Picture the classic movie scene…two lovers rushing toward each other across a field, running with arms outstretched to the moment of embrace…totally unaware of anything else around them. They are focused on only one another. Nothing else matters. Finally they reach each other and joyfully embrace!
Perhaps you have experienced such a moment in your lives. If so, you know the joy that Jesus is attempting to convey with these parables. Nothing else matters so long as I can have the one thing that I value most in life. Such was the case for the farmer and the pearl merchant. Having found the treasure they were seeking, they did whatever they could to be certain that the treasure they found would be theirs.
As with any parable, Jesus is speaking about us. A priest once shared with me on retreat his observation that Jesus was the finder and we are the treasure he wants so badly that he gave up everything he had, including his life on the cross, to insure that we would be forever his.
We are often assured that God loves us unconditionally. When we begin to believe that claim, we will see how much God values us. Anytime we doubt that love, all we need to do is gaze at a crucifix. Jesus could have avoided the cruelest manner of death ever devised had he been more concerned about himself than us, but divine love prevailed. Even in the garden when he knew that he was about to be arrested, he did not waiver in his pursuit of what really mattered to him, sharing God’s gift of salvation with all would come to believe in him.
Nothing was about to stop Jesus from running with arms outstretched toward his loved ones, namely all humanity predestined by God as Paul reminds us in his letter. Are we running toward him with as much focus and love or are we too distracted by so much else going on in our lives?
Being distracted in our relationship with God is not uncommon. That is something many of us contend with daily. Even in the early church that was a challenge. A young monk once asked one of the early desert fathers why so many people came out to the desert to seek God yet most of them gave up after a time and returned to their old ways in the city.
The old monk told him, “Last evening, my dog saw a rabbit running for cover among the bushes of the desert and he began to chase the rabbit, barking loudly. Soon other dogs joined in the chase, barking and running. They ran a great distance and alerted many other dogs. Soon the wilderness was echoing the sounds of their pursuit but the chase went on into the night.
“After awhile, many of the dogs drew tired and dropped out. A few chased the rabbit until the night was nearly over. By morning, only my dog continued the hunt. Do you understand,” the old monk asked, “what I have told you?”
“Not really,” replied the young monk, “Please tell me.” “It is simple,” said the desert father. “My dog saw the rabbit.”
Have we seen for ourselves the immense love Jesus has for us or are we in pursuit of something we have yet to see? If we have yet to see that Jesus truly loves us, then like the dogs on that nocturnal rabbit chase, we could sooner or later lose interest and drop out of the pursuit, which is what many fellow Catholics have done. Ideally, if we have truly seen the treasure that Jesus is, for example, in the Eucharist, then nothing would detract us from embracing him and all that he stands for and all that he calls us to be.
Being human, the devil continually distracts us from seeing all that Jesus is by so many other things in life that command our attention. Through out the day, we select what we think of as treasures. What we choose reflects what we value in life. If our awareness of Jesus is an intellectual one instead of one rooted in our hearts, then we are not so likely to value our relationship with him, much less the wisdom he brings. How readily we value Jesus becomes evident in the ways we live out our faith. The more we do, the more we want to be with him in prayer.
“Ask something of me and I will give it to you,” the Lord promised Solomon, who then asked for an understanding heart to judge his people and distinguish right from wrong. That meant more to Solomon than a long life or riches. Because he asked for wisdom rather than anything for himself, God granted his request. What would our response be if God posed the same question to us? Would we also ask for wisdom? Lew Wallace, the author of Ben Hur, once said, “Pure wisdom always directs itself toward God; the purest wisdom is knowledge of God.”
If the pursuit of the kingdom of heaven is our top priority in life, then we need to seek the wisdom for placing God first in our lives. We begin by asking if we are grateful for what God has given us. if we are, then we would cherish what we have. We wouldn’t be envious, that is, distracted by what we don’t have, nor would we take for granted all that we do have. In turn, our gratitude should prompt us to share what we have, just as Jesus shared all that he is.
Like the old man in the desert, Jesus asks us, “Do you understand all these things?” Hopefully we do. When we see for ourselves how much God embraces us with love, we will know that nothing can keep us from demonstrating our love in return. When we seek to embrace God with all our love, we will be blessed with the wisdom to seek that what really matters in this lifetime: the kingdom of heaven and the life yet to come: embracing his son and his good news as any disciple would, with undivided attention.