Right Here Right Now
17th Sunday of the Ordinary Time – Right Here Right Now
Buried treasure. A pearl. A fishing net.
All normal everyday things that Jesus the Teacher was using to explain the Kingdom of Heaven to his disciples, and anyone else who might be listening – like us.
It’s brilliant when you stop to think about it. Jesus wanted to make it crystal clear: this Kingdom that we all long for?
Don’t wait until your dead to find it.
He knows that from the dawn of time, we humans have always talked about, dreamed of and sung about a place, a state of being, a beyond-this-world-location where there will be no more suffering, hatred, or anxiety.
And yes, that is the Kingdom we await.
But it doesn’t just begin at death. It starts now. Right on the spot we are standing.
Which is exactly why Jesus uses the treasure, pearl and net.
He’s saying, in effect: it may take some effort, toil and struggle, but everything you long for is right within your grasp, because I the Lord have made it so.
Take the buried treasure, for example: in contentious and war-weary Palestine at that time, it was not uncommon for people to hide their riches until they could safely return to retrieve them. And yet, the “finders-keepers” rule was legally in effect, and so if you found something on unmarked land? Go – quickly – buy the land and keep the treasure.
This alone begs the question for us —
What is your treasure right now? For what are you willing to give-up everything? Is a relationship with the Lord part of that bounty? Would you include Scripture, prayer, and sacraments as part of what one would find in your treasure trove of life’s greatest gifts? Would healed relationships with family and friends be in there, too?
Or is your treasure just material things alone? The hours of binge-watching… the non-stop cell phone checking… being the first and best in everything, from work to sports to video games…
Is your treasure your own popularity and ease of life?
None of these are bad, necessarily. Please hear me on that – Jesus, too, enjoyed the things of this world. But they can’t be the only things we place within our life’s treasure chest. More often than not, they make seeing the Kingdom here among us a little harder to do.
Bottom line: we can’t see Christ around us when we’re constantly staring at ourselves, both literally and figuratively.
So then what are we to do, especially when we discover that we haven’t been sincerely Kingdom-searching?
Jesus the Teacher would remind us: In order to grow the treasure, look at the pearl and the net.
As we know, the most beautiful pearls come in time from a parasite that settles in a mollusk shell and is eventually transformed.
What’s that ugly intruder in each of us that can, by God’s grace, be transformed?
Because everything can be transformed if it is given over to God’s Kingdom: the bitterness and anger; the jealousy and hate; the selfishness and hard-heartedness – ALL can become a holy pearl if one truly surrenders it to Christ, time and again if necessary.
Just think of the Scripture stories alone that prove this:
St. Peter’s betrayal and impetuousness – when transformed in Christ – led him to be the first leader of our Church. Mary Magdalen’s seven demons (her misguided search for true love) – when cast aside through God’s grace – led her to be the first evangelist, bringing the Good News to the frightened Apostles and to the world.
Never forget that in God’s Kingdom, our deepest hurts and fears and pains – when given over and transformed by grace – really do become pearls that radiate the greatest Love we all seek.
And this ultimately is where the Kingdom net comes in, too…
As any fisherman will tell us, there is a lot of junk caught-up in those dragnets. Seaweed, trash, dead things, you name it.
And the Teacher is asking: If you really desire the Kingdom, what must you throw back? If God’s grace can’t transform it and you just can’t seem to let it go: what is weighing down your net? In other words, what sins must we throw away?
If it’s been awhile, make an appointment to come to Confession, or come on Saturday mornings here at Immaculate Conception (or whenever your local parish offers time). Let go of the junk that’s keeping you from living freely and authentically; the weighted chains that are keeping you from seeing Christ and His Kingdom right here on the spot where you are standing.
I promise you – because I have seen it with my own eyes and heart – that lives are forever changed through that Sacrament.
Nets become lighter; pearls become polished; treasures are re-discovered. And the Light of the Kingdom of God grows a little brighter right in your little corner of the world.
I’ll never forget the very first person I met at college orientation day. Her name was Edie, and she was all Texas: big hair, big smile, big personality. She often could sense when I was worried or anxious about life, and her advice then still rings true today: “Sugar,” she called all of us, “Don’t be waitin’ for the someday when today’s all that God has promised.”
It’s just one of those Kingdom pearls I try to carry with me always… I hope you do, too.