Treasure and the pearl of great value
The readings today lead us to reflect again on what is truly valuable. In fact Solomon has to do this when the Lord appears to him in a dream and says, “Ask what I shall give you.” Solomon is young and has made king. He has the great wisdom to ask for “an understanding mind” so that he can “discern between good and evil.”
Jesus’ parables also challenge us to consider what the most valuable things in life are. His first one depicts a man who finds treasure in a field and goes off to sell everything he owns so that he can buy the field.
And the second one is similar: a merchant finds a pearl of great value and he also goes off to sell all that he owns so that he can buy the pearl. These parables of course are not directing us to chase after material wealth. Quite the opposite. They are questioning us as to whether we really have put faith at the centre of our lives.
As I have said (unoriginally) before: we all have three commodities that are very valuable. We have time, we have our talents and we have our treasure. At mass today, and then over the Summer, we have the opportunity, in fact the call, to look at our lives again and think how we are using these commodities.
How are we spending our time? Are we giving more time to television, going online or checking our phones than we are to prayer? And what about our talents? Are we using the gifts we have been given for the service of our friends, our families, our neighbours, our community and our parish? And we do have treasure in greater or lesser amounts. How do we use and share our money and our possessions? Are we really just looking to build up our own wealth?
Jesus counselled a rich young man to sell everything he owned, give the money to the poor and to come and follow him. He probably doesn’t make quite the same call to each one of us, and yet he still wants us to make our life of faith the priority, and to commit as fully as we can with our time, our talents and our treasure.
God bless, Fr Kevin.
