Our gospel reading this Sunday is a beautiful message from our Lord Jesus Christ about life’s treasures … or more specifically what truly is important in our lives. Perhaps we ought to ask ourselves, what are our priorities? Our jobs, our family or friends? Too often we take a lot of things for granted because we simply believe that we would live forever and a day. All we need is a wake up call that, whether we like it or not, all what we are and all what we have will come to pass and someday; we will only be a distant memory.
If you’re in the pink of health, you’d probably say that our jobs or our families are the most important things in life. But when you’re approaching the end of your life, nothing is more important than preparing ourselves to meet our maker, because if we can’t do our work anymore, I guarantee you someone else will take your place. As far as the family is concerned, they too will be gone from our presence; hence we must learn to let go. This gospel comes from Matt. 13: 44-52 about Treasures New and Old.
“[Jesus said to his disciples;] 44 The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which as person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. 45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. 46 When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.
47 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind. 48 when it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away. 49 Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous 50 and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. 51 Do you understand all these things?”
They answered, “Yes”. 52 And he replied, “Then every scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old.”
In this gospel our Lord Jesus Christ gives us three stories about what the kingdom of heaven is like … a hidden treasure, a pearl and a fishnet. If we talk about the parable of the fishnet to our Filipino fishermen, it might be difficult for them to understand it because here, when our fishermen get a huge catch, they sell the good fish for a higher price and more often than not, they keep the bad catch to themselves as food for their table. But in the Sea of Galilee 2,000 years ago, the fishermen would throw away their bad catch.
But what is crystal clear in the message of our Lord is that in the kingdom of heaven, the bad ones get thrown into the everlasting fiery furnace, while the righteous ones enter paradise. That should be a compelling reason why we should do good in this lifetime for us to deserve a life eternal in the kingdom of heaven.
I like the first story when our Lord said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which as person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” You can imagine yourself walking in a field and you stumble in a hidden treasure … then since you don’t own the land, you hide the treasure again and go to find out who is the owner of the land so you can buy it. Once the field is yours, the treasure is also yours to keep.
In this story, it is our Lord Jesus Christ who is the buried treasure and, when we find him, we will do all we can to keep him in our heart, for in Luke 12: 34, our Lord Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.” All of us have to work for a living in order to feed our families. But we also know that we are not permanent residents of this earth. We embrace the idea that we are mere pilgrims passing through this world as life eternal awaits us in the spirit world. This is not new thinking, and it is as old as the Bible itself.
Too often, we forget the real reason for our very existence; that is to love and glorify God. But the challenges of day-to-day living often keep us from getting to that greatest of treasures: Our Lord Jesus Christ. Hence we are distracted and by the time we find the Lord, it might be too late for us. We will never forget the example of the good thief Dimas who was crucified with our Lord Jesus, while the other condemned man demanded that Jesus save himself and them. Jesus told Dimas that he would be with him in Paradise; but that was a last minute call.
For us lesser mortals, material things are mere earthly treasures that moth can destroy or it would decay. The true treasures are God’s love for his creation. You better believe that God knows every single person on this planet. When we finally realize that God loves us, we return our love for God, by giving him all our trust. But we do not need to wait for the last minute. Jesus is there now in the Blessed Sacrament and all we need to do is show him a contrite and a humble heart to earn his love.
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