THE PEARL OF GREATEST PRICE
The Seventeen Sunday of Ordinary Time
1 Kings 3: 5, 7-14; Romans 8: 28-30; Matthew 13: 44-52
I was suppose to preach today but I've been under the weather for the past few days. But I wanted to share with you just a thought which would have been the basis for my homily. In the First Reading from the First Book of Kings, God tells King Solomon to ask for anything and it will be granted to him. Solomon asks for an understanding heart. What would you ask for?
In our Gospel from Matthew, Jesus gives us the Parable of the Pearl of Great Price. A man finds this buried treasure, hides it again and sells everything he has to buy the field so that the pearl will be his. What is your pearl of great price? What would you be willing to stake everything you have to possess?
When I was younger, I guess things like fame, success, wealth and health, a loving wife and a happy home with lots of kids would have been pearls that caught my eye, the things I would have cashed it all in to possess. But maybe, like Solomon, with age somehow I got what he got, an understanding heart - a heart which finally understands what really matters in life.
I came across this song this week. It simply, beautifully and emphatically conveys how I would answer our Lord if today he asked me the question he asked Solomon . . . what to me is the one thing I would stake everything on . . . what to me is the pearl of great price.
