The Pearl of Great Price

The 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today’s Readings: [Click here]

You’ve probably heard it said that the Scriptures are the living word of God. That means that in a mysterious and spiritual way, God speaks to us through the bible—here, now and always. Each time we read Scripture or hear it proclaimed, the Holy Spirit offers us new insights and wisdom to help us grow in love and be drawn closer to God. So like a jewel with many facets, each time we return to God’s word, we can experience its light and beauty in a fresh, radiant way.

In the gospel parable today, Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls, and when he finds one pearl of great price, he goes and sells everything he has and buys it.

I’m sure you’ve heard this allegory many times, and I imagine you think you’ve gotten the main point: Like the merchant, we should sacrifice everything to gain heaven.

Then one day, perhaps it dawns on you—or rather, perhaps God’s living word touches you in a powerful, new way—that maybe you’ve got the message backwards.

Backwards? Listen to the parable again.

It doesn’t say you are like a merchant. It says the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant. In other words, it is God who is like a merchant in search of fine pearls.

Take just a second to absorb that little bit of wisdom. The fine pearls are the people of earth. Like a merchant who loves pearls and wants as many as possible, God loves his people and wants to bring them all into his kingdom.

But what about the price? What does it mean when the story says that the merchant “sold everything”? What does God “sell” to “buy” human beings?

Think for a moment. What is the most valuable thing God has? Ah, yes! That would be his unique child, Jesus. Christ’s life was what God paid to buy humanity. St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “You are not your own; you were bought for a price” (1 Cor 6:19-20).

So, then… that just leaves one last piece of the parable to figure out. What is the one pearl of great price that God would be willing to sell everything for?

That, my friend, would be you! Yes, God considers you the pearl of great value that he would give everything he has in order to win your heart and your love. If ever you have doubts about God’s profound love and care for you, you should make this your mantra: I am a pearl of great price.

So often, though, people forget how very much they are loved and watched over. Bad things happen and they might think God has deserted them. Anxiety, fear, apathy and pain creep in instead. You probably know friends or family members who are struggling with those kinds of issues in their life right now. Is there anything you can do to help them get from their place of pain and need into the loving, healing presence of God?

The answer is: Yes, definitely! Your strength and power to make a difference come from your realization in faith that you are indeed a pearl of great price… that God considers you one of his favorites and is eager to bless you and the ones you care about and pray for. As a pearl of great price, your intercession can have a huge impact on the lives you touch.

Do you remember the story of the paralytic who couldn’t reach Jesus because of the crowds? His friends carried him to the roof of the house, removed the tiles, and lowered him into the room where Jesus was. We’re told that the Lord healed the man because of the faith of his friends!

Each of us can be that same kind of force in the world. You don’t have to be exceptionally smart or clever or skilled. All you need is faith in God and a heart full of love and compassion.

But we human beings often tend to get caught up in external, non-essential things—the form, you might say, rather than the substance. We’re worried about following the rules. We’re worried about what people will think of us. We’re worried about getting our due.

Christ, on the other hand, is concerned with the substance. He was, and is, committed to loving and to relieving human suffering. He’s committed to forgiving sins, to healing broken bodies and spirits, to honoring human faith and trust, to accepting, affirming, and building people up. And he’d sure like us to be just the same.

Hopefully, in a spark of insight, we recognize that we truly are the pearl of great price. That’s when Christ’s way of life becomes our way of life. That’s when we can step out in faith and can make a genuine difference in other people’s lives.

Take to heart the beautiful message of today’s parable. Know and believe that you are God’s pearl of great price. Then go out into the world and act like you really know and believe it.

God’s Clemency

The 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today’s Readings: [Click here]

Back in the early 1800s, a mother approached Napoleon to ask for a pardon for her son. The emperor replied that the young man had committed a certain offense twice and justice demanded that he be put to death.

The boy’s mother begged him, “But I don’t ask for justice. I plead for mercy.”

“But your son does not deserve mercy,” Napoleon answered.

“Sir,” the woman cried, “it would not be mercy if he deserved it, and mercy is all I ask for.”

“Very well, then,” the emperor said. “I will have mercy.” And he spared the woman’s son.

Mercy is a beautiful gift. Maybe it’s the greatest form of love, because it contains kindness, forgiveness, compassion, gentleness, leniency all rolled into one… and it’s offered to someone who doesn’t deserve it.

And when the person who extends mercy is the one who has a duty to mete out punishment—like a judge, or the president, or a governor, for example—that mercy has a special name: clemency.

This is the very word we hear about God in our first reading today from the Book of Wisdom. No matter how much we may be deserving of punishment, God cherishes us so much that he offers us clemency—mercy, leniency and forgiveness—instead.

Jesus repeats that message in his parable. He says that in the world, there are people who do good—the wheat—and people who do bad—the weeds. Don’t pull out the weeds, he says. Let them grow side-by-side with the wheat. Maybe the weeds will become wheat.

What?! Weeds become wheat?

Sure, why not? If bread can become Jesus… if sinners can repent… if all things are possible with God, then I repeat: why not?

If this alone weren’t good enough news, look at the next little piece of the puzzle that Paul adds in his letter to the Romans. He says that because we are trapped in our weakness, lots of times we don’t even know how to pray for God’s mercy or for repentance. We may not even know that we need to pray! Paul writes, But the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings. In other words, God even supplies the asking and the praying part for us!

Let this amazing message—this amazing reality—sink in for a moment.

Try to remember it the next time somebody does something awful and you wonder, “How can that rotten so-and-so get away with this? Why doesn’t God teach him a lesson?”

Even better, try to remember it the next time you are plagued with guilt or self-recrimination over something in your own life. God is carrying you and working to lift you out of the mess.

God’s breathtaking patience and gentleness towards us should lead us to some powerful conclusions about our own life of faith.

For one thing, we should be filled to the brim with hope. No matter what I have done, or am doing, in my life… no matter how unfortunate, sinful, degrading, hurtful… God still loves me, has mercy and compassion on me, and is not only willing but eager to forgive me and draw me back to himself… even if he himself has to supply the prayers. Maybe all I need to do to start is not to fight him! Not to put on the brakes and say no. But simply let the Holy Spirit penetrate my heart and gently redirect me. This hope says that nothing is hopeless… nothing at all is beyond fixing. With God, all things are possible…

A second powerful lesson is that we simply cannot and must not judge or condemn other people. How dare I be the recipient of God’s clemency—maybe without my even realizing how much!—and then turn around and have the unmitigated gall to believe that another of God’s children shouldn’t be treated with the same divine compassion? If you want a humbling exercise, go through your mind and think about your own personal prejudices against individuals or entire groups of fellow human beings. God is certainly merciful towards them. Why won’t I be?

Still a third important thing to learn is that God may want to use you to bring people to him. If you are cold, judgmental, standoffish or snide, I won’t want to have anything to do with you. But if you are kind, gentle, smiling, welcoming and forgiving—well, of course I’ll want to know you… and be your friend… and listen to you… and learn from you… and meet your God who helps you be a loving, peace-filled person… because I want to be like that, too. You see?

Most of you sitting in these pews are farmers or gardeners. You understand that by properly working the earth, you can produce a bountiful harvest. God is doing the same. His tools are love, mercy, clemency, leniency, forgiveness, patience… and us, his precious children who double as his farm implements.

May we be filled with awe and hope at his profound goodness and compassion… and may we learn from him and his Son.

Discern and Be Brave

The 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today’s Readings: [Click here]

Over the long Fourth of July weekend, I was down in Louisville. One of the places we visited was Marengo Cave in nearby southern Indiana. During the cave tour, I learned that back in 1883, a 15-year-old girl named Blanche, and her 11-year-old brother named Orris, discovered a sinkhole in the back woods of a neighbor’s property, and they decided to explore it. Taking just a couple of candles, they slid through the opening—and then found themselves in a breathtaking underground world of passageways, stalactites, stalagmites and all kinds of other wonders of nature. If they hadn’t spotted that hole in the ground, they never would have made their exciting discovery.

In today’s gospel passage, Jesus tells a parable about a sower who scatters seed on the ground. He describes how some of the seed sprang up and died quickly because there was no soil for it to take root in… how some didn’t make it at all because the surrounding tangle of weeds choked it out… and how some grew in abundance—a hundred, sixty or thirtyfold—because the ground was so rich and life-giving.

This parable illustrates some interesting things about God. It shows us that he sows indiscriminately. Just the way the sower scattered his seed all over the place, so God reaches out to all people. It also teaches us that the Lord offers everyone an abundant, extravagant, fruitful life if they are willing to remain in a relationship with him.

It is easy to hear this story and quickly conclude that people fall into one of these three types—either I’m an A or a B or a C—which, in turn, determines how well the word of God will take root in my life. For example, we might meet someone who has a close call in life, decides to clean up their act, starts praying and going to church… but before too long, the fervor dies out and they’re back to their old tricks. Ah. A classic type A, right?

Actually, I think there’s a better, more exciting and more hope-filled message in this parable. Jesus also urges people to have “understanding” or discerning “ears.” The story reminds us how crucial it is to pay attention to what God is like and how he acts. You might picture it this way: even though the ground surface may not be hospitable to seeds because it’s all rocky or covered over with weeds, underneath, the soil is rich all over. It’s our job, then, to find a way to reach the good layer.

Blanche and Orris found the hidden passageway into the cave first, because they were very observant, and second, because they were willing to be brave enough to risk trying something new. Isn’t that a great metaphor for our own approach to life?

Lots of times, our sense of observation is not so great. Instead of being attentive and vigilant as Jesus exhorts us to be, we filter out and exclude people and situations that may not be comfortable for us. If we’re always going over the same, familiar ground with the same, tired eyes, we’ll never find that entranceway in plain view to take us into a glorious new world.

Or, even if we do happen to stumble upon our special new gateway, we may not be bold or energetic enough to try it out. It can be so much easier to stick with the tried and true, and simply hold ourselves in check when it comes to considering a new viewpoint or attitude or approach in life.

As always, it is good to remember that Jesus’ “good news” messages are meant for everybody. He never asks us to do something or be something or even feel something that’s impossible. In other words, we all have everything it takes to find our own way to that rich soil and that life of joyful abundance.

So, then: what must we do to get from here to there?

First, we’ve got to perk up our eyes of understanding and our ears of discernment. Often this just means consciously paying attention to a lot of the stuff we typically do on autopilot. Soon after I began this parish assignment, I got a speeding ticket driving through Homer. I learned that the speed limit is 30 and they mean it. Really mean it. So instead of just driving “reasonably,” now I keep my eye glued to the speedometer.

In the same way, we have familiar ways of looking at people and hearing what they say—or ignoring them or tuning them out. Jesus asks us to turn off those spam filters. We comfortably accept or reject various viewpoints or political judgments about social or economic matters, but again, Jesus reminds us not to be too quick to see things as black or white.

Secondly, besides training ourselves to be more observant, we’ve also got to be courageous enough to be more loving and accepting. Jesus mixed not just with the good people, but also with the outcasts: people with contagious diseases… people who made other people very uncomfortable—like beggars and disabled folks and the mentally-challenged… and of course every other kind of social pariah: thieves, tax collectors, prostitutes and adulterers… you name it. Don’t think for a second that it doesn’t take a lot of guts to buck the tide of society—and even of the church!—to be as loving and welcoming as Jesus was.

But I promise you this: if you are willing to step out in faith as this parable of the sower urges us to, you are most definitely on the path to a life of abundance… to a life where you will be rewarded a hundred, sixty or thirtyfold for your effort.

Begin by praying today for Christ’s light to help you discern… and his faith to help you be valiant and brave. And may you always be blessed on your journey.