In today's Gospel, Jesus compares the Reign of God to a treasure buried in a field...a pearl of great price. Who among us has not dreamt of finding a great treasure? Who hasn't imagined, if only for a moment, what it would be like to stumble across something so valuable that it changed everything?
Imagine the impact it would have upon your life. How would you use it? What would you do differently within your life with this newfound wealth? Would you share it with family and friends, or would you keep it quiet, afraid of what might change if others knew you were suddenly wealthy? Would you use it to help the poor and the less fortunate? Would it make you generous... or would it make you afraid of losing it?
These are the questions we ask ourselves when we imagine finding gold, or a pearl beyond price. But Jesus isn't talking about gold. Jesus isn't talking about a pearl, not really. The great treasure we've stumbled across is not a buried chest of coins, not a jewel pulled from the sea, but rather the promise of eternal life... the Reign of God, breaking into our midst, here, now, today.
This is exactly what Jesus is challenging us to do: to imagine how different our lives would be if we actually “lived” in the Reign of God. Not just on Sunday. Not just while we're here at Mass, dressed for the occasion, minds half on the homily and half on lunch. But every day. All the time. In the checkout line, in the midst of rush hour traffic, in the middle of a difficult conversation with a family member, or a loved one or a good friend, or in the quiet moment when no one is watching and we choose, or don't choose, to love.
Usually when we think of finding a treasure, we think immediately of financial gain, how it would change our lives, our children's futures, our retirement, our security. But in this case, we are challenged to think about an entirely different kind of change; how our lives would look if measured not by what we've accumulated or what we have or own, but rather by how we love one another, how we care for each other. Measured by how we live the Gospel in the ordinary, unglamorous hours of the day…not the hour we set aside for God, but all the hours of our days. How we impact the lives of the people around us... for the better, or, if we're honest with ourselves, sometimes for the worse.
Finding the Reign of God, and falling in love with it, is the whole point of the parables we hear today. Not admiring it from a distance. Not respecting it as a nice idea, rather, falling in love with it…the way you fall in love with a person, so that it reorders everything else in your life around them.
There's a quote often attributed to Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ, though it was actually written by Fr. Joseph P. Whelan, SJ, a former provincial superior for the Jesuits of Maryland, in a reflection he gave on vocations and discernment. I think it's worth us hearing:
“Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you will do with your evenings, how you will spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.”
Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything…That's not sentimental language. I believe that is the most practical sentence you'll hear all week because it names the truth that whatever has seized our imagination is already deciding everything, whether we've noticed or not.
The question the Gospel puts to us today is simply: what has seized your imagination?
If I were utterly, totally, and completely in love with God above all else... if building up the Reign of God came first, before career, before comfort, before every other claim on my time and attention... would my life look any different than it did when I woke up this morning?
What is at the center of my life? What motivates what I read, what gets me out of bed, what breaks my heart in the world I meet each day, and what amazes me with joy and gratitude in that same world? Let’s fall in love all over again, with God, who so deeply and passionately loves you just as you are!
Blessings,
Fr Tim
Imagine the impact it would have upon your life. How would you use it? What would you do differently within your life with this newfound wealth? Would you share it with family and friends, or would you keep it quiet, afraid of what might change if others knew you were suddenly wealthy? Would you use it to help the poor and the less fortunate? Would it make you generous... or would it make you afraid of losing it?
These are the questions we ask ourselves when we imagine finding gold, or a pearl beyond price. But Jesus isn't talking about gold. Jesus isn't talking about a pearl, not really. The great treasure we've stumbled across is not a buried chest of coins, not a jewel pulled from the sea, but rather the promise of eternal life... the Reign of God, breaking into our midst, here, now, today.
This is exactly what Jesus is challenging us to do: to imagine how different our lives would be if we actually “lived” in the Reign of God. Not just on Sunday. Not just while we're here at Mass, dressed for the occasion, minds half on the homily and half on lunch. But every day. All the time. In the checkout line, in the midst of rush hour traffic, in the middle of a difficult conversation with a family member, or a loved one or a good friend, or in the quiet moment when no one is watching and we choose, or don't choose, to love.
Usually when we think of finding a treasure, we think immediately of financial gain, how it would change our lives, our children's futures, our retirement, our security. But in this case, we are challenged to think about an entirely different kind of change; how our lives would look if measured not by what we've accumulated or what we have or own, but rather by how we love one another, how we care for each other. Measured by how we live the Gospel in the ordinary, unglamorous hours of the day…not the hour we set aside for God, but all the hours of our days. How we impact the lives of the people around us... for the better, or, if we're honest with ourselves, sometimes for the worse.
Finding the Reign of God, and falling in love with it, is the whole point of the parables we hear today. Not admiring it from a distance. Not respecting it as a nice idea, rather, falling in love with it…the way you fall in love with a person, so that it reorders everything else in your life around them.
There's a quote often attributed to Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ, though it was actually written by Fr. Joseph P. Whelan, SJ, a former provincial superior for the Jesuits of Maryland, in a reflection he gave on vocations and discernment. I think it's worth us hearing:
“Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you will do with your evenings, how you will spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.”
Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything…That's not sentimental language. I believe that is the most practical sentence you'll hear all week because it names the truth that whatever has seized our imagination is already deciding everything, whether we've noticed or not.
The question the Gospel puts to us today is simply: what has seized your imagination?
If I were utterly, totally, and completely in love with God above all else... if building up the Reign of God came first, before career, before comfort, before every other claim on my time and attention... would my life look any different than it did when I woke up this morning?
What is at the center of my life? What motivates what I read, what gets me out of bed, what breaks my heart in the world I meet each day, and what amazes me with joy and gratitude in that same world? Let’s fall in love all over again, with God, who so deeply and passionately loves you just as you are!
Blessings,
Fr Tim
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