Mt 13, 44-46:
The most important word after meditating today's Gospel is the word "work". Searching for treasure or hunting precious pearls is always difficult, even if a treasure is found by chance. All this does not happen without effort and dedication. Our relationship with the Lord God is also something precious, it is the treasure of our souls, but reaching this treasure requires spiritual work on our part, consisting in adapting our lives to God's life. In this Gospel, both heroes adapt their lives to the treasure they have found, so much so that they sell everything they have to get the treasure. The treasure is more valuable to them than their whole life, than all that they possess. They become empty, that is, they purify their lives to open them up to something much more valuable. It should be the same with our hearts when we discover the treasure of God's presence in our lives, that is, everything else should be left by us, so that only God and my heart would be in this special moment. Why did these two men have to sell everything they had to buy what they wanted? That the joy of what they had was something special and deep, not disturbed by other things. The joy of having God, of being able to experience Him in our lives, should be something so deep and unique that it cannot be compared to anything else, because it is impossible to relate God to something else in our lives. God is too precious to compete in our lives with our work, money, other people, or our desires. When you discover Him in prayer, in Holy Communion, when you experience Him in meditation, there is no question of anything else, then everything must be sold, that is, cut off from it and focus on this one moment of discovering God, because it is the moment as unique as the discovery of a treasure or the extraction of the most beautiful pearl. The largest pearl in the world is 61 centimeters (24 inches) long and 30 centimeters (11.8 inches) wide. Its value is currently estimated at USD 100 million. However, I wonder how the man who extracted it must have felt, what his heart must have been like, which was beating fast, what his thoughts must have been while holding such a piece of pearl in his hand. He certainly wasn't thinking about what he was going to eat for dinner, or that his wife would quarrel him for being late home. And what are my thoughts when I receive the Lord Jesus into my heart, when I hold in my hands the Pearl of Salvation, much more expensive than 100 million dollars. Though I'd probably be happier to have $100 million than to receive Holy Communion every day. A hundred million dollars makes a better impression than some piece of bread in a church. Hearing the words about millions of dollars my heart beats with excitement more than when I receive Holy Communion. What does it mean? Is my heart insincere, hard, insensitive to God? Certainly not, but probably in such situations the truth comes out that God is not my treasure, that He is not the most important person in my life, although I sometimes declare that. People today are treasure hunters, they dream of wealth, while at their fingertips is the greatest treasure, the greatest wealth imaginable. It takes so little to discover God in your life, and for many it is still an obstacle, not because God is like that, but because they are unwilling to make the effort to get to Him.
Father Marcin Cwierz, OSPPE