A Mission of Self-Discovery
1 Kings 3:5, 7-12; Romans 8:28-30; Matthew 13:44-52 or 13:44-46
Despite our human wish that only goodness will surround us, it suffices to have observing eyes and a perceptive mind to notice that people behave differently. God often gets the blames for the absence of goodness in our society, especially when we perceive injustices tarnishing the goodness of God’s creation. Our readings of this 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A, 2023, attempt to point out the direction towards the recovery of universal goodness, provided that God gets human cooperation. But is God to blame for the evil in the world?
For Christians, every human being is an unfinished project. The reason is simple—the goodness of creation lies in the human effort for the progressive refinement of God’s original goodness implanted in every creature. This is cooperation with God, and this effort makes earthly life a laboratory for the production of goodness. To access our earthly laboratory, we came from God, and we shall return to God—“In the beginning God created . . .” It follows that the period between our coming from and returning to God tasks us with discernment on self-discovery. The mission of self-discovery is to know our purpose upon earth, thereby keeping intact our inbuilt GPS (Global Positioning System) not to go off the track of goodness God designed for each person because “God made us to know, love, serve him in this world and to be happy with him forever in the next world”. This is the Council of Trent’s GPS.
King Solomon’s encounter with God, in our first reading, gives us an example of how to keep intact our connection with God’s purposes for us—prayer to succeed in our respective tasks/vocation/profession. Solomon makes it clear that whatever our jobs may be, it has a divine dimension to it: every job/vocation must satisfy two criteria—it must come from God, and it must be done with and for God. It was Solomon’s realization that his job as king came from God, which made him request God’s directives on how to go about his job. God’s delight in Solomon’s discovery that Israel and leadership both belong to God made the acceptance of his prayer a forgone conclusion. The root of all problems is the neglect of God and the unachievable project of doing God’s job without God!
If Solomon puts God at the heart of his job as king, today’s gospel teaches us how to imitate the example of Solomon’s discovery that success is only possible when God’s will alone matters in our lives, as well as doing God’s will as the exclusive task of the human person. God listed the different options of gifts that Solomon could have asked for—money, victory in wars against the enemy, domination of other people, expansion of his power and kingdom, etc. These other things that Solomon did not ask for are the things that blind us to the singular task of doing God’s will; Solomon escaped from those, and he pleased God because of that.
Just as Solomon escaped the blindness of seeking what is not God’s will, our gospel reading invites us to do likewise. The priceless pearl discovered in today’s gospel is God and his will for us to discover him—God is priceless; hence, it is worth selling everything to possess him. It is never easy to discover God, so the other parable talks about discovering him buried and mired in the field of what I call our selfish and self-acclaimed desires for glory and power—money, influence, etc.
God neither hides himself from us nor permits evil to overrun the goodness he created. Our concupiscences bury him, and we become less attuned to discerning his presence, listening to his voice in our hearts, and noticing his actions in our lives and around us. For some of us, it takes a rude awakening or tragedy before we begin to seek God because our hubris is broken and egos deflated.
Unfortunately, not everyone is as astute and courageous as Solomon—to bury their concupiscences and lift up God’s will in prayer of success as a servant of God and his people. Our third parable talks about those who remained dogged in their opinion and rejection of God: and “[t]he angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth”. This tragic end for those who choose non-cooperation with God’s will frees God from human blames for the presence of evil. Evil is of human invention through non-cooperation with God’s will for the goodness originally implanted in us!
The third parable ending with “wailing and grinding of teeth” speaks to the consequences of human actions, the cost of rejecting God. The tragedy of Hell and condemnation are self-inflicted. How difficult is it to realize that we did not create ourselves and that our Creator will have a reason for creating us? Is it complicated, having seeing so many people die, to know that our lives on earth is temporary? When we realize that God created us, we did not create ourselves, and we also realize that we are mortals waiting for death, then the sole mission of human life described in our second reading—“be conformed to the image of his Son”—makes sense.
If it becomes so difficult to know the will of God, because we keep searching for where to find it, our second reading solves the riddle for us—Jesus Christ is God’s will. The imitation of Christ becomes our GPS to God. Paul says: “For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters”. In Jesus Christ, then, God made himself both visible and exemplary. The mission of self-discovery becomes a mission of comparison between ourselves and Jesus Christ. To seek to live like Jesus Christ, and to reject whatever is contrary to how Jesus lived and what he deed, are the unmistakable Christian GPS.
Consequently, everybody must blame himself or herself for the evil in the world because it is an accusation that we are not who we should be. As individuals and groups, every inch we move “to be conformed to the image of his Son”, the better our world becomes! Let’s get to work to create the world God wants for us!
Assignment for the Week:
Keep repeating to yourself all week: I am Jesus Christ, may I live like him!