WHAT’S THE
GREATEST TREASURE
THAT YOU OWN?
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 17 Sunday in Ordinary
Time [A] is, “What’s The Greatest Treasure That You Own?”
That’s your homework for this week: What’s the Greatest
Treasure That You Own?”
Here are two tricks to figure out your greatest treasure.
First suggestion: jot down on paper - or computer - or
what have you - a list of 10 or 20 treasures that you have - then narrow them
down to 3 and then down to 1.
Second suggestion: share your answers and if the treasure
is something you can see and touch, show
it to spouse, family and / or friends.
It’s a great exercise. On our high school Kairos
retreats, I’ve been on over 30 of them now, Ginny has an exercise, “If your
house was on fire and you could grab 3 things - other than pets or people, what
would you take out of your house?”
The answers vary - and usually there is one or two great
treasures: journals, photographs, an afghan made by a grandmother, a lock of
hair from a mom when she got cancer and lost all her hair - before it came
back.
What is the greatest treasure that you own?
TODAY’S
READINGS
Today’s first reading from the First Book of Kings has this great folklore story that God asked
Solomon in a dream at night, “Ask something of me and I’ll give it to you?”
What would you ask God for - if you had such a dream?
Well Solomon asks for the gift of an understanding heart.
He tells God he has this job of king, with so many
different people, with so many different challenges - in his struggle to govern
this vast people.
And God was pleased with his request and tells him, “You
could have asked for a long life, for riches, for the death of your enemies,
but because you asked for understanding, I’ll give you a heart so wise and
understanding - that there has never been anyone like you - up till now, and
after you - there will come no one - to equal you.”
I don’t have that treasure - there are a lot of people I
just don’t understand - but I’d like to have that treasure - to be more
understanding.
In today’s second reading from Romans - Paul talks about predestination and justification.
Wouldn’t that be nice to have - to know that it’s automatic. When you die, you know you're automatically going to God.
Predestination is a tricky theological issue that is very
complicated to say the least.
I think, I sense, that the Catholic position is that
salvation - redemption, being saved - is a two way street. It’s not all God.
It’s not all us. It’s a we situation - a we deal - we work with God. It takes grace
and effort. We’re not robots. But we
need help. There’s freedom - there has
to be that - otherwise why live and love - and interact with God and each
other? Cooperation, communication, struggle, has to be in the mix. We know this
from marriage and family for starters.
The other doesn’t have to love me. I don’t have to love the other - but
when we do - and it works - then we experience heaven. It we don’t then it’s
hell.
Yet, I am very grateful for the treasure of faith - and
hope - and the gift of belief in Jesus Christ. I hope I’ll have that faith and
hope till I die and then wake up in the
embrace of God after I die.
In today’s gospel we have these three specifics: the
treasure hidden in the field, the pearl of great price, and the net that
collects the good and the bad.
Every once and a while people discover treasures - stuff
hidden - or put in a safe place and something happens on the way to the forum
and their treasure remains in a cellar closet or buried in bottom drawer or
attic trunk ….
The Dead Sea Scrolls were in some caves - hidden there
for some 2000 years. They were found in 1947.
The Nag Hammadi texts were found in Egypt in 1945 - from some offshoot
Christian group in Upper Egypt. What
else is out there? Scripture scholars
hope - hope - that there is a text of Matthew in Aramaic - somewhere - if such
a text exists.
So people have treasures - jewelry, or pearls, or what
have you - that they treasure. Sometimes
in cleaning a house or disposing of stuff - people net some great treasures -
in garage sales, antique road shows or what have you.
What treasures do you have? Go figure and go talk to each other.
MY PERSONAL
STORY
I’ve told this story before, but let me talk a tiny bit
about my greatest treasure.
Around 1970 - when my dad was dying of emphysema - I sat
down with him and wrote out about 50 pages of notes - about his childhood in Ireland, his
family, his coming to America, to Boston, Portland Maine, Philadelphia, New
York City. I got it all and those are precious scriptures. I gave them to my
youngest niece, Maryna, and they are in a box in storage someplace in New
Jersey.
In 1987 I got the idea to tape my mom - on a small tape
recorder. It was just the two of us. So I asked her all the same kinds of
questions - her childhood in Ireland, her coming to America, Boston, the name
of the boat, her jobs before she came down to Brooklyn to get married to my
dad, and all that.
After 45 minutes she said, “The moo is out of me!”
Translation: enough I tired of all this thinking and talking. Then she said:
next time we’ll get the rest of the story.
Sorry to say she was killed in a hit and run accident two
weeks later on the way to church and then work at the age of 82.
Well that tape is precious. I would get that if St.
Mary’s went on fire.
I’ve listened to that tape about 10 times and I listened
to it with my sister Mary for the first time for her lately. She didn’t want to
listen to it till then.
We both laughed and cried - and loved the stories.
My sister said, “I didn’t know mom had an accent.”
Well when I asked myself - in homework - last night - what
my greatest treasure is - I said, “That tape.”
I would not go bonkers if I lost it. It will probably be
dumped when I die - unless I pass it off to one of my nieces. It’s a thing - but what makes it a treasure
is that it’s someone telling their story.
CONCLUSION
What is your greatest treasure?
Hopefully, we realize it’s each other. It’s another -
because we know their story.
We’ve gone to Holy Communion with that person many times.
We’ve gone down the aisle to receive them to eat them up - and as we received
who they are, we said, “Amen!”
