A question: What
do you value in life? What is important to you? Really important? We
sometimes say, ‘I’d give anything for that.’ What would that be for you?
Is it something? Is it money? A lot of it, maybe? Is it a coveted
position? Is it power? Prestige? Popularity? Or maybe it’s something
less tangible, less tawdry – more gentle and enduring - like a partner
in life, or maybe peace, or joy, or knowledge, or wisdom?
When God appeared in a dream to King Solomon
and gave him his choice of anything he might have, anything he might
want, Solomon went for wisdom, for an understanding heart, for the
ability to distinguish right from wrong so that he could govern his
people fairly and with right judgment.
But what about you? What about me? What is it
that we most value in life? What have we set our hearts on? I realize
that those may be questions we’d rather not deal or grapple with on a
mid-summer’s Sunday when we’d probably like to kick back and relax a
bit, but like it or not, they are the questions today’s scriptures put
squarely before us. And we dodge them at our own peril.
The characters in today’s gospel parables
didn’t dodge them. Finding treasure in a field and coming across a pearl
of great price was all they needed in order to know what was important
to them, and they were willing to sell everything they had – let go of
everything they thought important – in order to buy that field, to
purchase that pearl.
I can’t read those little parables without
being reminded of a good friend of mine – known to many of you. His name
is Cyrus Habib. In spite of becoming completely blind at the age of
eight – he came to enjoy one success in life after another. A three-time
cancer survivor, he graduated from Columbia University, became a Rhodes
Scholar and studied at Oxford before going to Yale Law School and
becoming Catholic. While still a young lawyer, Cyrus was elected a State
legislator, State senator, and then, Lieutenant Governor. The sky was
the limit as far as higher public office was concerned. And then one
day, he caught everyone – not least of all, his fellow elected officials
– completely by surprise when he announced that he had decided to leave
public life and enter the novitiate of the Society of Jesus.
Now, I’m pretty sure God did not appear
to Cyrus in a dream as he had to Solomon, but over time, in quiet,
prayerful, painstaking discernment, he had come to hear the voice of God
quite clearly, and he accepted the grace to respond. He was like the
characters in today’s gospel who found buried treasure and a priceless
pearl. Everything he had achieved in life up till then - and everything
that still awaited him in life as an elected public servant – he was
willing to ‘sell’ – to let go of – in order to possess a hidden
treasure, a pearl of great price.
His story, of course, is not our story. But, my
friends, for each of us there is a decision to make, a defining
decision, We must answer the question: what is important to me, truly
important, important beyond all else, and what am I willing to give up
in order to obtain it?
Today’s two gospel parables might allow us to
think that the answer could be something we can grasp or hold onto with
our hands – like buried treasure or a valuable pearl – but not so. Those
are only metaphors – vivid, tangible humanly appealing ways Jesus uses
to describe God’s Kingdom. “The Kingdom of heaven,” he says, “is like
treasure buried in a field…or like a merchant in search of fine pearls.”
And he wants us to stop and ask ourselves: is God’s Kingdom, God’s reign
in our world, important to me beyond all else? So important that I would
let go of everything – my dreams, my hopes, my possessions, my security
– in order to help that Kingdom come about? Big questions, but
unavoidable questions for us who follow Christ and are doing our best to
live his gospel.
Tomorrow the Church celebrates the feast of St.
Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus. Now, there’s a
saint who sold all he had in order to purchase an imperishable prize. As
a wealthy young man – a soldier caught up in tales of romantic chivalry,
Young Ignatius was something of a dandy, a dancer, and a womanizer. But
God had his way with him. While recovering from a debilitating injury he
suffered in battle, Ignatius asked for something to read and was given a
Life of Christ and some lives of the saints. He really would have
preferred something romantic and racy, but those religious books were
all that were available. Well, out of that reading came spiritual
awakening, conversion of heart, gradual discernment of a calling to turn
his life completely over to Christ. From serving as a soldier in service
of an earthly kingdom, Ignatius discerned a call to devote his
considerable gifts to building the Kingdom of God.
The kingdom of God. My friends in Christ, every
time we pray the Lord’s Prayer – and that’s very often! – we say the
words, “Thy Kingdom come.” Those are more than words: they must be an
expression of a desire deep in our hearts. They are a commitment, a
solemn commitment on our part to make God’s Kingdom, God’s reign, our
number-one priority in life: our treasure beyond all others, our pearl
of great price!
Father Michael G. Ryan
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