Finding treasure in the kingdom of heaven

For today's Gospel, we read more parables; after all this is the way that our Lord Jesus Christ taught his disciples. We begin with Matt.13: 44-52. The Parable of the Hidden Treasure. "44 The Kingdom of heaven is like this. A man happens to find a treasure hidden in a field. He covers it up again, and is so happy that he goes and sells everything he has, and then goes back and buys that field."

Next we have the Parable of the Pearl. "45 Also the Kingdom of heaven is like this. A man is looking for fine pearls, 46 and when he finds one that is unusually fine, he goes and sells everything he has, and buys that pearl."

Then we have the Parable of the Net. "47 Also, the Kingdom of heaven is like this. Some fishermen throw their net out in the lake and catch all kinds of fish. 48 When the net is full, they pull it to shore and sit down to divide the fish; the good ones go into the buckets, the worthless ones are thrown away. 49 It will be like this at the end of the age; the angels will go out and gather up the evil people from among the good 50 and will throw them into the fiery furnace, where they will cry and gnash their teeth. 51 Do you understand these things? Jesus asked them. Yes, they replied. This means then, that every teacher of the Law who becomes a disciple in the Kingdom of heaven is like a homeowner who takes new and old things out of his storage room."

The Parable of the Hidden Treasure and the Parable of the Pearl is easy to understand as our Lord Jesus Christ is telling us in plain language that if we do find the Kingdom of heaven, it is akin to finding a hidden treasure where we would even sell everything that we already have in order to get it. I'm sure that when we experience this ourselves, we would not hesitate in doing exactly what the Lord is telling us in this parable.

But let me give you the story of the rich young man whom Jesus met. You'll find this story in Matt.19: 16-26. "16 Now someone approached him and said, 'Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal life?' 17 He answered him. 'Why do you ask me about the good? There is only One who is good. If you want to enter into my life, keep the commandments.' 18 He asked him, 'Which ones?' And Jesus replied 'You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; 19 honor your father and your mother; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.'

20 The young man said to him, 'All of these I have observed. What do I still lack?' 21 Jesus said to him, 'If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me.'

"22 When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad, for he had many possessions. 23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of heaven.' 25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said, 'Who then can be saved?' 26 Jesus looked at them and said, 'For human beings this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.'"

While the story of the rich young man is not in today's Gospel reading, I brought this story out because it has a parallel with today's Parable of the Hidden Treasure and the Parable of the Pearl. Clearly, the rich young man didn't recognize Jesus as the Lord and more important than all the wealth or riches of this earth; therefore, the Kingdom of heaven was within his reach. Alas, he was still very much attached to his material wealth, things that we cannot bring with us to the Kingdom of heaven; thus, the young rich man went away sad. This just makes me wonder… was the young rich man sad that he still treasured his riches more than heaven or was he sad that he knew that there was no way for him to attain eternal life with his riches?

As we learned in the Parable of the Net, when the fish have been caught, the good fish are sent to the buckets, while the worthless ones are thrown away. So now let's ask ourselves… what is our value to God? Are we deemed worthy of entering the Kingdom of Heaven? Maybe we should examine ourselves… do we give our spare or leisure time to help worthy projects in our respective parishes, projects that help the poor?

I'm sure that the rich people help the poor with their money but what if you're not rich enough? Well, you can donate your time. That should be more than enough. We don't need to second-guess this. As we've read in these passages today, when we find the heavenly treasure that is Jesus Christ, then we should drop everything we have and follow him. God Bless you and your loved ones!

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For email responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila's columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com