Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dear Friends,

The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

The obvious meaning of this first parable in today’s Gospel is that the Kingdom of Heaven is very valuable. But, what the parable is trying to do is to get us to do a double take. How valuable is the Kingdom? How much is it worth to belong to the Church, the visible manifestation of the Kingdom in the world? A second close reading will suffice to give the answer.

Ok, so objectively we know how much it is worth. But ask yourself. How much is it worth to you? Would you give up one paycheck? Would you give up a career? A conviction? A vice? An hour on Sunday? What about its objective worth, which is everything that you have?

Maybe, if we are honest, we are not yet at the point of the merchant who gives up everything. But before we accuse ourselves as having a lack of faith, there is a detail which is important in the parable that is easy to miss. He doesn’t give up everything he has for the Kingdom out of a sense of objective duty. Just because something is valuable doesn't mean I'm going to buy it. He gives up everything he has for the Kingdom from an experience of joy from the hope of obtaining it.

This tells us two things. First, it means he is getting a great deal—that the kingdom must be worth much, much more than everything that the merchant has, so what he loses is nothing compared to what he gains. And secondly, it tells us that the Lord does not force entry into the Kingdom, but rather he draws us—he attracts us through the very things our hearts crave: joy, goodness, peace, and love which this Kingdom brings. But do we have eyes to see this value? Do we have hearts open to understanding it. Let us pray, like Solomon, for an understanding heart, that we might recognize and to find great joy in the massive gift that God desires to give us.

Fr. Michael Gokie
Assistant Newman Director