July 24, 2011 - Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Reading 1 - 1 Kgs 3:5, 7-12
The LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream at night. God said, “Ask something of me and I will give it to you.” Solomon answered: “O LORD, my God, you have made me, your servant, king to succeed my father David; but I am a mere youth, not knowing at all how to act. I serve you in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a people so vast that it cannot be numbered or counted. Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong. For who is able to govern this vast people of yours?”
The LORD was pleased that Solomon made this request. So God said to him: “Because you have asked for this—not for a long life for yourself, nor for riches, nor for the life of your enemies, but for understanding so that you may know what is right—I do as you requested. I give you a heart so wise and understanding that there has never been anyone like you up to now, and after you there will come no one to equal you.”
Responsorial Psalm - 119:57, 72, 76-77, 127-128, 129-130
R. (97a) Lord, I love your commands.
I have said, O LORD, that my part is to keep your words.
The law of your mouth is to me more precious than thousands of gold and silver pieces.
R. Lord, I love your commands.
Let your kindness comfort me according to your promise to your servants.
Let your compassion come to me that I may live, for your law is my delight.
R. Lord, I love your commands.
For I love your command more than gold, however fine.
For in all your precepts I go forward; every false way I hate.
R. Lord, I love your commands.
Wonderful are your decrees; therefore I observe them.
The revelation of your words sheds light, giving understanding to the simple.
R. Lord, I love your commands.
Reading II - Rom 8:28-30
Brothers and sisters: We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined he also called; and those he called he also justified; and those he justified he also glorified.
Gospel - Mt 13:44-52
Jesus said to his disciples: “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. 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. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind. When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away. Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. Do you understand all these things?”
They answered, “Yes.” And he replied, “Then every scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old.”
Reflection
Sportswear manufacturer Adidas’ current US campaign is entitled, “All in.” The US website features video of NBA MVP Derrick Rose and FIFA World Player of the Year Leo Messi, among others, competing in their respective sports and producing visual evidence that both are “All in.”
The term, “All in,” comes from poker, and it means to wager one’s entire stake on a single hand. It is to hold nothing back, not even one chip. When Adidas conscripts the term for use with athletes, the company means to indicate that, in order to be named the best soccer player in the world, or the most valuable player in the NBA, one must do the same--hold nothing back. It’s an absolute proposition: all or nothing. No reservations, no qualifications. It’s committing every fiber of one’s being, every single day, without fail and without limit.
But it’s a gamble. What if Rose breaks an ankle or Messi tears an ACL? What if a teammate misses free throws or shanks a penalty kick? It doesn’t matter, they’d almost certainly reply. The pursuit of a championship is worth the risk, and it’s unquestionably worth the sacrifice. For elite athletes like Derrick Rose or Leo Messi or Michael Phelps or Abby Wambach, the ultimate goal is the title of “World’s Best.” For them, this is the pearl of great price, the treasure buried in a field. For a flautist, it might be the first chair of the Boston Symphony. For a physicist, it might be a Nobel Prize. For an author, a Pulitzer; for a young lawyer, making partner. The single unifying characteristic of all these individuals is a willingness to dedicate ALL of oneself to the process.
This sort of absolute commitment, an all-or-nothing investment of oneself, is an exceedingly rare and difficult accomplishment. It’s why we laud these individuals with so much praise, why we give them awards and write biographies of their lives. Particularly for a generation that is constantly multi-tasking--we almost never commit ourselves undistractedly to a single task--the notion of focusing exclusively on ONE pursuit probably strikes us as downright abnormal. (As it ought to... if everyone on earth were working in a particle accelerator for 16 hours a day smashing subatomic particles into one another; or training six hours a day for an Olympic sport; or perfecting any other art... there would be no one to keep track of medical records at the hospital, coach little league after work, or take out the garbage around the house.) In short, we may not be, as Adidas exhorts us, “All in” for running a marathon or carrying out research in a lab (although it can probably feel that way at times), but there is one thing we should be “All in” for, the pearl of great price, the treasure buried in the field, the Nobel Prize, the MVP: The Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus says, is something that, once you recognize it and understand what it is, you should be willing to “sell all you own” in order to attain it. To be “All in.” So how do we go about doing that?
A 5-step process for acquiring the “pearl”:
(1) Recognition: We must be attentive, so that when we encounter this “pearl,” we recognize it for what it is. It would be easy to get caught up in the busy-ness of our daily routine, and to fail to identify the pearl for how valuable it truly is. To pass over it, because we’re too focused on all the tasks we have to do. As great as a research grant from NIH or an audition with a professional symphony might be, they are not the pearl--the whole-self flourishing that constitutes the Kingdom of Heaven is.
(2) Taking the risk/Trusting in Jesus: Once we do recognize the “pearl,” we have to be willing to take a risk on it. This is where faith comes in; faith, in a sense, is a gamble. There is no guarantee (at least not in the sense we are used to asking for one), but only the promise of Jesus that the reward really WILL be worth the risk.
(3) Creating a plan: The pearl doesn’t just land in our hands; the man in the parable has to create a plan to sell what he owns in order to procure it. The Kingdom doesn’t just happen; we can’t just say, “I want that for myself.” We have to take concrete steps to make it a reality in our own life. It’s not enough to say, “I would like to have a deeper relationship with God”--we have to take action. We have to get a spiritual director, join a Bible study, sign up for a service project.
(4) Making sacrifices: The pearl costs the man ALL that he owns--he must go ALL IN. There is no way to shortcut the process of attaining something of great value, like an NBA title or Nobel Prize, and the Kingdom of Heaven is no different. It will require enormous personal sacrifice, but we are called to trust in Jesus’ promise that it will be worth it.
(5) Enjoy the reward: The Kingdom of Heaven is, in Catholic understanding, both “already” and “not yet.” That is, in a very real sense, when we decide to live as disciples of Christ and to build a community of mutual love and support here on earth, we are living out the Kingdom. And yet, in another sense, we will not experience the fullness of the Kingdom until we join God in eternity.
The bottom line is that this level of commitment--absolute and unwavering--is not only uncommon, it’s impossible on our own. It’s why Michael Phelps came to train with other world-class swimmers at the University of Michigan during his lead-up to the Olympics, and it’s why top-tier researchers cluster at universities and think tanks. We can’t do it on our own; only with the support of a community can we hope to continue to push ourselves daily towards this goal. In our case, it’s not a team or department, but a community we call Church. It’s simply too overwhelming to try and live a perfectly Christ-like life, treating every single person we meet, from the homeless panhandler outside a sandwich shop to the guy we went on a few dates with that turned out to be a real jerk, as Christ would treat that person. But it’s easier to do when we come together each week to vent our frustrations and share our joys; to lament our failures and celebrate our accomplishments; to acknowledge before God and one another that we’re all still very much works in progress.
The point of Church is that it’s a whole lot easier to go “All in” around a bunch of other people who have made that same commitment, than it is to be out there in the world trying to do it alone. Pushing each other to keep that commitment.
And, on top of all that, we are promised help in the form of the Holy Spirit, who guides us, sustains us, and imbues us with graces we couldn’t achieve on our own power. No athlete could train for a title without accepting outside sustenance in the form of energy drinks and proper nourishment. We, who are attempting to go “All in” as followers of Christ need the same sort of external nourishment, and so to drink of the Holy Spirit, to be hydrated and reinvigorated by the grace of God, which counteracts our fatigue and gives us the energy to move forward.
The Kingdom of Heaven may be likened to a pearl of great price, or to a world championship. It demands that we go, “All in.”
Questions for Reflection:
1) What sorts of things do you currently invest a great deal of energy in? Professional success? Athletic or artistic achievement? Human relationships? What sorts of sacrifices do you have to make for them? Is the reward worth the sacrifice?
2) Do you struggle to go “All in” with commitments? Do you ever hold yourself back, whether in a relationship or a job or training for something? Why do you hold back? What sorts of things prevent you from going all in?
3) What does the Kingdom of Heaven look like, to you? How do you attempt to attain it in your daily life? Do you trust Jesus that it’s worth the sacrifice? What sorts of sacrifices might be required?
