17th Sunday of Ordinary Time

July 28, 2002

by Reverend Deacon Lawrence A. St. Onge

Deep within our human spirit there is a sense of longing, a yearning, a sense of incompleteness. We tend to sense that there is more to life; that what we have in the here and now is just somehow not enough; our desires, our longings, and our aching for more, all point to this truth.

We will go to great extents in the search for truth, fulfillment, and happiness. People make pilgrimages to holy places, like Lourdes, Fatima and Medjegori. Some people will fast, do penances, take vows of silence, study the bible, make retreats or even go off into the solitude of the desert or the mountains. We search for God in countless ways, following various routes and pious practices in the hope of finding our Maker. Human history is filled with our attempts to discover the divine, and with our efforts to respond to our inner sense -- that there is something more, something greater, beyond the confines and limitations of this present life.

In today’s gospel Jesus speaks of our "longing," as a longing for the fullness of the kingdom of God. He offers examples of the lengths to which people will go in order to possess it, to enter into it. How nothing else is more important or more valuable. And how people will sell everything they own in order to get it.

The first two parables - the treasure and the pearl - although similar, point out how people can make this discovery in different ways. There is the person who happened upon the treasure in the field and had the unexpected delight of discovering something he wasn't even looking for. And then, there is the merchant, who although he was already searching, is likewise overwhelmed at his find. What Jesus is actually saying is that the kingdom of God is to be found most typically in the ordinary. It is by going about our ordinary business of living and life that we can find God, and have our longing satisfied. Whether we stumble across God, or we find God out of the blue, in some unexpected manner, it doesn’t really matter, because the truth of the matter is, we don’t find God, but rather, it is God who allows himself, to be found by us.

The two people in the parables didn't find this great treasure in some exotic way or by following extreme pious practices or even by making great pilgrimages. They made their discovery simply by doing their jobs, by going about their everyday business of living and life.

Once they made their discovery, however, they recognized it for what it was. In the normal course of their lives, they were able to perceive the opportunity that had been offered to them. They were able to recognize the value of what they had found, and made a decision that would affect the rest of their lives. Nothing else was allowed to hold them back or make them hesitate. They responded immediately to obtain the newly found and highly valued treasure. Their reaction is the proper response of the disciple who hears and understands the message of Jesus. It is the response of a person of true wisdom, who realizes it is indeed worth giving up everything to accept and to do the will of God. In scripture, we hear St. Peter says of himself, and the other disciples, "We have given up everything, Lord, to follow you."

Sometimes our perception is that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. And, occasionally we might even find ourselves being envious of someone else’s talents, wealth or lifestyle. But the reality is we will not find the kingdom of heaven, the object of our longing, in someone else's fields, by wishing we were someone else. We have to look to our own fields, our own lives, our own present relationships. "We have to bloom where we are planted." That is where we will find God, who speaks to us, reveals himself to us, loves us, and offers us hope, growth, and love. Only in our own lives will we find the hidden treasure -- that pearl of great price.

The Kingdom of heaven is another way of referring to the "kingdom of God" or the "reign of God;" or put another way, our relationship with God, and how we live out that relationship. But we must be aware that the kingdom, in fact, has already begun, it is here and now, and to enter into it, is to accept and do the will of God.

To do so, however, may require us to give up certain ambitions, or to put aside certain habits or ways of life, which may be difficult for us to give up. Or conversely, maybe it is to start doing things in our living and life that we haven’t been doing before, because, although we should have been doing them, they too, were difficult for us. In either case, both require some sacrifice on our part, and that is the spiritual sacrifice that God desires from us, and it is the only way to true peace of mind and heart. The kingdom of heaven is indeed within us -- but we must have the wisdom to be able to recognize that treasure. To look elsewhere is to merely end up chasing fairy tales.

Discovering the kingdom and allowing it to take possession of us, is also, not a one-shot-deal. It is an on-going process. God takes us exactly as we are the good as well as the bad, our vices as well as our virtues. "It is like a net that is thrown out into the sea that catches good, as well as bad fish." God sorts through it all, salvaging, healing, using the good and saving us from those parts of ourselves that are negative or destructive – if we allow Him.

But we must be conscious, however, that this way to wholeness and holiness is inevitably painful, because there is always some pain associated with growth and rebirth. But this is the only way to truly satisfy our longing for wholeness: there is no other alternative. We must look to our own lives, and our own circumstances, to find God's kingdom and God's love for us.

Let us pray, then, that God will grant each of us the gift of wisdom, that we might be able to focus our efforts and energies on accepting and doing the will of God, and accomplishing good works as the instruments of his holiness in building up His kingdom here on earth.