Pearls of Wisdom – 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A

John Steinbeck wrote a novel entitled “The Pearl” in which a poor family in Mexico has a child who was bitten by a scorpion.  Without proper treatment the child would die, and the family lacked the funds to pay for the medical care.  The father of the child goes out to shore to seek for a pearl in order to pay for his child’s medical care, and in that search he comes upon a rare pearl of great price.  Thinking that this pearl could lift them out of their poverty, he goes to various pearl merchants seeking the highest price.  The pearl merchants, however, are in collusion with one another, and are deliberately driving the price low.

Realizing this injustice is being done to him, the father decides to trek to Mexico City in order to sell the pearl there, taking with him his wife and child.  The pearl merchants pursue them, and in the chase the little child is killed by the pearl merchants.  Devastated, the parents return to their village and the father throws the pearl into the sea.

The point of the novel is similar to the readings for this Sunday.  What is the pearl of great price in our lives?  The father realizes that it is his child, and not the pearl itself, that is the real pearl.   In the first reading today, God asks Solomon to request the pearl of his life, and Solomon chose rightly:  “Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong.”  At our baptism when we are anointed as a kingly people God asks each one of us through His Church to make a similar request.  Like Solomon, we need a similar wisdom to govern our own lives and to assist in guiding the lives of others with this gift of rightly distinguishing right from wrong.

It is at baptism that God first calls us to Himself, and we might often wonder for what we are called to be.  Paul answers that question for us in the second reading.  He reminds us that we are called “to be conformed to the image of his Son.”  Whenever we want to know what is right and wrong in our lives, we go to Jesus and see in His life and message what it is we ought to do in our mission.  What was the great pearl in Jesus’ life?  It was to do the will of His Father, something for which he prayed daily.  If we seek the pearl of great price and desire to be conformed to the image of Jesus, this too must be our goal – to do the will of God and seek it each day.

Very often the images Jesus gives for the kingdom of God are passive, i.e. they are images of gifts freely given by God for us.  Today, however, Jesus shows us the other side of the kingdom – that it is something for which we must actively seek in our lives.  The kingdom is a great treasure, a pearl of great price for which we desire and strive towards.  And yet we realize that the images of the kingdom are not exact analogies.  We often desire and love riches for what they can bring us; that is, they are often a means to another end.  The kingdom of God, however, is not a means to an end.  The kingdom is the end for which we strive.  We cannot use it for any other purpose; it is not a means to some other goal.  The kingdom is the end and goal of our lives.

Where is this pearl, this kingdom, located?  Jesus has told us that it is in our midst.  It is not some far distant place well removed from our daily lives.  The kingdom exists already in our midst, within each one of us.  If we are temples of the Holy Spirit as we believe, then God dwells among us and the kingdom is here both in our individual lives and in our communal lives as the People of God.  We often cling to very important things that help us in our relationship to God and in coming to realize the kingdom, but Jesus reminds us that only one thing is necessary.  Everything was taken away from Jesus – all earthly helps and consolations – and yet He showed us through His death and resurrection the one thing necessary:  God alone. 

When trials and struggles come to our lives as they come to every life, they are a reminder that one thing alone is necessary:  God is the pearl of great price and nothing else.  It is a lesson we often do not want to hear, for we are attached to many things in our lives.  As we strive for this pearl, for God alone, we come together to pray:  “God our Father, open our eyes to see your hand at work in the splendor of creation, in the beauty of human life.  Touched by your hand our world is holy.  Help us to cherish the gifts that surround us, to share your blessings with our brothers and sisters, and to experience the joy of life in your presence.  We ask this through Christ our Lord.  Amen.”

Let It Rain

Let It Rain – 15^th Week in Ordinary Time

Mount of the Beatitudes

One day a boy was walking along the seashore and came upon thousands of starfish that had washed ashore by the tide.  Knowing that they would die unless returned to the water, the boy calmly walked along and began tossing starfish back into the ocean.  An old man saw the boy and came up to him to say, “Boy, you can’t possibly save all the starfish.  Why bother?  What does it matter?”  The boy picked up another starfish, tossed it into the ocean, and replied, “It matters to that one.”  Today’s readings ask us to reflect upon the word of God and its effect in our lives.

In the first reading today we find the prophetic message of Isaiah providing us with an incredible message of hope.  God’s word comes down to earth like the rainfall, and it will achieve the end for which it is sent.  What is that end?  It is the salvation of the entire human race.  God wills and desires that every single person will find salvation in Him.  What is more, God works untiringly in each person’s life in order to help achieve the salvation God desires for us.

However, there is one item in the universe that the omnipotent God cannot control, and that is the free will of human persons.  God gave us this free will because our love is the most important gift we can give to God.  If our wills were not free we could not freely love and thus the gift we offer to God would be something other than a gift freely given.  This freedom also means that we have the ability to choose against God and to reject His love for us.  Radical freedom means that we have the consequence of evil that arises from the misuse of our human choice. 

Herein we find the understanding we need to have of Jesus’ teaching in the Gospel text today.  God freely gives generously and abundantly the seed – the word of God – in the soil of our lives.  The condition of our soil is not predetermined, but rather it is the result of how we have cared for that soil of our lives.  Is our soil fertile and open to God’s will, or is it shallow or thorny or some other condition that we have created preventing God’s word from taking hold in our lives?

We often blame God for our lack of sanctity and peace, but if we stop to examine our lives more closely we realize that we ourselves made this soil of our lives the way in which it is.  Yes, bad things to happen to us that come from outside of ourselves.  Other people perform wicked deeds to us that cause us great harm and pain.  We do, however, have a choice in how we respond to the evil done to us by others.  We cannot allow the bad soil of another’s life affect our own soil. 

If we realize that our soil is not what it should be, we have recourse to God, the master of the vineyard, who can cleanse our soil and work with us to make it fertile ground again for His word to take root in our lives.  We are not predestined to having bad soil; we cannot be content with the condition of our soil if it be less than what it ought to be.  Tools and resources exist for us to cultivate our soil to make it a flourishing garden. 

Like the boy in the story of the starfish, we cannot despair of the magnitude of the project.  Instead, we must go about our lives doing whatever good we are able, knowing that it does matter to those with whom we come in contact.  We cannot allow the pessimism of others to detract us from the fundamental mission we have in caring for others and providing good soil for ourselves and for others.  The boy stayed true to his mission and helped as many starfish as he could.  We can do no less as we live out the calling God has for each of us, realizing that while the boy could not save every starfish, God can save every human soul – whether it be in this present life or in the life to come.  Purgatory is a reality of our faith, and how it works is known only to God.  It may be that a great many people are there at God’s will finding salvation that both we and they thought not possible.

As we gather once again to seek nourishment in our Christian mission, we pray for the ongoing strength we need in cultivating our soil and being faithful to our mission of service to others.  “Father, let the light of your truth guide us to your kingdom through a world filled with lights contrary to your own.  Christian is the name and the gospel we glory in.  May your love make us what you have called us to be.  We ask this through Christ our Lord.  Amen.”

Manna in the Desert - Corpus Christi

Manna in the Desert – Corpus Christi

Side Chapel - Church of Mary's Nativity, Nazareth

Whenever we leave loved ones for an extended period of time, it is customary for us to give them a memento that reminds them of our love and presence in their lives.  This token item is very often a picture or some object that reminds others of us.  In some way the object makes them present to us – their memory, what they mean to us, and the love we share from afar.  Today’s feast and readings reflect this theme in many ways.

While journeying in the desert the Israelites feared that they would suffer starvation and thirst.  In response to this need, God sent them manna each day.  Not only did the manna provide the people with the necessary nourishment for each day, but also it represented a pledge of God’s presence and care for his people in their pilgrimage to new life in a new land.  For this reason the people of Israel placed manna in the Ark of the Covenant alongside Aaron’s staff and the tablets of the Law.  These objects were mementos – reminders – of God’s love for His people, and they became God’s very presence on earth as the shekinah of the Ark. 

In reminding the people of Israel of the manna, Moses stated, “He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger, and then fed you with manna, a food unknown to you and your fathers, in order to show you that not by bread alone does one live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.”  The Lord Jesus will use these very words to rebuke Satan during his own temptations in the desert.  Jesus’ complete and total dependence on God during these trials in the desert stand in contrast to the grumblings of Israel during the Exodus. 

We hear echoes of this grumbling in the Gospel text.  Jesus had multiplied loaves and fishes to provide for the people in the wilderness.  This good deed is met with a large crowd who follows Jesus about the area, demanding that they have this bread always, just as their ancestors who had manna in the desert.  Jesus, however, connects the Exodus event with His own experience in the desert.  He would not give them physical bread, but His own presence will be His pledge to us.  We will survive our journey in the wilderness and desert not with physical food, but with the presence of Christ in our midst.  For His presence will sustain us against the temptations of Satan in the desert as we journey to new life in a new land. 

This feast of Corpus Christi reminds us that we are to become what we eat.  God had pledged his presence and care for Israel with the manna in the desert.  The Lord Jesus pledged His very life as His presence and care for us in the Eucharist.  Every time we celebrate the Eucharist we are reminded of His saving words and deeds, and His very presence comes among us just as the shekinah of God descended among His people in the symbol of the Ark of the Covenant.  God cared for His people in real and concrete actions.  The Lord Jesus cared for people in real and concrete actions.  Our participation in the Eucharist reminds us that we must do likewise – to become Eucharist for others and to care for them in real and concrete situations.

The act of God in Exodus was an act of providing food for a hungry people.  The act of Jesus in the multiplication of the loaves and fishes was also an act of providing food for a hungry people – an act that becomes the criterion by which we are to be judged on the final day (cf. Matthew 25).  Participation at the table of the Lord should then lead us to this divine act of providing food to a hungry people in real and concrete acts.  The Eucharist and care for the poor represent a fundamental truth and obligation of the Christian life.  We cannot pledge faith in the Eucharist if we fail to carry out its obligation to us in the Christian life, nor can we separate our care for others from our sacramental and spiritual life. 

As we discern how we might live out this Eucharistic reality and obligation of care for others in our own life, we gather together around the table of the Lord to be inspired once again to the live the life of God in being His presence and care for others in the world.  And we pray together for God’s continual help to live this life more worthily:  “Let us pray for the willingness to make present in our world the love of Christ shown to us in the Eucharist.  Lord Jesus Christ, we worship you living among us in the sacrament of your body and blood.  May we offer to our Father in heaven a solemn pledge of undivided love.  May we offer to our brothers and sisters a life poured out in loving service of that kingdom where you live with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.”