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!”