Wednesday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
What is the one thing that you would give anything to have? As that question stirs your imagination, picture yourself the heroine or hero of an epic treasure hunt. Searching for buried treasure has long been the pursuit of pirates, Old West outlaws, Vikings, and Indiana Jones. Jesus invites us into such an epic quest in today’s Gospel. Let us approach him as our Treasure today and seek to love him above all else with a pure love.
Jesus says to us, “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.” In ancient times, people would bury their valuables for safekeeping if they had to flee persecution or attack. The plan was always to return to reclaim their treasure, but when they were prevented for whatever reason, the buried stash remained. Jesus invites you to imagine yourself stumbling upon a buried treasure of inestimable value. What are you willing to sacrifice to attain it?
Similarly, “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.” What are you searching for in life? What pursuits do you follow in your quest for peace, happiness, security, prosperity, love? I’m picturing the pearl merchant devoting his entire life in an obsessive quest for that elusive prize. “If only I could strike it rich!” he thinks. But at what personal cost? Broken relationships, physical health, mental health . . .
In Jesus’ first example, the person stumbles upon the buried treasure. I’m picturing this one as a person who encounters Jesus for the first time and experiences a powerful conversion. The second example could be any of us – longing, searching, seeking, striving for what we perceive to be an elusive source of wellbeing. We search for something that has been ours all along and tragically we’ve missed it.
Jesus is our treasure. He is our first love, the pearl of greatest price, the answer to every question, the fulfillment of every need. Jesus is our source, our life, our destiny, our salvation. He is our everything. Today, let us ask ourselves, “Is Jesus my everything? Do I treasure him above all else? Is my love for him greater than all my earthly attachments? Have I surrendered my life to him? Is he Lord of every aspect of my life? Have I given myself fully to him?” Jesus is your Bridegroom. Can you look him in the eye today and pledge your full and undying fidelity? Can you let go of fickle, competing attachments that lead you astray and break his heart?
I’m realizing that I need the graces to value and treasure Jesus for his sake and his sake only. If I’m honest, I’ll admit that my love for the Lord is at times a needy and selfish love. I want to grow in deeper intimacy with him because of the benefits that affords me. Isn’t it the same in our personal relationships, too? We look to our spouse or other significant relationships to meet our needs instead of seeking to love them unselfishly. Today I want to love Jesus, my Treasure, with a purer love. I want to love and adore him, to worship him, to glorify him, to give him every part of me unreservedly, nothing held back, with no agenda other than to treasure him.
All epic buried treasure stories have a treasure map that leads to the site where X marks the spot. Jesus our Treasure can be found deep within you, permeating your soul, filling your heart. This buried treasure is in you, it’s in me! The source of our yearning, our longing, our questing, is right here with us. No external search is necessary. We can cease striving and searching and simply rest in him and with him.
The glorious and truly epic aspect of this story is that Jesus our Treasure first treasures us. YOU are the treasure; I am the treasure. Jesus “sold all he had” to purchase us on the Cross. If you’ve ever doubted your worth, doubt no more. “You are not your own; you were bought at a price” (1 Cor. 6:19b-20a). Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit – what a priceless treasure it is to house the Spirit of God!
What is the one thing that you would give anything to have? I pray it is the One who gave his life for you, the one who has loved you before the foundation of the world, the one who calls you his priceless one. Let us seek to love him more purely, more completely today. I offer this beautiful worship song as part of our prayer – “First Love.”
-Elizabeth Wells