“What is the Kingdom of Heaven Worth to You?” by Colleen O’Sullivan

“What is the Kingdom of Heaven Worth to You?” by Colleen O’Sullivan

Saint Alphonsus Liguouri, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

Under the weight of your hand, I sat alone because you filled me with indignation.  Why is my pain continuous, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed?  You have indeed become for me a treacherous brook, whose waters do not abide!  Thus the LORD answered me: If you repent, so that I restore you, in my presence, you shall stand; If you bring forth the precious without the vile, you shall be my mouthpiece. Then it shall be they who turn to you, and you shall not turn to them, And I will make you toward this people a solid wall of brass.  Though they fight against you, they shall not prevail, For I am with you, to deliver and rescue you, says the LORD. (Jeremiah 15:17b-20)

Jesus said to his disciples:  "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. (Matthew 13:44)

Piety

And now I had discovered the good pearl. To buy it I had to sell all that I had; and I hesitated.   (St. Augustine, Confessions, 8.1.2)

Study

Our Scripture readings today are about treasure – God’s word in the first and the Kingdom of heaven in the second.  More precisely, the readings focus on what we are willing to give to procure treasure and to what lengths we will go to hold onto it.

The parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price seem like no-brainers at first glance.  If the treasure is valuable enough or the pearl lustrous enough, who wouldn’t be willing to give everything to possess one or the other?  I think St. Augustine in his Confessions gets to the heart of the matter when he says he discovered the pearl but hesitated when it came to selling everything.  When we choose to embrace something, we are, at the same moment, choosing to turn our backs on other options.  It isn’t that we don’t see the Kingdom of heaven as the greatest treasure or most valuable pearl imaginable, but it is often so difficult to let go of the things and values of the world.  To me, the Christian life seems as much about what we let go of along the way as about committing to walking in Jesus’ footsteps in the first place.

Jeremiah, in our first reading, had been entrusted with great treasure, God’s word.  At first, that was a beautiful thing for the prophet.  But speaking the truth doesn’t guarantee that others want to hear it or embrace it or the messenger.  Now Jeremiah finds himself utterly bereft.  The brook that refreshed him at one point has dried up, he says. Jeremiah feels abandoned by God and angry about that as well.  He’s about ready to throw in the towel.   He wants to ditch his commitment to preach God’s word to God’s people.   But God never promised Jeremiah or any other prophet that all would be smooth sailing.  So, God tells Jeremiah that if he repents, God will restore him to being able to stand in God’s presence.  God will always be present to him.

Action

Giving up everything else for the sake of the treasure of the Kingdom of God and then holding on to that treasure for the rest of our lives are not easy propositions.   If we understand all the ramifications of giving everything we are and have for the sake of the Kingdom, then we, too, will probably hesitate before plunging in.  Discipleship is not without cost.  Being conformed to the image of Christ is a lifelong process because we are always finding something of the world that we have not left behind.

What worldly baggage do you still need to set down?

A thought for the week ahead:

The world does not say: "blessed are the poor." The world says: "Blessed are the rich. You are worth as much as you have." But Christ says: "Wrong. Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, because they do not put their trust in what is so transitory." Blessed are the poor, for they know that their riches are in the One who being rich made himself poor in order to enrich us with his poverty, teaching us the Christian's true wisdom.  (Oscar Romero, 1917-1980, The Violence of Love)

The illustration above is available under a Creative Commons License.