Word to the Wise
Sunday, July 26, 2020 - 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time - A
[1 Kgs 3:5, 7-12; Rom 8:28-30; Matt 13:44-52 or 13:44-46]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. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it. [Matthew] Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong. For who is able to govern this vast people of yours? [1 Kings]
Hunting for buried treasure is one of the great adventure scenarios of life! Some folks spend years researching old records of shipwrecks in order to find treasures of gold, etc. in them. The early Spanish explorers in the southwest USA hunted for a place called Cibola, a city of gold! It is the stuff of childhood games with pirates and loot to be hidden and found later. Nowadays all kinds of imaging machines from simple metal detectors to sophisticated x-rays are employed. But Jesus, in the Gospel According to Matthew, ties treasure to the interior, to the heart. Earlier in this gospel, in the Sermon on the Mount, he says, "For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be." Finding the treasure is the challenge, and some folks enjoy the hunt more than finding the treasure!
In my pastoral experience in years of campus ministry, I have encountered students who came to the university either not knowing what they wanted to do or majoring in a field to please a parent or because it promised financial rewards. Inevitably the emptiness of hunting for a false treasure would become clear and disillusionment and discouragement set in. This sometimes did not occur until years after leaving college!! I have to ask questions to find out why a particular field of study was chosen? Eventually the words, "What I'd really like to do is....." appear. Making a fundamental choice like this is the difference between a vocation and a career. Jesus would point to our baptism as the fundamental expression of who we ARE. The expression of that vocation is what we DO. The point of discernment is to find the vocation, not the career, and that can be a challenging treasure hunt. I have said to many a student, "Follow your heart!" AMEN