24/07/2011 - 17th Sunday in Ordinary Season - Year A
1Reading 1Kg 3,5.7-12 Psalm 118 2Reading Rom 8,28-30 Gospel Mt 13,44-52
It is not easy to be responsable! To hold on to the ministry of goverment is truly
difficult. Those who exercise an authority condition the lives of others, receives
both praise and critics, please and displease many at the same time. Salomon knew
this when he started to reign on Israel, up to the point that he was disturbed by
this thought during his sleep. And because he showed himself humble, God wanted
to answer his prayer by giving him wisdom and discernment. Salomon knew he could
fail like any other man, like all, and that his real mistakes could make others
suffer because of him. Therefore he asked God not to give him power or richness,
but a listening heart to know what is right and what is wrong. This is the prayer
which pleases God. Salomon's difficulty is everybody's problem. Our life can be
a gift of God for our brothers or it can become a pain for them. What are we to
desire? What are we to present to our Father? The enviorment in which we live makes
us desire to be selfish, become rich, enjoy always a good health and a long life,
not having enemies or not being crashed by them. God does not like these desires,
because they dont' manifest the richness and the beauty of his love for all. He
enjoys and satisfies willingly the desires of who want to collaborate with him and
create comunion and to put everywhere the warm imprint of his love. These are the
desires that his Son, Jesus, carried in his heart. He fulfilled them himself to
show the Father's love and make it known to all. Our lives are fulfilled and we
reach the true and deep meaning of joy when we "are changed in the image of
his Son". This is our final destiny and the aim of all our comintments and
work. Jesus helps us by his parables to join in the way God thinks.
Who is the wise man? The one who knows how to choose the best. The one who finds
a treasure and the one who looks for precious pearls, like the ones who separate
the good fish from those not good for eating, these have received a sure wisdom
that does not betray. The one who finds the treasure hidden in a field, in which
one works, won't let it go: buys the field so that no one comes to know about it:
even if that field won't cost a lot and no body would want it, he sells everything
he owns and buys that field. He one who finds the pearl of great value, sells all
he owns to have this one. The one who fishes using the net, won't take all he gets
into the net, but before he separates the good fish from those which are not good
to be eaten. Till they are mixed together, no one succeds to sell anything.
Which will be the field I can and should buy? It is the field that beholds the treasure
that can change my life. That field is the place where Jesus hides. I shall look
for those situations, friends, work or something else in which Jesus is at the center.
Even if nobody appreciate these situations and friends or work, I won't let it pass
me by, because they are precious, because they fill one's life with alot of understanding
and peace. Even if Jesus inside those situations carries the cross, it is there
that there is joy and life eternal.
Which pearl of great value that makes me sell all my other pearls so that I can
get hold of this one? It is again Jesus: without whom I cannot survive, without
him there is no light and no peace in my life. No other richness and no other good
things can ever fill my heart.
And who is it who sits to choose between the caught up fish to put them in caskets
to take home? It's me who stop and discern between my thoughts and my projects those
which are "good", that is, those who bring Jesus in my life, which binds
me to him, which fulfill his words and desires.
The parables of Jesus give us that wisdom that no even Salmon received. With the
wisdom of Jesus we can do all our comitments, even those of responsability which
weighs us down.
Let us ask God to give us wisdom and prudence, that he answers us by offerring Jesus:
"listen to him", he says. And the Lord himself assures us: "Who remains
in me shall bear alot of fruit"!