17th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME A

The kingdom of heaven is not cheap! It is like a treasure buried in a field,

or a pearl of great price, and it may require all that we have to buy it. It

sounds like a risky undertaking. When a man bets his whole life’s savings on

a business venture, and if he hasn’t made a careful estimate of the risks and

returns, we would call him stupid. What do we risk when we bet everything

on the Lord? And what are the returns that we hope for?

Our Lord calls us to risk everything. There is no relationship, no

possession, no ability, no time, which we are not called to place at his

service. Again and again, he makes it clear to us that this is not a limited

partnership. No, with Christ, we are invited to be totally in, or totally out.

Who is this man who invites us to a business partnership in which we

must risk everything? Is he some enemy, seeking to use us for his own

advantage? No! He is Christ, the Son of God. He is the way, the truth, the

life, and the partnership to which he invites us is a share in his own life. He

calls us to give our passing lives to him, and promises in exchange his gift of

eternal life. He promises to take our miseries in exchange for his happiness.

Christ’s offer is unlike any other offer that we have received. Not only

does he offer infinite riches in place of finite ones, but his offer strikes at the

core of who we are. We may have had times in the past where we said: “If

only I had made this investment or avoided that purchase, how much better

off I would be now!” But, nonetheless, we continue to move along.

No, Christ offers us heaven in exchange for earth, but if we reject his

offer of eternal life, it doesn’t mean that we will retain our earthly life

forever. That will come to its end, and if we have rejected heaven, we may

expect the fiery furnace, where there is weeping and grinding of teeth. We

are made for God. To reject him is to reject the whole purpose of our being.

We might say that Christ has made us an offer that we can’t refuse! How,

then, we accept? Our Lord tells us: “Out of joy, he goes, and sells all that he

has, and buys that field”. Many of the saints have done exactly that: by

giving all that they have to the poor, they have purchased heaven, and

through lives of prayer, fasting, and service, lived heavenly lives upon earth.

In some way, we are called to do the same. God can’t be one of our

priorities: he must be The Priority. Why do we get up in the morning? To

earn any money only? No, actually not: we get up early to serve God. Why

go to work? To praise him through the work of our hands. Why gather in the

company of our friends? To rejoice in the goodness of the Lord, and praise

him for his gifts. Everything that we do can be offered to God, for

everything comes from him.

I invite you to read the Catechism of the Catholic Church, from 2083 to

2109.

Cf. Theodore BOOK, “One thing only”, Homiletic & Pastoral Review 111/9

(June/July 2011), 36-38.