Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A
For today’s Gospel reading click the link below:
Mass Readings
(1 Kings 3:5.7-12, Rom 8:28-30, Matt 13:44-52)
Homily Reflection by Fr. JJ Fenelon
AN ATHEIST IN THE WOODS
An atheist was walking through the woods.
‘What majestic trees!’
‘What powerful rivers!’
‘What beautiful animals!’
He said to himself. As he was walking alongside the river, he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him. He turned to look. He saw a 7-feet grizzly bear charge towards him. He ran as fast as he could up the path. He looked over his shoulder & saw that the bear was closing in on him. He looked over his shoulder again, & the bear was even closer. He tripped & fell on the ground. He rolled over to pick himself up but saw that the bear was right on top of him, reaching for him with his left paw & raising his right paw to strike him.
At that instant the Atheist cried out, ‘Oh my God!’ Time Stopped. The bear froze. The forest was silent. As a bright light shone upon the man, a voice came out of the sky. ‘You deny my existence for all these years, teach others I don’t exist and even credit creation to cosmic accident.’ ‘Do you expect me to help you out of this predicament? Am I to count you as a believer?
The atheist looked directly into the light, ‘It would be hypocritical of me to suddenly ask you to treat me as a Christian now, but perhaps you could make the BEAR a Christian’? ‘Very well,’ said the voice.
The light went out. The sounds of the forest resumed. And the bear dropped his right paw, brought both paws together, bowed his head & said:
Lord bless this food, which I am about to receive from thy bounty through Christ our Lord, Amen
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Like the Atheist, for most us it is a case that there is a God but we don’t see a need for Him until there is a crisis in our lives. God is often a last resort.
Today’s readings remind us about making God our first priority. In today’s Gospel – A man finds a treasure buried in a field; he sells all that he has and buys the field. A merchant finds a pearl of great value, he puts up all that he has and buys it.
What is value? Philosophers tell us that a value is that for which we will sacrifice all other things. A value is the heart of our life.
Jesus says, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matt.6:21)
There is only one treasure that brings true happiness and that treasure is Jesus.
If we’re not happy it means we have still not found Jesus or the kingdom of heaven. If we are not happy, then we need to turn to Jesus and then we will find the happiness we seek.
Searching for Jesus and the kingdom of heaven means we face choices and have to make decisions, sometimes hard decisions that we would prefer not to have to make. There will be passing treasures that in the short-term are tempting but don’t offer us the happiness we really want.
I have come across many Inquirers and Catechumens of RCIA in the last 22 years, who have achieved much materially and high on the corporate ladder but yet feel unfulfilled or ordinary family people who feel inadequate or feel a certain void in their lives. They are missing out on true happiness.
In the 1st Reading, (1 Kings 3:5,7-12), Solomon could have asked God for riches and wealth or a mighty army to defeat his enemies but instead asked God for wisdom so that he could rule God’s people with an understanding and discerning heart.
We can acquire our values from a variety of sources: parents, teachers, peers, our culture and environment, television, books, people we admire and look up to.
But the greatest source of all is Holy Scripture, above all, the life and preaching of Jesus. Every value should be evaluated according to that of Jesus.
Are we aware of the sources of false values that threaten our faith, our families, in fact our very existence? Can we recognize the practices and prejudices that might cause us to lose our most precious value – the eternal relationship with Jesus and all our loved ones?
There will be passing treasures that in the short-term are tempting but don’t offer us the happiness we really want. There is the real treasure, Jesus, for whom we sometimes carry our cross in order to find Him; Jesus, who is the treasure who gives us real happiness. By carrying our cross well we will discover a pearl inside us, and that pearl is Jesus.
In the 2nd reading St Paul says, “We know that by turning everything to their good God, co-operates with all those who love him…” (Rom 8:28)
More than our love for God it is in allowing God to find and possess us which is the greatest value of all.
Do we have to set out on a journey to find this treasure, this pearl, Jesus? Do we need a map? Yes, we do! The journey is the journey into our own hearts, and the map has been given us by Jesus himself. How should we begin? By praying and receiving the sacraments frequently and getting to know our Bible. I believe that none of us is praying enough. That’s why there are so many problems. If we all prayed more I believe we would all be far happier, and many situations would work out much better. So let us pray more, and receive the sacraments more often, and get to know our Bible so that the pearl, Jesus, may grow within us, a treasure that won’t let us down. Then we can go off happy like the man in the parable. (Matt 13:44)
The supreme value is to seek a personal awareness of the love that Jesus has for each of us. This love is the hidden treasure, the pearl of great price, a value worth risking everything for. While this is true it also requires a great courage.
Story of St Therese of Lisieux
At the age of 14, on Christmas Eve in 1886, Therese had a conversion that transformed her life. From then on, her powerful energy and sensitive spirit were turned toward love, instead of keeping herself happy. At 15, she entered the Carmelite convent in Lisieux to give her whole life to God. She took the religious name Sister Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. Living a hidden, simple life of prayer, she was gifted with great intimacy with God. Through sickness and dark nights of doubt and fear, she remained faithful to God, rooted in His merciful love. After a long struggle with tuberculosis, she died on September 30, 1897, at the age of 24. Her last words were the story of her life: “My God, I love You!”
The world came to know Therese through her autobiography, “Story of a Soul”. She described her life as a “little way of spiritual childhood.” She lived each day with an unshakable confidence in God’s love. “What matters in life,” she wrote, “is not great deeds, but great love.” Therese lived and taught a spirituality of attending to everyone and everything well and with love. She believed that just as a child becomes enamored with what is before her, we should also have a childlike focus and totally attentive love. Therese’s spirituality is of doing the ordinary, with extraordinary love.
She loved flowers and saw herself as the “little flower of Jesus,” who gave glory to God by just being her beautiful little self among all the other flowers in God’s garden. Because of this beautiful analogy, the title “little flower” remained with St. Therese.
Her inspiration and powerful presence from heaven touched many people very quickly. She was canonized by Pope Pius XI on May 17, 1925. Had she lived, she would have been only 52 years old when she was declared a Saint.
“My mission – to make God loved – will begin after my death,” she said. “I will spend my heaven doing good on earth. I will let fall a shower of roses.” Roses have been described and experienced as Saint Therese’s signature. Countless millions have been touched by her intercession and imitate her “little way.” She has been acclaimed “the greatest saint of modern times.” In 1997, Pope John Paul II declared St. Therese a Doctor of the Church – the only Doctor of his pontificate – in tribute to the powerful way her spirituality has influenced people all over the world.
The message of St. Therese is beautiful, inspiring, and simple.