Wednesday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
In today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches us about the Kingdom of Heaven. As Christians we strive to reach the Kingdom of Heaven. Our hope is in Jesus who tells us that when we die from this world we will be born again into new life, in the kingdom of heaven. We are taught that if we follow Christ’s example and live as He did that we will one day join Him in paradise, in the kingdom. But let’s take that one step further. When we pray the Our Father, the prayer Jesus himself taught us, we are striving for something more. We are striving to bring that illusive, unknown kingdom here on Earth. We are told the Kingdom of Heaven is not only meant for our life after death, but it is our goal to create that Kingdom here and now on Earth.
Unlike a finish line in a race or a 50 yd line in football the Kingdom of Heaven is a more elusive goal. What does it look like? How will we know we’ve achieved it? Jesus gives us two examples today. He tells us that the Kingdom is like a treasure buried in a field. When someone finds it, he buries it again (he protects and preserves it) and then goes and sells everything he has, to buy that field. Interestingly, the kingdom of heaven in this example seemed to surprise the man. We did not know if he was out searching for treasure or just digging in the dirt, but he found it. This tells me we need to stay awake and alert and open to the nudging of God, for we do not know when those glimpses or the Kingdom will appear. The important thing here is what the man does next. Experiencing the peace and joy and goodness of the kingdom he then sold everything else he had to have that treasure. When I imagine this scene unfolding, I picture a person who finds this treasure and instantly experiences a deep, overwhelming peace and joy. He then analyzes his life and removes all that prevents him from experiencing this same peace. May we too look at our lives and rid ourselves of the parts that block us from experiencing Christ’s peace and joy.
Jesus then tells us that the Kingdom is also like a pearl. In this example, the merchant is out actively searching for the perfect pearl. The Kingdom of Heaven can both surprise us and be something we actively seek out. While pearls are beautiful and Jesus’ analogy captures that the Kingdom is a place of beauty, I want to dig a little deeper into the analogy of the pearl. Pearls are formed naturally by mollusks. When an irritant enters the mollusk’s shell the oyster or mussel must stop and deal with this particle that has entered its shell. It then coats the irritant with a special substance called nacre which covers the irritant and after many years transforms it into a beautiful pearl. I wonder if Jesus chose a pearl specifically because he knew that our work creating the kingdom would not be pain free. It will be full of pain and hardship – of irritants. But when we stop and address those irritants, those things that rub us the wrong way and make us uncomfortable, and we take the time to address them and fix them and repair them, we create something truly beautiful. What are those irritants standing in your way of building the kingdom? What are the things you need to take time to address to create the kingdom here on Earth?
Today let us ponder on both the treasure and the pearl of great price. May we prayerfully look at our lives and rid ourselves of all that stands in the way of bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to Earth. May we take our irritants and hardships to God in prayer and ask him to help us transform these into something beautiful for the Lord. Amen.
—AJ Grimm