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| "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field ..." |
(Seventeenth Sunday of the Year (A): This homily was given
on July 27, 2014 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Seventeenth Sunday 2014]
How much do you
treasure “The Treasure”?
Jesus says to us in today’s gospel, “The kingdom of heaven
is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and
out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”
Here, of course, we need to make a very important distinction. The distinction is between the value of a
treasure, and the value a particular
person puts on that treasure.
Those are two very different things.
A treasure might be very valuable in and of itself—that is
to say, it might be worth a great deal (objectively speaking)—however that
treasure might not be worth very much to you on a personal level. For example, if you had 2 $100 Red Sox
tickets with you today and you said to me, “Fr. Ray, would you like to buy
them?” I might say yes—IF this were the summer of 2013; since in the summer of
2013 Red Sox tickets, in my mind, were actually worth something.
But, as we all know, this is the summer of 2014, and this
summer, in my humble opinion at least, Red Sox tickets aren’t worth the value
of the paper they’re printed on!
I say that with great sadness in my heart as a Red Sox fan.
Now some of you might disagree with my assessment of the
value of Red Sox tickets in 2014, and that’s fine. In fact, that kind of disagreement is to be
expected, because, as I indicated a few moments ago, there can be (and very
often is) a big difference between the objective
value of a treasure, and the value that you and I, as individuals, put on that treasure.
And so it is with the kingdom of God. In its fullness, the kingdom of God will be
present only in heaven. But, as Pope
Benedict says in one of his books, the kingdom of God is already present to
some extent whenever and wherever Jesus Christ is enthroned as Lord. Or, to put it another way, the kingdom of God
is present whenever and wherever Jesus
Christ rules!
So, to the extent that Jesus is ruling our thoughts, words
and actions—to the extent, in other words, that we place a high value on “The Treasure”
that is Jesus Christ and his Gospel—to that extent the kingdom of God is
already present “in us” (as Jesus himself indicated in Luke 17: 21).
But some people, sad to say, won’t like it when the kingdom
manifests itself in this way! And this
is something we need to be prepared for.
If we really treasure “The Treasure” by taking our Catholic faith
seriously and trying to live it, we will face opposition.
And sometimes the opposition will come from other Christians
who should treasure “The Treasure” as much as we do—but who don’t!
This came home to me in a powerful way a couple of weeks ago
when a woman I know sent me the following email about her recent experience at
work. Now before I read it to you let me
say that this woman is one of the kindest people I know. She is quiet and respectful and what most
people would call “a very good person.”
But here’s what she said in her letter:
Fr.
Ray,
I had
my yearly evaluation at work this week. … At the end there is always a question
where the supervisor has to identify a weakness that the employee will have to
improve on before the next year’s evaluation.
Fair enough … we all have weaknesses.
[Well]
I was blindsided by what my boss identified as my areas of weakness. He told me that my “Catholic values and high
morals” were my weaknesses. He said many
of my values are “opposed” with those of other employees.
What???
[Her boss, by the way, is Catholic and
active in his parish!]
I
pressed the issue with him and ended up having three meetings with him and our
Assistant Program Director to get these off the “weakness” category, because I
wasn’t going to sign it with those listed as weaknesses. Their points, to be honest, were really off
the mark and I pointed out their errors to them. However, they stuck to their opinions and
disagreed with me.
They
eventually conceded and took them off the weakness list, but it seems that I am
going to be under observation and I should ”take care” not to proselytize
(which I don’t do anyway. Just being a
Catholic these days is suspect, isn’t it?)
You
know in Scripture how it says they will “drag you into court”? Well, that is what it felt like. I had to defend myself and my basic rights in
the workplace. I am not an “in your face
Catholic” at work, and I am very accepting of everyone else at work—including
their beliefs or lack of any beliefs at all.
However my beliefs, values and morals are routinely stepped on without
me saying anything in response (most of the time—sometimes there is no choice
but to respond).
At
the end my boss said, “Well, it’s not that your Catholic values and high morals
are necessarily bad things, it’s just that they are opposed to many of the
values here. …”
I
remember a time in any workplace when it used to be a good thing to have “high
morals.”
For the record, I think this woman handled the situation
very well. There are definitely times when
God calls us to turn the other cheek when we’ve been offended, but there are other
times when his will for us does
include some legitimate self-defense (we learn that from the example of Jesus
himself in the gospels, as I mentioned in a homily I gave several months ago).
This, I would say, was one of those situations that called
for the latter—for some legitimate, verbal self-defense—and I give this woman
credit for doing it very respectfully.
I’m not sure that I would have been so nice.
I probably would have said to the boss, “WOULD YOU BE
HAPPIER, SIR, IF I WERE A THIEF OR AN AXE MURDERER?!!! WOULD YOU LIKE THAT? WOULD THAT GET ME A RAISE AND A BIG PROMOTION?!!! WOULD THAT MAKE ME YOUR ‘EMPLOYEE OF THE
MONTH’?!!!”
And then I’d have to go to confession for losing my temper!
How much do you
treasure “The Treasure”?
As much as this woman does?
Do you treasure it enough to be willing to suffer an unjust
evaluation at work like she did? Or to
lose out on a promotion at work that you rightly deserve?
Do you treasure it enough to stand up for what’s right in
school when almost all of your classmates are voicing their support for what’s
wrong?
Do you treasure it enough to be willing to lose a few
friends, or to endure some opposition from members of your own family?
Do you treasure it enough to be willing to be called names
(names that you don’t deserve to be called: “bigot”; “homophobe”; “narrow-minded”;
“anti-woman”; “anti-American”)?
Hear, once again, the words of Jesus: “The kingdom of heaven
is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and
out of joy goes and sells all that he has
and buys that field.”
Before I close I think it’s important to note that there
have been many Christians in recent decades who have lived this message of
Jesus in its ULTIMATE SENSE! They have
“sold all that they’ve had” in the sense that they have literally given up
their physical lives for the Lord and his Gospel. You know, many people think that the majority
of Christian martyrs died way back in the first century at the hands of Roman
emperors like Nero. But that’s not true! The truth is that there were more martyrs for
Jesus Christ in the 20th century than there were in the previous 19
centuries of Christian history COMBINED!!!
These martyrs treasured “The Treasure” with their whole
heart—and they lived their lives accordingly.
May Almighty God help each and every one of us to do the
same.
