Church of the Nativity

Reading 1 1 KGS 3:5, 7-12

Another week, another three parables about the Kingdom of Heaven.  Once again, in each of these, we can easily see Jesus Christ as the Kingdom of Heaven: Jesus is the buried treasure, Jesus is the pearl of great price, Jesus is the net thrown into the sea.

With the treasure and the pearl, Jesus shows His disciples that He is to be the most important thing in their lives, Jesus should be put before anything else.

Once someone has found Jesus, out of joy, they go and sell all they have in order to acquire Him.  Now, obviously we can’t acquire or possess Jesus per se, but we can acquire and possess a relationship with Him and prioritize that relationship above everything else in our world.

Using money here is a great example.  Typically, what we spend our money on shows what we love the most.  Think about people’s hobbies - often they are quite expensive.  Boats, golf, vacations - are people more willing to give money to these than they are to the Church?

I know I sure was.  I was willing to spend a lot of money on those types of things, hesitant to give to the Church, but would spend any amount of money to go see the Cubs. This year I can't spend any amount of money to watch the Cubs play!

In my life there were two turning points when it came to money and the Church.  

The first was when I realized that God loved me and that the Church was my mother, here to protect me, doing good things for me but also for the world.  At that point, I began to give between 5% and 10% of my income to the Church, and the remainder to charities to make a full 10% tithe.

When I look back at it now, it seems this was when I began to truly live my faith.  I began to realize I was part of supporting the mission of the Church, and I did that out of joy, not out of obligation, but out of joy for the appreciation of the blessings I had been given in knowing God.

The second turning point was when I realized it wasn’t enough to just give money, that God was asking me to give my life.  I was living in West Des Moines, I had just turned 30, and my salary was over six figures.  That was nearly ten years ago, if I was still there, I’d be making a quarter of a million annually. 

But, I sold all so to speak, I walked away from a great job and the money to go back to school for six years, even though I knew I would never make much money as a priest.  

Then again, I have found my pearl of great price, I've acquired the land with the hidden treasure, I’ve acquired a deep relationship with Jesus that allows me to share Him with others.  That’s the most important thing to me.  

What is the most important thing to you?  See, everyone, well, most everyone wants to go to Heaven.  People say they want to go to heaven.  But heaven isn’t ultimately a place that we are good enough to get into or do enough stuff to earn or deserve, heaven is a person, the most important person, with whom we need a friendship.

Jesus gives these parables to show how He is the most important thing in any of our lives.  More tangibly, receiving Jesus in the Eucharist should be the most important thing, the pearl of great price, the hidden treasure. 

To be honest, the Eucharist - for me to be able to consecrate Jesus in the Eucharist for all of you, was the biggest reason that I became a priest.

So I’ve been frustrated recently because I hear people say, “oh Father, it’s just too dangerous to go to Mass.”  But these same people are fine going to the Supper Club and sitting shoulder to shoulder at the bar without any masks.  Sure seems like going out to eat is more important than Jesus, huh?

So think about it in those terms, Covid terms.  Here’s the scenario - You have to make a calculated risk and you can only go out to one place each week - what is the most important, where do you choose to go?

Talk about preaching to the choir, you all are here, and thank you for that.  But your friends that aren’t yet will still go out to eat, shame on them. Where is their pearl of great price? What is the most important thing?

Now don’t hear what I’m not saying, if people are being really cautious and they truly aren’t going anywhere, then by all means, don’t come to Mass either.  

But if people are going out to eat all the time, going to sports, going to grad receptions… well then, let’s be honest with each other, those things are simply more important to them at this time.

So we need to show that Jesus is the most important, and we do that in a variety of ways...

When we prioritize Mass before anything else on Sunday we show Jesus is the most important to us.

When we sacrifice something, offer up some suffering for God, we show God is the most important to us.

When we make time, every single day, for our relationship in prayer we show our relationship with God is the most important to us.

Prayer is the basis of our relationship with God, and these things I just suggested are all related to prayer.  I’ve spoken about this relationship many times over the last several weeks, but we can’t have the relationship without prayer, and as in any real relationship, we need to be able to have a conversation.

If conversational prayer is unfamiliar to you, I’d like you to just try something today.  Tonight, when you are ready for bed, in bed or out doesn’t matter, just review your day. 

First, review the blessings that occurred in the day, then thank God for the blessings, for what He has given you.

Second, think about what you could have done better.  Usually it has to do with how you loved someone, either someone else or yourself even, and ask God for forgiveness and for the grace to do better tomorrow.

That’s it, that’s all, a start of a daily conversation with just gratitude for blessings today, and reflection on how you can do better with God’s help tomorrow.

God has predestined us for a relationship with Himself which we have through prayer. That’s what the predestined means in that second reading, not predestined to heaven or hell, it’s predestined to this most important relationship, living and growing as a disciple of Jesus among many brothers and sisters.

May God bless you as you grow in your faith, showing your relationship with Jesus is the most important thing in your world.