Have you ever collected anything? Maybe it was/is baseball cards, stamps, coins, polish pottery, or something else. Just imagine you found that rare item that would be perfect for your collection, but it is just out of reach. You can't afford it, at least not right now. Picture sacrificing and saving until you have enough for it. Was it worth the wait, work and sacrifice? If you are a real collector, it probably was worth it!
In the two short parables today, Jesus is comparing the Kingdom of heaven to treasure found and buried in a field that you can't afford, or to a pearl that you can't afford. In both stories, the person sold everything they had to buy the field or pearl. They did it without though or hesitation. That's what the kingdom of heaven is going to be like, it will be worth more to us than anything we could possibly own. We won't bothering sacrificing and saving up for it, we will just flat out sell everything we have and go get it!
When we fully understand and grasp what God has put before us, it won't even feel like a choice and sacrifice! We will have so much joy that we will gladly give up everything for the Kingdom! What each of us has to give up to inherit the kingdom may vary! Some will have to give up unforgiving hearts, others will have to give up a love of money and things, others will have to give up cursing, jealousy, coveting, etc. Some of us have to give up several things!
Granted, we are human and will struggle at times and even feel like Jeremiah at times, in the first reading. "Woe to me, my mother, that you gave me birth! A man of strife and contention to all the land! I neither borrow nor lend yet everyone curses me." Jeremiah 16:10 (NABRE)
Are you ready to sacrifice everything for the greatest treasure in history? If not, what's holding you back? what do you need to lay at Jesus feet so you can move closer to what God so desperatly wants for you?
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