From the Gospel: Digging deep within
We need to let go of possessions to pursue our goal of true joy
17th Sunday in ordinary time. Today’s readings: 1 Kings 3:5,7-12; Romans 8:28-30; Matthew 13:44-46
There is a tragedy that is afflicting humankind and that we have trouble acknowledging. Though we might turn a blind eye to it, we cannot deny its effects: we are losing touch with our inner selves.
Today’s gospel speaks directly to this point in the two parables Jesus tells to describe the Kingdom of God.
They both tell the tale of two men who set their eyes on a treasure. One stumbles upon it by chance while ploughing a field that presumably was not his. The other man, a merchant of pearls, comes across a particularly rare and expensive pearl.
What happens next is similar in both cases: they sell all that they have to make the treasure theirs. Knowing that they have to part with all their possessions does not detract them from pursuing their goal.
Rather, joy is the motivating factor for both men to engage in this trade-off. They both understood that even though they had to forgo the stability that their current possessions gave them, their newfound treasure would exceed by far all that they possessed.
True joy involves making trade-offs. The joy of having a family means dedicating time for loved ones. The joy of prayer life demands reorganising one’s priorities. The joy of authentic friendship brings its own challenges. It is inner, interior joy that we all seek, that makes it worthwhile giving up all that is important to us.
These two men found this treasure not by coincidence or by a stroke of mere luck. Although they were going about their usual business, they were actively alert, always on the look-out for that “something more”.
Who knows how many people had trampled the treasure with their feet in the field before! But it was this man who spotted it. Likewise, the pearl of great price must have changed hands many times. But this particularly intent pearl dealer knew how to appreciate what others failed to even notice.
A hectic routine, the rat race of keeping up with the Jones’s, the dreaded FOMO (fear of missing out), the endless push notifications and the expectancy of being always connected – all risk numbing us from what really matters in life.
The Burnout Society, by Byung-Chul Han.South Korean theologian and cultural theorist Byung-Chul Han, in The Burnout Society, describes the culture we are inhabiting as one characterised by fatigue and burnout due to unrealistic expectations put upon ourselves.
The constant need to outdo ourselves, to be productive and to perform have replaced the need to learn how to be alone with ourselves, to enjoy the simple pleasures of life and to connect with ourselves, with others, and above all, with the Transcendent.
It is interesting to note that in both cases of the parable, neither the treasure nor the pearl are commodities they could immediately use. They are goods they enjoy in and of themselves. Yet both men knew intuitively that only with the treasure that they were ready to sacrifice everything for, could their life finally be complete.
The treasure found buried in the field and the expensive pearl could symbolise the core of who we really are when we are alone before God. There, the scars of our past do not scare us any longer. There, our sins are anointed by the balm of God’s mercy.
It is within us that we discover who we really are. There, masks fall and presumptuousness fails. There, the treasure of our life lies hidden, waiting to be discovered, for it is there that we encounter God, our true joy.
St Augustine could not put it better when he said: “Too late have I loved you, O Beauty, so ancient and yet so new! Too late have I loved you! I was searching for you outside of myself, but you were within me all along.”
