Mt 13:44-52 The Treasure“The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”
What are you digging for? What treasure are you looking for?
I think to myself…for years success was extremely important to me; and for me, success included wealth, health, influence, respect, recognition, image and security. Success can mean a lot of things for a lot of people. For King Solomon, it meant wisdom. And he got it! The Lord was very good to him, “Because you have asked for wisdom – not for a long life for yourself, nor for riches, nor for the life of your enemies, but for understanding so that you may know what is right – I do as you requested.”
Solomon received the gift of wisdom. He was wiser than any other individual alive. He was also the biggest disaster ever in the history of Israel! He destroyed the Kingdom. He ruined his people, including his children. He ruined his numerous wives. Instead of wisdom, he should have asked for holiness. Instead of a big brain, he should have asked for the Lord’s heart.
Too many of us continue digging in the wrong field for the wrong treasure. I did. And it’s not like I didn’t find my treasure. I almost always did. But it was always my treasure. I never found the Lord’s treasure until much later in life. I feel sorry for the ones who continue wasting their time, their resources and, most importantly, their life moving from one field to another, still looking for that elusive Treasure.
“I don’t want to know anything about God!” We have all said it or heard it at one time or another in our life. Sometimes we are just not ready to start digging in the right field. We know where it is, but we don’t even want to go there.
I still remember a female co-worker of mine that I was dating that would leave a balloon in my office every morning. It drove me nuts for one reason alone. Every time I got one I would pop it, and inside of it there was a quote from the Bible. She was a protestant. One time, the quote was from Proverbs 31:10. It read, “Blessed the man who finds a worthy woman, her value is far beyond pearls…she is an unfailing prize.” I thought to myself, “Hah! Blessed is the woman who finds a stud and awesome guy like me!!! Who does she think she is?” To my shame, she was a much better person than I. I just hope that she never lowered her morals; that is, I hope she never stopped digging until she had reached the pearl.
Some poor souls don’t even believe this treasure exists. They stop digging. They settle for mediocrity. They settle for less. “I’ll take any man”, “I’ll take any woman”, “I’ll take any job”, “and I’ll do whatever it takes to be attractive; to be wanted; to make it to the top; to make money.”
The man in the Gospel who found the treasure knew where to look. So do we. True, it is buried. We have to do some work. But we know where to find it, and when we do, we will sell all our limited dreams and successes for it! We will never be the same again. We will be much better!
The hidden treasure, the pearl of our life is Jesus Christ. The irony of it all is that for Jesus, his pearl, his treasure is…us. He buys the entire field. He wants to be found. A bride once confided in me that her faith was weak from childhood. She never believed the love story, our story, that God (or anyone) could ever love her as much as we told her. I believe this is the greatest struggle of our faith: Is it really possible that Jesus could love me as much as he says? I reminded this young bride that nothing on earth could ever compare to God’s love. But, in the Sacrament of Marriage, when a man says to his bride, “I will love honor you and love you all the days of my life”, the door to this great mystery is ever slightly opened to shed a single ray of light of God’s infinite love for us.
Yes, it is possible. In fact, it’s better said, “I do."
Heavenly Father, give us the courage to never dig for counterfeits, for fools gold. Give us the strength to never stop digging - to never doubt or give up - until we obtain you. We ask this through Christ our Lord and pearl. Amen.
