Seizing the Treasure, 17th Sunday (A), July 26, 2020

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Sacred Heart Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A
July 26, 2020
1Kings 3:5.7-12, Ps 119, Rom 8:28-30, Mt 13:44-46

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

The following text guided today’s homily: 

• While I was a seminarian in Rome working as a guide to the necropolis underneath St. Peter’s Basilica where St. Peter’s tomb and bones were unearthed in the 1940s, I was asked to give a special private tour to a couple from Houston, George and Annette. George’s father, George Sr., had financed the excavations. After the tour, I was able to join them for a meal and talk to them about what his father had told him about the excavations, something that led to a conversation about his dad and how he had gotten his start. It was a gripping story that illustrates not only in a pristine form what the American dream is all about, but also showcases the chief lessons Jesus is teaching us in today’s Gospel parables.
• George, Sr., was orphaned at age 7 in St. Louis. He worked super hard in school in order to get a scholarship to study at a good university. After college, he served during World War I in the Army Air Corp and, after the war went to Mexico and Cuba to work in and learn the oil business. In 1929, the year of the great depression, he went to Houston, where his wife Susan was from, with very little money but a lot of hope to fix that situation. He had learned during his time in Tampico (Mexico) and Havana the types of surface formations that increase the odds of finding oil underneath. So he began to drive up and down the back roads of East Texas in search of these formations. Most nights he would come back with a search as empty as his gas tank. He did this for almost a whole year, until one day, following a creek bed outside a town called Conroe, he spotted a formation like the one for which he had been looking. At great risk to his family, he sold basically all they had to obtain the land. The risk paid off. Eventually two wells were struck and he became over time one of the wealthiest oilmen in Texas — and with his family, great philanthropists to various good Catholic causes.
• George, Sr., made millions during the Great Depression, at a time when, obviously, so many others were struggling to survive or losing all that they had. Some might say that he was just lucky, in the right place at the right time. There’s no denying that he did have some good fortune — for example, his being in born in the age of automobiles that he could take to survey land, his wife’s being from Houston rather than some oil-barren location, and so on — but to a large degree he made his luck by excelling in three things: first, he had a hunger for a finding a treasure that could help him not only to support his family but to do great good with his life; second, a recognition of what would lead to that treasure, as he scoured back road and creek beds; and third, a willingness to sacrifice all he had to obtain that treasure.
• Jesus is saying that Christians need the same three virtues in today’s twin parables of the treasure buried in a field and the pearl of great price. The parables are simple enough to understand. The first is of a poor peasant finding a buried treasure in the midst of his work in the field. There were no real banks in ancient Palestine. People would often bury things of value in secret locations in fields. There was also no sense of “finders keepers, losers weepers”; whatever was discovered in a field belonged not to the discoverer but the owner because the land was essentially his bank. That’s why the peasant needed to buy the field. It’s quite obvious that the one selling had no idea that an ancient treasure was buried on his property. He didn’t place the same value in the field as much as his laborer did. For the peasant, selling all he said in order to get the money to buy the field was nothing compared to what he knew he would be gaining. The second parable is of a wealthy merchant searching for precious pearls, going from place to place in pursuit of something truly valuable and beautiful. Finally he found the pearl of his dreams, whose worth was unsurpassable, but whose owner valued it less than the money and property he would get in exchange. And so the wealthy merchant sold all that he had before, doubtless houses, gems and other valuables, to obtain that pearl of great price.
• The spiritual lessons we’re called to draw from these parables parallel the virtues we see in the story of George, Sr.: first, Jesus wants us to have a burning desire, an unquenchable yearning, for the treasure of the kingdom of heaven; second, he wants us to know where we need to look to find and obtain that treasure; and third, he wants us to have the willingness to sacrifice everything to obtain that treasure. Let’s look more deeply at each of these qualities so that we might honestly see whether we have them and, if not, to ask the Lord today for the grace to have them in abundance.
• The first quality is an insatiable desire for the treasure of the kingdom of God, which is basically an unquenchable thirst for God. Jesus told us in the Sermon on the Mount, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Mt 6:21). He told us in that same Sermon that many of us seek to “store up for themselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,” but he wanted us to “store up for themselves treasures in heaven,” a treasure not measured in clothing that moths can wreck, metals that rust can corrode, or money that thieves or taxes can take. Jesus is telling us that our heart must be set on God, and not just in general, but set on him more that George Sr.’s heart was set on finding oil, more than a professional athlete wants to win another championship, more than an ambitious politician seeks to win an election, and more than a man in love will do everything he can to win over and marry the woman he can’t stop thinking about. Do we have that hunger? Do we value God most of all in life or do we value other things more than God?
• In today’s first reading, God was pleased with the 18-year-old Solomon who had just been made king after his father David’s death. God told him in a dream, “Ask something of me and I will give it to you.” Solomon asked not for health or a long life. He didn’t ask for riches. He didn’t ask for victory over his father’s enemies. He asked, “Give your servant an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right and wrong.” He asked for a well-informed conscience. He asked for the gifts of wisdom and prudence, so that he could do the right thing and decide according to what God’s holy wisdom, both personally and politically. He knew he would be surrounded by opulence not to mention courtiers trying to kiss up to him, the rich and powerful seeking advantages, and beautiful women seeking to be queen. He wanted a heart that saw and wanted what God sees and wants because there would be so many challenges for which he was unprepared and so many temptations to which he would be exposed. God replied with pleasure to his request, saying, “I will give you a heart so wise and understanding” that no one, before or after him, would be his equal.
• What would we reply if God said to us today, “Ask something of me and I will give it to you!” The response to such a question would generally show what we value most. If we were to take a poll of American Catholics or Americans in general, how many would ask for a smoking red Porsche or a top-of-the-line self-driving Tesla? A winning Megamillions ticket and the material possessions it could obtain? How many would ask to become a celebrity as a singer or actor or reality show star, or to marry one? How many would ask to be younger or older, to be healthier, taller, smarter, more athletic or more physically attractive? On the other hand, how many would ask God for the grace to be holier, to be more and more like Him, to think like him, to be merciful like him, to be a Good Samaritan like him, to be rich in what matters most, namely, to be rich in loving communion with him? One of the most moving scenes in the history of saints is the dialogue Jesus had with St. Thomas Aquinas toward the end of his short life. St. Thomas had authored many of the most sublime volumes of theology in the history of the Church and had written several of the greatest and most beautiful hymns to Jesus in the Eucharist. One day in prayer Jesus spoke to him from the Crucifix, saying, “Bene scripsisti de me, Thoma: quam mercedem accipies?” You have written well of me, Thomas. What do you want as a reward?” St. Thomas replied, “Non aliam nisi Te, Domine!” “I want nothing but You, Lord!” He wanted nothing but God because his real treasure was God. His great desire was union with God. His great passion was pleasing God. Jesus wants to fill us with a hunger like St. Thomas’! He wants us to yearn for God with the zeal with which the merchant searched for pearls. That striving for God and his kingdom is the first quality God wants us to have.
• The second thing God wants to give us is a recognition of where the treasure of the kingdom can be found. George, Sr., drove up and down the roads of East Texas and walked up and down creek beds looking for oil-bearing formations. Where do we need to go to the places that will form us in the kingdom? What is the path to true union with God in the kingdom? Are we actively searching for that path or are we staying where we are in a “great depression” or our own, waiting for God and the kingdom to find us? The merchant in the parable knew the places he needed to go, and so he visited the shops and markets where pearls would be sold. The farmer wasn’t so much searching for a buried treasure, but once he discovered it in the middle of his workday tilling previous unfarmed parts of the owner’s property, he knew what to do. What about us? To grow in God’s kingdom, where do we go? And where should we go? Our task is much simpler than George, Sr.’s. We know where we find God. We find him in personal prayer, we find him in the Sacraments. We find him speaking to us in Sacred Scripture. We find him radiantly shining in the lives and writings of the saints. We find him living within us in the truly Christian moral life. We can find him in the loving service of our neighbor, since every time we care for someone who is hungry, thirsty, naked, a stranger, ill, imprisoned or otherwise in need, Jesus tells us that we, through them, are caring for him. But in order for us to find God in those places, we need to grasp that each of the things I just named is a treasure, because if we don’t regard prayer, the sacraments, Sacred Scripture, the writings and lives of the saints, Christian virtue and love of neighbor as treasures, it will be very difficult to find God there. Do we realize, for example, how great a treasure is the Sacrament of Confession, where God enriches us with the precious gift of God’s mercy and makes us rich in sharing it with others? Do we grasp that the commandments and the moral law God gives us are not moral straightjackets but precious jewels, such that we want to burst out with the words of today’s Responsorial Psalm, “Lord, I loveyour commands!?” Do we see that caring for a sick loved one, or helping a stranger, is like spiritual silver and gold? Do we see that Eucharistic Adoration is a precious gift that we’re silly not to take advantage of, sillier than a person with a winning PowerBall ticket would be not to cash it in? Are we aware that Mass is in fact the greatest earthly treasure of all, and the wisest investment of our time we could ever make? The second virtue we need is precisely to know what the treasure is and where it can be found.
• The third virtue needed is the capacity to sacrifice to obtain that treasure. The rich pearl hunter and the poor hardworking peasant sold all they had to obtain the pearl and field, respectively. George, Sr., sold all he had to buy the property with the surface formations that seemed to indicate black gold beneath. Likewise, we need to do more than hunger for the kingdom and recognize where we can find it; we also need to be willing to make the sacrifices necessary to seize it. The apostles are great illustrations of those who, when finding a treasure, left all they had to follow Jesus. When the Lord Jesus called Peter, Andrew, James and John from their boats right after they had captured the largest catch in their careers, they left everything “immediately” and followed him. Likewise, when Jesus came to find St. Matthew at his tax collecting post and said, “Follow me!,” Matthew left all the money on the table, all the ledgers, and immediately got up to went with Jesus. St. Peter would later summarize the common characteristic of the apostles when he said to Jesus, “We have given up everything and followed you.” That’s in sharp contrast to the one who is famous for not having the willingness to sell all he had to obtain Jesus as the precious pearl. When the Rich Young Man came to Jesus with the question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?,” Jesus replied that he needed to keep the commandments. The young man responded that he had been keeping them perfectly since the time he was a boy; nevertheless, he said, he still knew he was missing something. Jesus replied that what he was lacking was detachment from the earthly treasures that were enslaving his heart. “If you wish to be perfect,” if you wish to have it all, Jesus told him, “go, sell what you have and give the money to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then, come, follow me!” The Rich Young Man was given right then the chance to become perfect in Christ’s kingdom, to become wealthy in what matters most, to become the intimate friend of the King himself, but he was too addicted to his material possessions, to the things of this world, to leave them behind. He chose his stuff over Jesus and “went away sad.” We need to take good note of this because there are many like the Rich Young Man today. He was a good man, a moral man, someone who kept the commandments, someone on the way to eternal life. But he was missing out on the fullness of the kingdom here on earth because he wasn’t willing to do what the merchant or the peasant did in today’s parables. He wasn’t willing to do what the apostles did. He wasn’t willing to make God the true treasure of his life and to sacrifice other pearls for the greatest one of all. Many are like him. They say their prayers each day. They come to Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation. They go to Confession at least once a year. They get married in the Church. They contribute to charity and support their parish. But they’re not as happy in the faith as God wants them to be. They’re missing something, because something is holding them back; earthly treasures, big or small, have begun to own them.
• Today we all need to learn from the apostles, from George, Sr., from those who obtained the precious pearl and the hidden treasure to be willing — and wise enough! — to sacrifice the lesser for the greater, to forsake the good things of earth for the true treasure. The protagonists in the parables weren’t reluctant to sell everything they had for the treasure; they were eagerto do so, because they focused not on what they were selling or losing but on what they were buying and obtaining. Likewise, for us to make the sacrifices necessary to obtain the treasure of the kingdom, we need to grasp how disproportionate what we’re gaining is from what we’re giving up. St. Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippians, “Whatever gains I had, these I have come to consider a loss because of Christ. More than that, I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish [the actual word is manure], that I may gain Christ and be found in him” (Phil 3:8-9). Compared to what we gain, what we’re giving up is fit for the trash can and latrine, he says. This type of attitude toward the kingdom, toward sacrificing good things for the greatest thing of all, explains all the greatness that happens in individual lives and happens in the Church. It explains martyrdom, because the martyrs, like Father Jacques Hamel whom we remember today on the fourth anniversary of his being killed at Mass in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray in France, account even their life here on earth less valuable than fidelity to God and living in his kingdom forever. It explains thelives of the saints,like Saints Joachim and Anne, because they’re the ones who let go of so many great worldly expectations in order to become truly rich in God and his kingdom. It explains how to suffer and to die well, because for those who really seek first God and his kingdom, death is not dreaded but desired, since even though we have to leave behind so loved ones and good things, we recognize that all of these goods are nothing in comparison with “what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor 2:9). It explains vocations to the priesthood and to religious and consecrated life, because those who say yes to these callings put God above families of their own, his love above human loves, his will above their will, his kingdom above amassing a kingdom of their own; and these vocations often come from families that are seeking, recognizing and sacrificing for the pearl of great price who is God by sacrificing TV for prayer, sports leagues for Mass, their own vacations to care for others. It explainsvibrant parishes, because it’s in those parishes that people sacrifice huge amounts of their time, money, and expertise to build them and help them grow. It explains truly joyful homes(and convents!), which arise from situations where family members and fellow residents willingly and repeatedly sacrifice to make others happy, to do things not because they have to but because they choose to out of love.
• What if we haven’t lived this way until now? What is we recognize that we haven’t sought God and his kingdom as we should have, or haven’t recognized sufficiently all those places God has given us to find that treasure, or haven’t sacrificed enough to obtain it, or all of the above? St. Paul’s words in today’s second reading are a great consolation. He reminds us, “All things work out for the good for those who love God.” Even the Cross, even persecutions, even a terrible diagnosis and physical suffering, even our past sins can all become fertilizer for new spiritual growth provided that we bring them to God, let him transform them, and learn from these experiences. All of our past mistakes and worldly priorities can “work out for the good” — our and others’ —if today we respond to Jesus’ message and help and begin to live by the truth of these parables. Today the Father asks us, like he asks Solomon, “Ask something of me and I will give it to you,” and today we ask for the grace to do what the Blessed Mother and Saint Joseph, what Saints Joachim and Anne, the apostles, so many saints and Father Jacques Hamel have done: to seek the kingdom, to place it first, and sacrifice everything for it, uniting all we have and are to what God wants to do in us.
• And the best place to make that choice for the Kingdom is here at Mass. St. John Vianney, the patron saints of priests, catechized his people about the power of the Eucharist to make us great saints, to help us seize the kingdom, if we but choose to center our whole life on Jesus, the King himself, in the Eucharist. He said, “Next to this sacrament, we are like someone who dies of thirst next to a river, just needing to bend the head down to drink; or like a poor man next to a treasure chest, when all that is needed is to stretch out the hand” and grab the gold coins. The Eucharist is that treasure that quenches our thirst and makes us truly rich. Let’s ask God the Father for the grace to make Christ his Son here in the Eucharist our precious pearl, our true treasure, so that we may experience in this life and forever in heaven the joy Jesus describes of the poor peasant and rich merchant. That joy, that treasure, is ours for the taking. This is what Jesus is offering us today: the gift of an eternal lifetime.

The readings for today’s Mass were: 

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