July 30, 2023 (Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time)

by Fr. Xavier Lavagetto, O.P.

[This is the text composed by the homilist prior to delivering the homily.]

I have asked before, What are the two books, or their digital equivalents, that reveal what is truly important to you? … Anyone?

Your checkbook and your daily planner, or if you prefer, your credit card statement and your Google calendar, define us. … It is where you actually expend yourself and spend your time that tells me what is truly important to you.

Isn’t that the message of the first two parables? It is what you sacrifice far that is important to you. Both parables are examples of drastic actions taken for the sake of joy. … Pause and ask yourself: What do those two books say about me and what I treasure?

But there is more to the parables. They are curious, and I don’t just mean the questionable morality of the first and the useless purchase of the second.

In a world without banks, people did bury their treasure. … But what if the knowledge was forgotten or the person died? What seems a far-fetched scenario became real. The rabbis did debate who the rightful owner would be. … Just saying “Finders, keepers; losers, weepers” can’t solve the issue.

Imagine yourself back then, … you discover a treasure in another’s field, … you’re ecstatic, rebury it, and sell all that you have to buy that field to get that treasure; what can you do with it? …. Nothing! … Sudden wealth raised ugly questions and generated dangerous envy.

Or flip it, if it were your family’s treasure, you’d scream cheat and thief. …You’d become very circumspect.

The pearl of great price is equally useless. You sell all that you have and buy it. What did you do with it? … It won’t keep you warm, sheltered, or fed; it leaves you impoverished and makes you an easy target.

Jesus urges us not only to take drastic measures to pursue the treasure of our lives but first to identify what is the real treasure that gives us joy.

Some here might have seen the musical and movie, Hello, Dolly. Dolly is a widow scheming to marry the rich and resistant Horace Van Der Gelder. One sings, “On cold, wintry nights, Horace, you can snuggle up to your crash register; it is a little lumpy, but it rings.” … Choose your treasure wisely!

We all have an insatiable desire that knows no satisfying. And when we sacrificially choose, there is often buyer’s remorse. It is FOMO, a fear that we will miss out on something else.

If I marry a remarkable woman as the joy of my life, I forgo every other woman. If I choose celibacy, I forgo that special person, the delight of her touch, children, and more. If I choose this profession, I forgo others. Saying a real “yes” entails other “no”s. … Some decide to keep their options open, that option leaves them with no options. Committing always closes doors, but it always opens others. Failing to commit leaves me with no choices.

By now, some imagine I am going to say, Choose Heaven! … Isn’t that what most Christians imagine; we are trying to get out of here and get there? … That is precisely what Jesus doesn’t want. … The Our Father describes our mission: Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We pray not to get there but for God to rule here. … Does God rule your heart?

Here is fourth-century advice: A brother asked an old man, “What thing is there so good that I may do it and live?” And the old man said, “God alone knows what is good.” And he answered, “All works are not equal. The scripture says that Abraham was hospitable, and God was with him. And Elias loved quiet, and God was with him. And David was humble, and God was with him. What, therefore, you find that your soul desires in following God, that do and keep your heart.

There is not one thing that we can all do that will make us come alive. Love is always particular and specific; if not, it is a mere dream. … God wants a personal and dynamic encounter. He wants it personal, so he comes in the person of Jesus. He wants it real, so he comes in flesh. He wants it intimate, so he comes in flesh from this table to be your flesh. In consuming him, he consumes you. … God is saying: Let me love you!

Too often, our behavior is more determined by fear than by loving the One who loves us. … Do you make room for him? Do you daily delight in God?

We heard Paul word’s Paul today: We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. … I wish I really believed that, but as long as I keep pushing away the love that conquers fear, fear rules in here. … Do I daily delight in God’s love for me that I may trust?

I wish I were as resolute as the treasure finder or as drastic as the pearl collector. I prefer my ego and ease to his love. I cling more tightly to my sins than to his forgiveness because it is easier to feel guilty than to say, “Lord, what do you ask of me today?”

Today’s parables are more than Jesus prodding his disciples and us to awareness and commitment. They are a window into Jesus’ own wrestling.

We believe Jesus is human and divine, but we imagine him as having only a divine mind. … Jesus had a human mind that learned and suffered, that wondered and wept, and if he didn’t, he wouldn’t be human. So look at today’s parables from this vantage.

Jesus is the one who is drastic in pursuing and loving us. He sold more than possessions; he allowed himself to be sold to those who would kill him. His life’s blood just didn’t pour out for us from his side for us; he poured it into us. … Take eat … take drink. … The surprise of today’s Gospels is that you are the treasure that Jesus joyfully sells all for; you are the pearl of great price. … There is no substitute for daily delighting in God’s love for you.

All my life, I’ve wanted to feel loved, but if you are like me, you have a hard time trusting and living it. It is not my sinfulness that gets in the way, it is my refusal to be God’s treasure. … So he keeps saying: Let me love you. But for love and grace to have their effect, you have to say “yes” — a yes to being forgiven, a yes to being loved, and a yes to loving. … Do I daily notice God’s presence in my life?

Sadly, friends and lovers often become lukewarm. Any treasure we have, any pearl that we possess, is only as valuable as our daily appreciation of it. Love flounders on the rocks of inattention and distraction. Your treasure is only as valuable as the time and the attention you give. Daily delight in God's and others’ love for you.