The Pearl of Great Price

17th Sunday of Ordinary Time     Year A        Deacon John McMullen

 THE READINGS FOR THIS SUNDAY

Solomon's request for an understanding heart show what seeking true happiness should be about. we all too often seem happiness in dry wells, in empty fields, in muddy waters, and in our fast and furious gropings, happiness eludes us. 

Hawthorne wrote: "Happiness is a butterfly, which, when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you."

In the gospel note that the hidden treasure is discovered unexpectedly. the poor laborer is now wealthy beyond compare and his life is forever changed, so he sells all he has to buy that field. 

Why did he buy the field?

Note that he does not gamble the money away; he makes an investment.

The second man is a wealthy merchant, seeking more treasure. And he discovers the pearl of great price.

Both men are called to the kingdom. poor and rich alike.

The third image is that of a net that captures everything, good and bad. 

Note that the net contains righteous and sinners alike. 

It is God's business to do the sorting out.

There is great joy here. the joy removes our desire to hoard, and compels us to give of our essence.

The kingdom cannot be bought or sold. It is a gift, a free gift, often surprising those who were not even looking for it. Yet the kingdom, though free, it costs us everything.

We are surprised by love. such love that gives and forgives.

In another way, it is Christ who has sold all he has to buy us back, to ransom us, we are the treasure buried in the field; He is the merchant in search of the pearl of great price; and he is the fisherman who hauls us ashore, good and bad junk in the nets of our lives.

The net is like the church too, full of good and bad fish and assorted stuff.

We, like Solomon, need to seek that which is holy, for wealth passes away.

Wisdom is forever, like the kingdom, which is Christ Himself.

He is the prize above all things.

May we seek Him in all things.

The End of the World, The Cross, and Eternal Life

33^rd Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year C 2013         Deacon John William McMullen

 

My mother asked me what I was going to preach about today and I told her “the end of the world.” She replied, “We’ll I’m not going.”  I’m not sure if she meant she wasn’t going to attend Mass or not going to attend the end of the world. I’ll wait and see.

 
You know they say Irish diplomacy is having the ability to tell someone to go to hell and they will go away looking forward to the trip. Oscar Wilde said, “If you must tell someone the truth, make him laugh—or else he’ll kill you.” I pray I have such mirthful diplomacy today.

The readings today remind us that there will be an end to this world as we know it.

The first reading today (tonight) is from Malachi.  The people complained that being faithful to God had never really paid off. In their lack of faith, they failed to practice justice… they defrauded widows and orphans, ignored the plight of the stranger in their midst, and the poor and defenseless were trampled down, while the wealthy extorted the poor.

The religious practice of many of the priests, religious leaders, and the people had become a pretense, a false religiosity whereby they merely went through the motions of worship, but their hearts were far from God and love of neighbor.

Marital infidelity and social injustice was the rule of the day as the people had abandoned their covenant with God. Malachi emphasized that the right relationship with God depended upon a right relationship with our neighbor.

Malachi harshly criticized the Jewish priests for their abuse of religious ritual and toleration of injustice.

Malachi even dared make the dramatic claim that it would be best to shut the temple down, better to close its doors rather than offer the Lord false worship.

[“Oh, that one among you would shut the temple gates to keep you from kindling fire on my altar in vain!” (Mal. 1.10).]

Malachi raised the question: Why have a Temple – no matter how magnificent – if true worship is not taking place within it?

[Malachi went so far to point out that the pagans and gentiles were honoring the LORD, while the Jewish priests were profaning God’s holy name by giving poor and worthless offerings.]

There will be an end. There will be a judgment day. The day is coming, says the Lord, when this world, this life as we know it will come to an end. God will set things right. The good will receive their reward; the evil will receive theirs. All evil will be overturned.

Malachi’s dramatic claim that it would be best to shut the temple down was still reverberating some 500 years later, when Jesus observed some people excitedly pointing out the beauty of the temple.

But Jesus responded with shocking words: “The days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another.”

The people in today’s gospel looked on the grand façade of the Temple and proclaim its greatness.  They were beginning to think that this world is really all that matters. 

 

We too like to be comfortable. 

We can fall for the lie that this world is all that there is.  We can get caught up in our own narrow, narcissistic worlds where our cause is the only cause. We can become so narrow-minded and self-absorbed that we cannot see beyond the grave.

But have we deceived ourselves?

Like the rich fool who lived as if there was no tomorrow, yet he died that very night in bed planning to build bigger barns to secure his life;

Like the rich man who wore purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously while ignoring the poor man Lazarus;

Like the near-sighted Pharisee who could only pray to himself and look down on others.

Yes, even Christians are tempted by the lure of this world’s values.  

If we carve out a nice worldly existence for ourselves and close in upon ourselves thinking that pleasure, popularity, power, and possessions will fulfill us in this life, we will one day awaken to the reality that we have been duped, sadly mistaken – that our eternal thirst cannot be quenched with finite earthly pleasures and joys – no matter how noble.

Our eyes must be focused on Christ who is forever leading us over the horizon of this world into the light of His kingdom.

The disciples of the Lord wanted to avoid the Cross.

But our call is to take up the cross.

It’s all about the Cross; it always was and always will be.

Christ always calls us beyond our worldly happiness to eternal life.

Here we have no lasting city. Our citizenship is in heaven.

We see beyond this brief life; and we see even beyond death.

Jesus says to his disciples – and to us - no matter what happens, God will be with us.

We cannot get hung up on elaborate buildings or anything or anyone else or any one.

Christ must be the cornerstone.

Christ is the narrow gate. 

Christ is our true Temple.

So no matter how many wars, natural disasters, earthquakes, sinkholes, tornadoes, hurricanes, or typhoons we hear of or experience; no matter the strange meteors or comets or celestial signs, including satellites falling from orbit, our focus should be on proclaiming the gospel, the good news of Christ’s redemptive love; disasters and cataclysmic events, political unrest, social upheaval, violence and war cannot separate us from the love of God.

 

Oh, yes, some of us may suffer martyrdom – perhaps not as our brothers and sisters in the faith are experiencing elsewhere in the world where it is illegal to do what we are doing here this morning/evening – but some of us may be ridiculed by our peers, even by our family members and fellow Catholics for our faith… defending the poor, taking a stand for justice, celebrating the sacrament of marriage or proclaiming the dignity of the life of the unborn. While at the same time we may be condemned for our ministry among those who have been marginalized by society—or even by some members of the Church.]

 

We may be misunderstood and be put to death socially. We may suffer a bloodless martyrdom of gossip all because we have remained true to our faith.

 

 

St. Paul reminds us that there are people who have their nose in other people’s business – and then there are others who have their business in your nose.  

 

Suffice it to say that there are too many people who are too busy trying to remove splinters from their neighbors’ eyes while they have wooden beams in their own eyes.

 

There are some Christians who are awfully proud of their holiness and seem to make it their aim to know their neighbors’ sins.

 

But we can’t worry about all that.

 

In fact, there is no time to worry.

 

Today is the day of salvation.

 

And we must persevere to the end.

 

For the same God who has counted the hairs on our heads will not abandon us.

 

We are all sinners journeying to the Kingdom together, broken members of the Body of Christ, nourished by His Grace, His Word, the Eucharist, and encouraged by one another.

 

This is the Good News.

God raises up fallen humanity and calls us to reach for the heights of the kingdom; a kingdom where we are to bring God’s kingdom to the present world: on earth as it is in heaven.

We need to have faith and trust in God in the difficult times when the walls seem to be caving in upon us, when we are in a fog of uncertainty, when the Cross is oh so heavy.

 

None of us is going to get out of this world unscathed.  But death is not the end; we will rise again.

The temples of our bodies might be destroyed, but we will remain the Temple of God, the People of God, the Body of Christ.

And no one can destroy that.

They may try.            

But we will rise with Christ on the Last Day.

THE MUSTARD SEED - AN UNLIKELY KINGDOM

1) When I was a little boy growing up in Vincennes, my father took me past his boyhood home and showed me a large Walnut tree. This tree was special to him because when he was but a small boy in the 1940s, his father helped him plant the walnut seed. My dad was amazed that the seed sprouted and the tree grew. It is still there and is very large! On this father’s day, my dad’s tree is a testament to his faith that that small walnut would grow. He is still amazed that the tree grew from the walnut and that it has withstood the test of time.

In the bible, the Cedar tree is extolled as a symbol of the majesty of God. The cedar tree grows upwards to 130 feet tall with a trunk of more than 8 ft in diameter. The Cedar trees of Israel and Lebanon were used for building ships, palaces, and temples. King Solomon built the great Temple in Jerusalem with cedar trees. And the Psalmist reminds us that: The just person shall flourish like a cedar of Lebanon.   

2)      Yet even though the scripture says that the great cedar tree will be lifted high, the prophet Ezekiel warns that the Lord will bring low the high tree and lift high the lowly tree.  And, again, the prophet Isaiah used the Lebanon Cedar as a metaphor for the pride of the world, as an arrogant example of worldly power and self-aggrandizement.

This is very similar to the Gospel message where Mary, the mother of Jesus proclaimed in her Magnificat: “He has cast down the arrogant of mind and heart; has thrown down the mighty from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly.”

3)      Jesus listeners were likely taken aback when he proclaimed that “the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed.” A mustard seed? The smallest of seeds? Jesus’ followers were likely waiting for him to declare that the Kingdom of God is like a mighty cedar tree!

But no. Jesus confounds his audience and maintains that the kingdom of God is like the wild mustard plants that can grow into large shrubs and small trees. WHAT?  The Mustard plant is a weed in contrast to the impressive mighty cedar tree!  While the wild mustard takes over the field, we want order; but the weeds thrive and the mustard blooms and the birds of the air come to roost.

4)      Mustard does not need any cultivating, for it sprouts all by itself, for once a mustard seed falls in fertile soil, it germinates almost at once and begins growing. Mustard plants are not trees per se, but are bushes though they grow between 10 and 20 feet tall. And there are few plants which grow so large in one season as a mustard.

There is a definite "subversive and scandalous" element to this parable, in that the fast-growing nature of the mustard plant makes it an "undesirable, unwelcome weed" that will present a danger to the status quo or “business as usual.” Once a mustard seed is sown it is nearly impossible to get rid of.

5)      Jesus chooses the humble mustard seed over the image of a mighty cedar tree to show that even though the beginnings of the Kingdom of God are small, over time it would grow into something large and firmly rooted, in which many would find shelter and comfort, while others would find it detestable and even against tradition or respectable religion.

The growth of the kingdom is slow and rooted in a tiny beginning, but it is on the move.  Look at the growth of the early church, from a small following in the first century to the 3^rd century where the mighty Roman Empire could not contain the rapid growth no matter how many Christians it put to death.

Or consider the days of slavery or the days of open discrimination and Jim Crow laws and segregation. Slowly but surely the march towards freedom took place. For instance, even though many Christians despised Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement, the movement refused to go away because the mustard seed of the kingdom and the gospel message had taken root in people’s hearts!

The wild mustard weed is nearly impossible to get rid of once it has infested a field, but so is the faith of those who seem to be weeds in the kingdom of God. And not only is this nasty weed unwelcome, but then so are the many different birds it attracts!

The wild mustard takes over the field, thriving like the kingdom, and the mustard blooms and the birds of the air come to nest! Just like all the "sinners" and tax collectors and the lowly ones who came to Jesus, these birds then threaten the well planted crop.

So the kingdom of God, like the mustard seed, poses a healthy challenge to the society and religion and to the hearer of the gospel: The church is not to be country club for self-righteous saints, it is an open field for the unwanted weeds and unwelcome birds.

The kingdom of God is messy. Worldly power is threatened by the Kingdom of God just as mustard seed threatens the perfect garden. We as subversive mustard seeds are called to challenge our culture, our society, and even members of our church. We, like the mustard plant, are called to invite the undesirable, unwelcome birds that seek refuge among us.

Yes, when we do this, we may well be viewed with suspicion, and be a thorn in the side of those who want to maintain the status quo, but the kingdom of God is not about “business as usual” in a perfect “weedless” garden.  

What the world considers a weed is really the greatest image of the kingdom of God.

No matter how small we consider our efforts or our faith, it is the beginning of great growth.  When we love our enemy and pray for him or her and when we walk with those who have lost faith, the mustard seed blooms! When we help a neighbor, visit the sick, or pay someone’s bills, the mustard seed blooms! When we make a meal for the lonely or those who are grieving the death of a loved one, the mustard seed blooms!

When we defend the human dignity of each and every person, regardless of nationality or language, the mustard seed blooms! When we stand up for those in poverty who have no voice, when we defend the rights of workers, the mustard seed blooms! 

When we assist the woman with an unplanned pregnancy–both before birth and after she gives birth, when we truly defend marriage by living our vows and giving witness to the sacrificial love that is marriage, when we love our children and our parents, no matter what they’ve done, the mustard seed blooms! For in the smallest acts of love the seeds of the kingdom bloom.

Let’s pray that our hearts might be like fertile soil ready to allow the seed of the kingdom to take root and germinate at once!

God’s love is constant. 

God is on the move. 

God’s kingdom moves forward.

The smallest seed of faith can grow into a great faith.

Even a giant walnut tree begins as a single walnut.