Sunday Readings in Brief 17 Year A

1 Kings 3:5, 7-12; Psalms 119; Romans 8:28-30; Mathew 13:44-52

I Seek Wisdom, not Riches

“Request whatever you wish, so that I may give it to you”. These words are very pleasing to the ear. When you ask little children what they wish, in their innocence they ask what they do not have or what they fancy most. For example, if you ask a child from a poor family who has no shoes what he or she wants, they will ask for shoes. If the child is hungry, he or she will ask for food. If you as a child from a rich family with all he or she needs, they will ask for the fanciest toys they see on Television or the internet. Some children also are very innovative. One told me that they would like to have all the knowledge in the books so that they will not need to go to school anymore.

Even mature people will most likely ask for material things or big positions to make them rich quickly. Some would even ask God to maim or kill their enemies. They forget that they too may be considered enemies by others. We have been made to hate hard work and toil. The world presents us with easy ways to achieve richness or greatness, but the problem is that these ways are not sustainable and end up corrupting our value system or enslaving us. Some of them include betting, stealing, fraud, begging, borrowing with no intention to pay back, etc. Even some preachers have come up with a miracle package for those who would want to get rich as quickly without hard work. Others have found themselves in trouble after taking loans from extorting and unregulated lending entities and individuals.

There is a saying that goes, “What we have we do not want, and what we need we do know”. The first reading today tells us the story of King Solomon who, when God gave him a chance to ask for anything, Solomon did request riches, long life, or the destruction of his enemies instead he asked God for the most precious thing in the world – wisdom. In the Book of Qoheret, Wisdom is personified as one who knows how the world operates and profits from it. With wisdom, one can get everything including riches but without wisdom, one can lose easily all the riches and including his or her own life.

In the second reading, we hear that God cooperates with all those who love him and makes them true images of his son. “The love of God is the beginning of wisdom”, and “Wisdom is better than Gold” (Prv 16:16). When we have God on our side, we have nothing to worry about.

In the Gospel passage today, Jesus presents to us three people who did the wisest thing in the situation they found themselves in. The one who found a treasure in someone else’s field had several choices. He could have stolen it and risked being caught or informed the owner and risked getting nothing in return. However, he made a wise decision to legally acquire the field with the treasure. The other one who found a valuable pearl knew that it was worth more than all he possessed. Therefore, he did not hesitate to sell everything to have it in his possession. He would later sell it many times more and buy all he needed.

If we knew how valuable is to live the values of our faith and commit ourselves fully to the requirements of being true followers of Christ, we would not hesitate to sell all we have and buy it. Selling our possessions means, trading our bad traditions and customs, our past sinfulness, our present unnecessary commitments, our hatred for others, and others of this nature. However, the only way to know the true value of the Christian faith is by getting properly catechized. Many baptized people are not yet committed Christians because they did not get the correct orientation, therefore, they may never attain the full benefits of following Christ here on earth and may even lose eternal life. How do I judge myself in this regard?

The kingdom of God is priceless. We always find excuses as to why we are not committed to our faith, to the Church, small Christian communities, and pastoral groups. Many attend Church when they are free. They do not go to pray, they attend for other public relations purposes. Many do not join others in Small Christian Communities. Very few want to commit themselves to the Church volunteering programs. We think that time spent in the Church and in Small Christian Communities is wasted. However, we have time for many other not-so-profitable commitments, such as parties every Friday and weekend, drinking with friends, watching and playing virtual games, gossiping the whole afternoon, and the like. We are not choosing wisely, or our wisdom is not from God but from the worldly, and the outcomes of our choices are slowly destroying our lives.  

Though the kingdom of God is open to all only those who are fit will inherit its future. Just like the net thrown into the sea catches all kinds of fish, and the fisherman sits at the shore and selects the good ones and throws aware those that have no profit, the same way will be the kingdom of God. In our communities, we are mixed up. We live with people of all types of characters. It is our responsibility to remain good so that when the time comes for sorting out, we will be selected among the good ones, the profitable ones. Let us not take seriously the famous phrase that says, “If you cannot fight them, join them”, this is for cowards. We are called to stand out even and be counted even when it is difficult.

We are surrounded by people who want to pull us down always. The negative critics want to discourage us from making steps in our life growth and our mission in life. They never see anything good in us. They dig pits on our path. They discredit every effort we make. Jesus was surrounded by plenty of such people during his earthly ministry, however, he stood out among all the Jewish teachers of his time and changed the lives of some many including ourselves. It is only logical that if we follow Jesus faithfully and imitate him the same fate must befall us.

Dear friends, I want to remind us that there are many attractive things in the world but not all of them are important for salvation. Let each one of us choose wisely today so that our tomorrow may be pleasant.

Have a wise and blessed Sunday.

Fr. Lawrence Muthee, SVD