Sunday, July 27, 2014

A Pearl of Great Price


By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ

“Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong.  For who is able to govern this vast people of yours?”  1 Kings 3:9

“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.  Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls.  When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.”  Matthew 13:44-46

Piety
Piety is the Wisdom of God that has given our souls the control over what are the good we do. Piety is the openness of our hearts to God’s way of doing things. It gives us the reason for doing what should be done that our minds might not always understand. Our hearts have reasons that the mind does not always understand. Love is the connection we have with God.

Study
We reflect on why God was pleased with Solomon’s choice of Wisdom. For the Christian, wisdom is doing things God’s way. We pick up wisdom by learning from the mistakes we have make. We delve into wisdom to discover what is possible to God’s love within our hearts. Love makes it possible to live with each other without being crushed by the onslaughts of Materialism, Secularism and Individualism.

The pearl of great price is God’s love. We do what we can to live our lives with Christ as our model. The words and example of Christ offer us the best way to be close to God.

Action
We do our best to share God’s love in Christ. Christ is worth giving up everything worthwhile that is earth bound. We learn to live for our place in heaven.  Christ puts the victory of the Resurrection on our hearts. Being cast into the dark is not an option of wisdom. We do what is right by keeping our lives alert to the simple things by living our lives for one another. The pearls of great price challenge us to put the real price on being a good person. No good deed is ever wasted for God.

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