The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure
We give lip service to the idea that the Kingdom of heaven is like a hidden treasure. But do our lives reflect that reality? What really matters most to us? We often speak of the Kingdom of heaven as a treasure but seek harder after health, wealth, power, or pleasure. Often many of us seem to act as though our deepest poverty is boredom and that our greatest wealth is therefore to be entertained.
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.
If we really treasure the treasure we will take steps to protect it. We will keep it safe from the interference of the world by burying it deep in the soil of our hearts. But that soil is not fully ours. We can't immediately reap the full benefits of the treasure. Now that we know where the treasure is and that it is safe we must first be like the merchant who, "out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." If the buried treasure is truly valuable to us we will not only be willing to sell all that we have to find it, to lose our lives to secure them for eternal life, we will even do so "out of joy". If this does not describe us, we needn't worry. The treasure is still present, waiting for us to discover it a thorough, experiential, and transformative way. Even if we failed to properly respond and hide the treasure within our hearts it need never be lost completely. It is waiting to be found once more. It and it alone is true treasure for it alone can satisfy our hearts and in it our desires can finally come to rest.
Again, the Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant
searching for fine pearls.
When he finds a pearl of great price,
he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.
There are many fake pearls on offer, more pretense than actual value everywhere we look. We will need to have an eye to recognize what truly makes a pearl worthy of great price if we are to avoid being deceived. Both the treasure and the pearl require of the finder that they have an eye for that which is of true and lasting value, and that they are willing to take action based on that awareness. We are meant to desire truth, goodness, and beauty, and it is these that are truly of the greatest price, worth all that we have and all that we are. For this we need sustained and sincere attention, aware of our susceptibility to substitutes and falsehood.
But why begin at all? Treasures and valuable pearls are so rare that we might not even bother looking. Yet we have been told that they are there to be found. We have been told that there is a treasure by the one who himself is that treasure. He has given us every reason to trust him. If we do we can seek and discover more and more how great a treasure he is, and more and more respond with our whole hearts.
In the first reading we see in Moses the results of his own encounter with this treasure:
When Aaron, then, and the other children of Israel saw Moses
and noticed how radiant the skin of his face had become,
they were afraid to come near him.
Though the Israelites could not experience this, because they were unwilling to sell their idols in exchange for the truth, there is no such limitation for us. Jesus himself has paid for the treasure for us. In him it becomes our inheritance as well.
And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit (see Second Corinthians 3:8).
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