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.
Matthew 13:45-46
Listen
to that again! “A merchant finally finds a very rare and beautiful pearl. A
must-have, he goes and sells everything he has to buy that one single pearl.”
Have
you ever wanted something so badly that you were willing to do almost anything
or go through anything to have it? I am not talking about sitting around
wishing and hoping that God or Readers Digest Sweepstakes or some fairy
godmother or the Lottery would magically grant you your wish. I mean you want it so badly that
you would do anything or go anywhere to have it?
Olympic
athletes do exactly that! They set a goal in their minds and then focus their
radar on that goal and daily do what it takes, year in and year out, to reach
that goal. They certainly don’t just sit around and dream about or wish they
could be an Olympic champion. They practice obsessively until they become one.
Several
weeks ago, I read a story by a respected writer about his dream of owning a
racing bike when he was nine years old. From selling newspapers, he had earned
enough money to buy a bicycle magazine, which he devoured month after month. He
decided, even at that age, that his foremost goal in life was to get a specific
European racing bicycle he saw in that magazine. He went to bed, nightly,
dreaming of his perfect bicycle. It became so real in his mind that he could
almost see it and touch it.
It
cost $175.00 (well over $1,0000 in today’s money). When he asked his father to
buy it for him, his father told him he could have it when he was twenty years
old. He could not get his father to budge, so he bargained with him. “Can I
have the bicycle if I earn the money myself?” Never dreaming that a nine year
old could come up with that kind of money, his Dad agreed. Well, the short of
it was, he went into selling greeting cards from door to door. In knee-deep
snow, dressed as cute and pathetic as he could, he rang doorbell after
doorbell. His magic line was, “Would you prefer one box or two?” He knew that he must sell cards to have his dream. To his Dad’s and everyone else’s
surprise, he soon made enough to buy his precious bike.
It
wasn’t a bike for me, it was being a priest. I was seven years old when I decided that I
was going to be a priest. At fourteen, the earliest allowed back then to enter
the seminary, I came up here from Meade County to begin my twelve year trek to
become a priest. The adults in my life, parents, teachers and pastor, humored
me, allowing me to begin seminary, thinking that I would finally "get it out of my system" and come home in a few months. To their surprise, this determined fourteen year
old finished the twelve years of seminary and has been ordained for over
forty-seven years and counting.
We
call people like the merchant in search of the most perfect pearl in the whole world, people like
the boy who wanted his dream racing bike or people like the boy who really wanted so much
to be a priest, “passionate.” The word “passionate” comes from the Latin word passio, "to suffer.” The thing that all three have in common was that they were not
only willing to dream about and wish for what they wanted, they were willing to
pay the price to have it. The pearl merchant was willing to search high and low and finally sell everything he
had to own the perfect pearl. The nine year old was willing to trudge through
the snow and sell Christmas cards until he got his precious dream bicycle. This
determined fourteen year old was willing to leave home and family and go off to
an alien world and study his butt off, some summers working three jobs at a
time, to reach his goal of ordination to the priesthood.
When he finds that perfect pearl,
he sells all that he has and buys it.
Jesus
tells us today that this is the attitude and passion we need to have about
“entering the kingdom of heaven.” What
is this “kingdom of heaven,” this “pearl of great price,” that Jesus is talking
about? By “kingdom of heaven” Jesus is not talking about a state of being that
will unfold only after we die, it is a way of living that begins here and now. It is a life of
integrity, of trust in God and service of others. Jesus invites us to be
passionate about living a life of integrity, living a life of trusting God
without hesitation, living a life of dedicated service to others. He calls it in other places “hungering and
thirsting for holiness.” If only we could be as passionate about having a good life as we are about making a living! We
all have to “make a living,” but Jesus invites us also to pursue a “good life” as
well, a life of integrity, trust in God and service of others. This is really
the “pearl of great price.” This “wealth” cannot be lost or destroyed, even in
death!
Very
often when people like me talk about being passionate about religion, some tend
to translate “being passionate about religion” into being a “religious
fanatic,” boring people out of their minds with endless God-talk, guilt trips
and ecclesiastical intricacies. Personally, I have no use for religious
fanatics who obsess about the earthenware jar that holds the great treasure,
rather than the treasure itself. They end up preaching the church, instead of
the message entrusted to the church. What I am talking about is living a life
that is Christ-like in every aspect.
“Hungering
and thirsting” for the “kingdom of heaven” is a “pearl” worth looking for, a
gift from God himself! Why search for it? It will make you happy down deep
inside, not just feel good for a few hours! “Happy are those who hunger and thirst for holiness?” This kind of happiness can not be lost or stolen. It is the
one thing you can take with you into the next life, where it will grow into a perfect happiness for all
eternity.
