Fr. Michael Williams

Many people today spend a lot of energy in accumulating wealth for themselves. People often want wealth to give themselves, and their families, security. People will often go to great lengths to get the wealth they desire. It seems that the pursuit of wealth is a major driving force for many. I suppose the reason the national lottery is so popular, is because people want that multi-million pound prize. I gave up doing the lottery years ago, although I confess I got my mum to buy me a ticket for the recent 166M Euro lottery!

No doubt in Jesus’ time, many people desired wealth, believing that if they had it, all their problems would be solved and they would be happy. I remember the Dali Llama saying some years ago that when he stayed in wealthy peoples home in the West during his visits, he noticed many people had the cupboards in their bathrooms filled with tranquilisers and anti-depressants. It led him to conclude that despite the wealth of some of the people he was staying with, they weren’t happy. He contrasted this with the poor people in his native Tibet, who had no material wealth, but were essentially happy!

In today’s parables, Jesus uses the idea of the pursuit of riches, to tell us something about the kingdom of heaven, which the Lord knows is the most valuable of all things, as it is something which brings lasting happiness.

Jesus describes the kingdom of heaven as being “like treasure hidden in a field” or like a pearl “of great value”. In other words the kingdom of heaven is something of the highest value. ‘Jesus shows us the supreme value of the Kingdom of heaven’ (Navarre). Acquiring the kingdom of heaven should be a priority for all of us, because it is an everlasting kingdom; a kingdom that we begin to acquire here and now in this world.

People will often use ingenious means to attain wealth. Think of the person, in the parable, who bought the field to gain the treasure. If we look around today, we can see people trying all sorts of different ways in trying to gain wealth, unfortunately not too much effort is made by many in pursuit of the kingdom of heaven, which is the greatest of all prizes. Thomas a Kempis, a medieval mystic once wrote, ‘For a small reward, a man will hurry away on a long journey; while for eternal life, many will hardly take a single step’.

Let us pray that we will make the pursuit of the kingdom of heaven a priority in our own lives. Let us pray that we will pursue that great prize above all others, because that is the one that will last for eternity. Let us follow the advice of Jesus in chapter six of Matthew’s gospel: “Do not store up treasure for yourselves on earth, where moth and woodworm destroy them…But store up treasure for yourselves in heaven, where neither moth or woodworm destroys them”.