MY GREATEST TREASURE

XVII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Matthew 13:44-52

What is the great treasure of my life, the one I am ready to suffer and to fight for? What I consider to be the treasure of my life determines my choices and my actions in life, because it presents me with the values by which I am guided and which give meaning to my life.

In this Sunday’s gospel, Jesus speaks about the treasure hidden in a field and the fine pearl of great value, so great that one is ready to spend all his wealth in order to get that pearl or to buy that field. And according to Jesus, the Kingdom of God is that treasure and that pearl, meaning that there is nothing of greater value than the Kingdom of God. However, many people put forward other values and find their treasures somewhere else. 

Nowadays, many people make their own self the pearl that overshadows everything else. They become the centre of the world, the only god that must be served and worshipped. When I do that, only my rights matter, and to affirm myself I can trample upon the rights of the others. The whole world must be at my service and fulfil whatever my heart desires. The world we live in, power and wealth reign as supreme values for which we are ready to spend everything else to obtain them, with the inner assurance that they will bring bliss and peace to our hearts. However, that is a fallacy. Having wealth and power, we use them in our search for pleasure. In this search for pleasure, we break all rules and are ready to do the strangest things, so that we get a name and appear as someone outstanding. In spite of all this frenzy, we do not find peace and happiness. Drowning ourselves in noise, our hearts bleed of loneliness, crying out for true love, the only love that can put our hearts at peace.

When the Kingdom of God becomes the treasure of our lives, then we realise our true dignity of children of God. In his letter to the Romans, Paul wrote that God called us according to a purpose. And what is God’s purpose? He intended that we “become true images of his Son, so that his Son might be the eldest of many brothers.” (Ro 8:29). Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is our eldest brother, and in him, we become children of God, so that we may have a share in God’s glory. And God is ready to co-operate with us and to turn everything to our good.

Like Solomon, we must for wisdom instead of wealth. And then we will be able “to discern between good and evil” (1 Kings 3:9).