Jesus says:
“You have your treasure in your heart. Look for it there.” I ask Him, “What treasure do I have, Lord?” He replies:
“You have Me. I said in the Gospel that ‘where the treasure is, there the heart lies.’704 I also said that it is from the heart that thoughts, sentiments, and works emerge.705 Good ones, if the heart is good. Wicked, if the heart is wicked. And the things that emerge from the heart - and only these - are precisely the ones that have value for elevation or contamination. But we can also say rightly - and I said so, but it is not included among the many sayings I offered, sayings in upside-down formulas, according to the philosophical system widely used at that time - that, as the heart is where the treasure is, so the treasure is where the heart is - or, rather, the treasure is in the heart.
“Indeed, man, elevating this organ as the seat of sentiments, has made it the throne and asylum of his predominant passion. Accordingly, the lustful have an incitement towards lust in their hearts; the avaricious, one towards money; the wrathful, the one towards overbearance; the gluttonous feel a foolish hunger for delicacies rising from their hearts; the slothful listen to their hearts when they counsel, ‘Be idle.’ And, in goodness, in their hearts they find a spur towards study if they cultivate knowledge; towards beneficence, if they are merciful; towards moderation in every sense, if they are honest; and towards love for perfection, if they have given themselves entirely to their God. And the predominant passion caresses and protects in and with the recesses of the heart. They may be poor and naked, apparently alone and desolate. But within, in the depths, there is a gem shining with friendship and holiness or blazing deceitfully and wickedly: their treasure, the sentiment dominating them.
“You have Me. And in truth I tell you that you could have nothing greater. Just as in truth I tell you that I could not have anything dearer than shelter in a heart that loves Me totally.
“The world could rob you of every other treasure. But not of the possession of your Jesus. The world could hurl everything at Me, as an honor or a curse, according to its stimuli. But honors, rites, flowers, incense, ceremonies, temples and tapestries, singing and genuflections do not give Me the holy honor I am given by those who make Me their only treasure. Just as there is no curse or blasphemy, sacrilege or abjuration for which reparation is not made by the holy honor of those receiving Me for those rejecting Me, of those giving Me loving worship for those committing sacrilege, and of those praising and blessing Me for those cursing and blaspheming Me.
“Oh, be happy! I in you and you in Me! It is mutual joy. Feel how I clasp you to my heart. I shall say nothing more. It is Friday. But I wanted to temper the Friday sacrifice with this flower to make you smile and hope increasingly. Indeed, to feel increasingly sure.
“Go in peace, beloved. I shall be silent, but remain with you.”
704 Matthew 6:21; Luke 12:24.
705 Matthew 15:19-20; Mark 7:15.