Do you see treasure in the field of your life? What are you willing to give up for that treasure? When we believe that G-d’s treasure for us in this life represents the jackpot, we will go all in. Jesus did say that some will see the treasure of deeper meaning and others will only see the confusing parable, with the treasure of meaning hidden. Some of us follow the Narrow Path and some of us cut corners. Jason Micheli, in his sermon for this week, quotes Fleming Routledge on a kind of cutting corners that seems relevant to the hidden treasure in this week’s gospel reading, Mt 13:44-52.
A church that no longer speaks of the Devil likely also fails to make God the subject of its verbs. This is not a coincidence. A church that loses its vocabulary for Evil Personified is a church that believes less and less in the delivering God. We cannot adequately preach the gospel if we have cut a character from its dramatis personae. — Fleming Rutledge via Jason Micheli
Are we stupid for following Christ, when others who cut corners seem to get ahead with little sacrifice? How do we keep our faith and joy in following Christ? Well, today’s first reading gives us a clue. Discernment. Solomon (1 Kgs 3:9) prayed for discernment: “Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong. For who is able to govern this vast people of yours?” G-d gave Solomon wisdom of heart to know and understand what’s right. So, we keep our faith and joy in Jesus by knowing the difference between life in Christ and life away from Christ.
How does a sommelier discern? How can s/he detect all those notes from a sip of wine? Through experience. And, so too, we can learn to discern from our life experiences.
Whilst recovering from a battle wound, Ignatius of Loyola read about the lives of the saints and figured out that the pleasure he derived from worldly things faded away, like a mirage, and that reading about those who followed the Lord gave lasting joy. Ignatius asked why, why the difference? He saw the inspiration he felt to do good things on reading about the saints as a message from G-d for his life. Ignatius experienced a conversion recovering from that serious battle wound, and this experience led him to develop his spiritual exercises. For a long time religious new these exercises in the form of a 30-day silent retreat. Recently there’s been a renewed interest in Ignatian spirituality for lay people.
Ignatius wrote that the Exercises: “have as their purpose the conquest of self and the regulation of one’s life in such a way that no decision is made under the influence of any inordinate attachment.” — via Ignatian Spirituality
When we attend church every Sunday (or more often), when we serve others with patience and humility and good nature, when we think of ourselves less and consider those around us more — can we discern the joy that comes from nothing else? Can we still our hearts enough to tell the difference between the puffed up pleasure of worldly material things and attention and influence and power, and the persistent joy and chaos-free peace of resisting worldly temptations and following the Narrow Path?
In remembrance of Brian Doerksen, who lost a very intense and short battle with Stage 4 cancer last Tuesday, I’ll leave readers with one of his best songs.