two masters. We imagine we can keep a foot in two kingdoms, dividing the heart between God and mammon, between the eternal and the anxious cares of this passing world. Mammon is not just wealth; it is the illusion of material self-sufficiency. But the soul was not made to be halved; a divided heart leaves no room for the Comforter. To serve two masters is not just difficult; it is impossible. We will cling to one and despise the other—and the tragedy is that so often it is the very Saviour who alone can save us whom we come to despise.
Then comes that tender command which has consoled the faithful for twenty centuries: “Do not be anxious about your life.” Christ does not dismiss our everyday needs; He knows we require sustenance and clothing. Instead, He invites us to look at creation as a testament to God’s providence.
The birds of the air do not sow or reap, yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. The lilies of the field do not toil or spin, yet even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If God pours out such intricate beauty and care upon the fleeting grass, how much more does He care for you, made in His image? Anxiety reveals a subconscious fear that we are orphans. But Christ reminds us we have a Heavenly Father.
How do we move from this paralysing anxiety to the absolute trust Christ demands? St. Paul provides the theological foundation in today’s Epistle to the Romans: “Since being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
True peace is not the absence of trouble; it is the presence of God. St. Paul reminds us that whilst we were still weak and trapped in our sins, Christ died for us. If God loved us so deeply, why doubt His care now? With our spiritual eye fixed on the Cross, our perspective on suffering changes. We can glory in tribulations, knowing they produce perseverance, character, and hope. This hope does not disappoint, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
Beloved in Christ, our Lord concludes with a divine command and a golden promise: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
To seek first the Kingdom means making the healing of our soul and our communion with God our absolute priority. It means that when anxiety knocks, we consciously turn our gaze back to Christ. We stop counting our fears and start counting His blessings.
Let us ask the Lord today to purify the eye of our soul. May He grant us the grace to look past our anxieties, to step away from the altars of mammon, and to rest securely in the peace that surpasses all understanding.
Amen.