July 27, 2014

17^th Sunday in Ordinary Time A

1 Kings 3: 5, 7-12; Romans 8:28-30; Matthew 13:44-52
Today’s Gospel continues the theme of Jesus on the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God…reign of God…from last week. It’s good to start with a question…what is of most importance to me, right now? It is not the same question as…if my house was on fire what would I save? Sometimes I want to look at it in that way. Maybe it’s better to view this reading by asking myself, ‘What is the good that God sees in me?’ ‘Where is God so proud of me?’ ‘What has happened recently in my life that God just wants to give me a big thanks and hug? I think most people would shy away from these questions…I want to. Yet God placed each person in this life, at a specific time with love and has ‘love missions’ for that person to accomplish. When we do, how could God be anything less than totally grateful?
So in looking at these questions I have to look at today’s passages in a different light. If God is calling me for these ‘love missions’ then He is also gifting me with the necessary ‘tools’ so that I can accomplish these missions. The purpose of all these missions is to bring people closer to God and the place in heaven God has prepared for each one. If I realize this, I have to at the same time look at this ‘goal’ that is heaven and ask myself, ‘What is the Kingdom of Heaven worth to me? What is the Kingdom of God worth to me?

I like the way Living the Word explains this today. “Throughout our lives we engage usually subconsciously, in cost-benefit analyses, trying to balance cost and risk on the one hand with the potential gains on the others. This might seem a somewhat cold-hearted approach to take toward faith, but Jesus’ parables in today’s Gospel seem to imply that if we reflect on the matter we ought to see that gaining the kingdom of heaven is worth any cost, worth any risk.

The great seventeenth-century mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal is famous for his ‘wager’ regarding religious faith. He said that if we weigh the potential benefit of faith (gaining eternal life) against the cost (a life of religious devotion) and the risk (being wrong and there being no eternal life), it seem perfectly reasonable to have faith. This is not, of course, meant to be any sort of proof of the truth of religious faith. Rather, Pascal’s point is the same one made in today’s parables: the kingdom of heaven is something of such surpassing good that even the slightest chance of it being real should make us willing to surrender everything we have in order to gain it. Faith in an uncertainty is a small price to pay for the promise of eternal life.

But even we who are believers, who have made the risky choice for faith, sometimes undervalue the gift of God’s kingdom. Unlike Solomon in our first reading, we seek a long life or wealth or power over others rather than the pearl of great price, which is the wisdom of God’s kingdom. Reflecting, as Pascal did, on the infinite value of what God offers us in the kingdom ought to lead us to live wholeheartedly for God.”
It’s good to look at the 1^st & 2^nd Book of Kings which give the accounts of the rise and fall of kingship among God’s people. In today’s reading, Solomon is presented as the model for what a good king is to be. God invites him to ask for anything he wants. What an invitation…what would I ask for under similar circumstances. I would consider what I would need more than anything else…naturally it would be something I already don’t have…or have in a very small amount. So what would I ask God for? Initially I would be a little worried, I wouldn’t want to offend God. This brings in my fear and has nothing to do with the ‘love missions’ God entrusts to each person. So what would I ask for…I have to reflect deep and long on this and then reread today’s first reading? Solomon starts off by outlining the blessings and gifts he has already received. Now God gave Solomon the throne of his father David. He wasn’t the oldest son nor the most experienced. The kingdom is composed of a vast number of people scattered all over. Solomon therefore asks for the one thing that will help him hold onto the kingdom and to rule the people…he asked for an understanding heart so as to distinguish right from wrong. Would I ask for the same thing? Would I be that unselfish in my asking? This is a good reflection for me.
Paul is sharing that God has a plan for the whole process of salvation. God knew forever that He would send Jesus to show the way and to restore the true image of God in those who believe. Jesus lived and showed love and this love implies a definite foretaste of future glory. God is constantly loving and Paul says that those who love God are filled with the Holy Spirit and His gifts which enable each to have a new outlook and mind-set on life. So I trust in God and God’s way, not in what the world ‘pleases’ me with. I was made for heaven and it is a journey of love and pain in arriving at my destination. To attain that goal, God is making me over and each person over to be like Christ. In doing this I realize that is what I was created to be. I discover this the more I discover love and experience God’s daily love.
This must be my constant reflection and challenge to engage my focus on God and why I am here. Connections says it this way, The parables Jesus tells in today’s Gospel challenges us in the same way to engage our attention on the things of God and not be caught up with the lesser, ephemeral things of the world. The ‘treasures’ and ‘pearls’ of God are not found in the things of the earth but in the values of heaven: love, justice, mercy, peace. True wisdom begins with tirelessly seeking such treasures that our lives maybe enriched by the things of God.”
So I reflect on:

• If I was offered wisdom or money right now, which would I take? Why?
  
• What would my life be like today if I had more wisdom or more money?
  
• So I look at the things that I value most? What am I willing to risk in order to have those things? Do the possession of them enable me to be more gifted for my ‘love missions?’
  
• Where is God in my priorities, in my life today?
  
• Am I a constant reader and believer in God’s word in Scripture? Do I let God be God to me?
  
• Does God look at me and see all the treasures He has blessed me with and wonder when I’m going to discover them?
  

The opening passage for the week in Sacred Space 2014 is special: “Building God’s Family, Some years ago, a Dublin family decided to bring a child home from the local orphanage for Christmas day. When the father arrived, a small girl was waiting for him. ‘Are you all set?’ he asked. “No,’ she said fiercely, ‘I won’t come without my little brother!’ So he negotiated that, and the siblings had a great day. The family loved them so much that they adopted both.

Ruth Burrows uses the image of an orphanage to highlight the relationship that exists between God and us. A couple might run an orphanage, she says, and devote themselves daily to their charges. Perhaps they spare themselves nothing in their love and care. Yet, when each day is done, the couple retires to their private family life with their own children, delegating the orphans to the good care of someone else. The orphans get to know where they live and the fun they have together, their holidays, their friends, their birthday celebrations. But from this private life they are excluded.

Not so with God, Ruth Burrows insists. God has no hidden private life to which we have no access. We are brought into God’s family circle; we are His beloved children. God shares everything with us. Hence Jesus’ promise: ‘I will not leave you orphans’ and His request: ‘Father, I want those you have given me to be where I am.’ We are family! We are God’s family!