17 Ordinary: 29/30 July, 2022

Fr. Terrence enjoyed being here last weekend - and is at St. Therese parish this weekend.  He told me you were kind to him and I would expect nothing else – so I hope you were generous to his appeal to help the Basilians in their mission work.
    I enjoyed being home with my sister and her family – and we got more of my mother’s house cleaned out – and played lots of card games. .  .
    
    A lady wrote this story about a childhood experience she had – 
    She recalled that when she was a child, her wealthy parents would take an extended vacation to Europe every summer and they would leave her in care of a sitter.
    When she was eleven, the regular sitter quit right before her parents left - and they had to hire a last-minute replacement, who they knew only by her references.
    Before their departure, the girl came upon her mother wrapping up all the family silverware and other valuables, hiding them away in a locked closet.
    The girl - having never seen her mother do this before – asked her mother what she was doing — so her mother explained since she did not know the new sitter - she could not trust her around the family’s treasures. . .
    You can imagine how the girl interpreted the remark – the parents could trust the new sitter with HER – 
but not with anything that had material value.  Wasn’t she more important than silver knives and forks???
    I’m sure the parents - if questioned - would of course say they valued their daughter more than any of their possessions – but for the girl – their actions spoke louder than their words.
    The woman concluded the story that with a bit of counseling over the years, she had gotten over the shock of not feeling valued – and considers herself a somewhat adjusted adult.
    How many times do we allow our actions to speak louder than our words??


    In these two parables today - Jesus is making the point that the kingdom of heaven and living in God’s grace should be of the utmost value to us – certainly worth sacrificing for.
    Going to Mass, taking time for prayer, following the Commandments, reading the Scriptures, loving God and our neighbor – is not just some form of insurance to make sure that we live later in the eternal kingdom of heaven --
It is supposed to be something that we enjoy, and help bring about in our lives right now –
    And that’s where are actions may speak louder than our words. . . we say we believe in the kingdom of heaven - and want to live in the eternal kingdom someday  –
but do we follow up those words by making an investment in the kingdom with our time, talent, and treasure??  Singing “how great thou art” is one thing – but living it is something completely different!
    The person who found the treasure in the field was extremely lucky – but the treasure was not in their possession until they sold all that they had in order to make it their own.
    Again, the person who found the pearl of great price was lucky – but the pearl did not belong to the merchant until everything was sold and the pearl was in their hand.
    Both of these people were willing to sacrifice everything they had – in order to obtain the treasure!
    Likewise, the kingdom of heaven does not come to us automatically.  Yes, it is freely offered to us – it’s a gift – but we have to invest in it to really posses it – or rather I should say - to have it posses us.
    Where your treasure is, there your heart will be.

    So the most important thing we have to invest is our time – how to spend it, or more importantly - how do we waste it – day after day.  Do we invest any of our time in making the kingdom more a part of our lives – by praying, by reading Scripture, by serving others?
    The kingdom of heaven requires an investment of our WILL – 
we have to deliberately choose to guide our lives by Christ’s teachings rather than making up our own rules about what’s good or bad - what we should do or should not do.
    And the kingdom of heaven takes an investment of our treasure - our finances - for if we truly value our faith – and this parish community which helps to nurture our faith – and our school which helps to form our children in the faith  — then we will adequately support them.
    When our lives are over, we will have to leave behind every material possessions we have accumulated here on earth – U-Hauls simply do not follow a hearse to the cemetery.

    But we will take with us the treasure we have stored up in the kingdom of heaven:  our good works and our love for God and others – these will be our joy for all eternity.   A life of holiness and goodness is a treasure that will not fail.
    The kingdom of heaven is worth our sacrifice and our investment – for -
    Where your treasure is, there your heart will be.  
    And so we pray that the Lord may purify our hearts – making holiness and goodness our utmost desires – so that we will be set apart, ready to do God’s will.

    And as my friend Fr. Phil Eagan would say:  can I get an AMEN??
    

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