I often wonder about the possibility of finding “treasure buried in the field”, of finding treasure when I least expect, especially after a very long search.
The Parables of the Treasure in the Field and the Pearl of Great Price are Jesus’ shortest parables but they could, if we want, tap into the deep recesses of our heart’s imagination. What would I do if my search ends in an unimaginable find, or in a life-altering discovery?
But Jesus surprises us by telling us in these parables to consider that we have found the treasure – it is the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven is where Jesus is to be found.
He goes further with his concern – to what length and what price, we the treasure-finder are willing to pay?
It costs the men in both parables everything, sacrificing all and not counting it a loss to obtain the impossible, to gain the unimaginable prize, all for the simple joy and love of possessing their glorious find.
Today I am struck by God’s call to reconsider my love for the Kingdom, to consider the field be my heart and the treasure be Jesus, and the selling of everything be the surrendering of all for the mission.
As members of God’s family, the Holy Father has said in his message for World Mission Sunday last year, Catholics are called to leave behind “every kind of undue ethnic and ecclesial introversion,” valuing those things of their own culture that can reflect or amplify the Gospel but being always ready to step out of one’s comfort zone to share the faith.
The gift of faith and baptism, the pope said, “is not a product for sale – we do not practise proselytism – but a treasure to be given, communicated and proclaimed. Catholics should feel an irresistible urge to share the blessing of faith with others.”
He said it is like being in love. “People in love never stand still: they are drawn out of themselves; they are attracted and attract others in turn; they give themselves to others and build relationships that are life-giving.”
I need to rethink whether the goals that I have been pursuing in my entire life are worthless, or even goals that are objectively good but not Jesus’ goals for me. Do I consider “being in love with Jesus the pearl of great price”? Without Jesus we are unable to see all things in their proper perspective. Selling off everything else could then be a call to “leave behind home, family, country, language and local Church, and to be sent forth to the nations, to a world not yet transformed”, in order to gain the pearl that is Jesus, the one thing worth living for; a gift gained freely and to share it freely.
