Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time- A
Just as Jesus used parables to describe the Kingdom of God last week, He uses the same pedagogical mode again. The three images revolve around what is treasured and what is not. Jesus says the Kingdom of God is like a treasure buried in a field. After it is discovered, the person hides it again and rushes off selling all he has to buy the field.
Or, the Kingdom of Heaven is like valuable pearls. Once a merchant has found them, he sells his things to gather the funds to buy the pearls. Once a treasure is noticed, the logical thing is to give up the less valuable to attain the greater. The message is understandable, and Jesus uses the last parable to show who will inherit the Kingdom and those who will not.
Jesus says the Kingdom is like a net thrown into the sea, collecting all kinds of fish. When the fisherman hauls it ashore, he determines what is good and puts it into buckets, and what is undesirable is discarded. This symbolizes the end of the age when the angels separate the righteous from the wicked, and those who did not lead a good life are thrown into a fiery furnace where they will wail and grind their teeth.
It’s all about what we treasure and what we don’t. People have many options throughout their lives, and the question is about what we perceive as the best treasures and how we attain them. To complicate the point further, individuals may have competing treasures they seek. So, what are we to make of the teaching?
Unraveling the confusion starts with stipulating there are varying degrees of what is valuable. Jesus is not addressing what can be called peripheral treasures. These may include our personal relationships with others or the wealth we may have accumulated from a life of work. As long as these are not the center of our energies, they are treasures, but secondary ones.
Jesus is not referring to these gifts, but rather speaking about the existential ones, those dealing with life and death and what should be our ultimate desires. Concluding what is of true value and what is not is known as discernment.
Our first reading from the Book of Kings brings insight and tells us a story about King Solomon, the son of David and the successor to his throne. The Lord came to him in a dream and offered him whatever he asked. The young king, mature for his age, did not ask for any temporal wealth or increased power. Rather, he asked for an understanding heart to judge his people righteously and to know the difference between right and wrong. Solomon asked for the ability to discern and recognize what a true treasure is.
If by some miracle, the Lord comes to us in our dream and asks us the same question as he did with Solomon. What would our response be? Without hesitation, many would not ask for the discernment between good and evil. Probably some of the top wishes would be health or the health of those we love. A good portion would ask for financial security, perhaps the grace to start and raise a family or even reconcile fractured relationships.
Although none of these desires are wrong, they are a good indication of what we treasure the most. Notice too many of our desires have to do with the here and now, and little if any have to do with our eternal souls. This is not meant to be a condemnation of ordinary people, but a wake-up call to how much time and energy we give to things of this world instead of what should be our ultimate desire of an eternal life with God.
Saints throughout history realized that the treasure they found while on earth had little to do with the world. The treasure they found was the all-encompassing love of God and a desire to be with Him while still living and in the afterlife. They are saints because they sold everything that used to be for them a treasure to acquire what is of the greatest value—life with God.
Today we pray for the ability to discern what is of real value and live accordingly, so that like Solomon we seek true treasures instead of fleeting ones.