A driving desire

Some people say that the  songs  you know reveal  your age. For me,  the lyrics of  old love songs  seem much  more romantic  and  poetic than the words of modern tunes, which often sing of making love and sex. To me modern raps are just full of noise – some rhythm and beat, but hardly any melody.

Old tunes like  “Some Enchanted Evening”  from the musical “South Pacific” advises:  “Once you have found her, never let her go…” From  “My Fair Lady”  we hear: “Let the time go by. I won’t care if I can be here on the street where you live.”

An old hit goes:  “I only have eyes for you.” These and many love songs of old times express that  the beloved is the most precious. And that  nothing in this world can replace that treasure. There is a  decisive  and  radical choice  involved.

Our  Gospel today  speaks of a similar  decisive  and  radical choice about  treasure  and  pearl of great price. The merchant makes the  radical decision to  sell  and  sacrifice everything  in exchange for  what is most precious.

Jesus tells us that when someone  discovers the Kingdom of God, he must  not allow such opportunity to escape him. On the contrary, in his own interest he should do everything in his power to  grasp such a unique opportunity.

Unfortunately,  Jesus made the access to him and his kingdom so easy to us that we  no longer feel  that  his gift is a priceless treasure. We often take Jesus and his kingdom for granted.

Jeremy Levin  was the  Cable News Network bureau chief  in  Beirut  in  1984. On  March 7  of that year  he was kidnapped by Shiite Muslims. His captors blindfolded him and drove him to a dingy, cold house in the  Bekaa Valley. There he was chained to a wall in such a way that he could only sit or lie down. He remained that way for the next four weeks.

Jeremy  tried to keep his spirit up by  positive thinking. But he soon discovered that no amount of positive thinking could take away his  terrible loneliness.  He longed to talk to anyone!

It was in this situation that  Jeremy began to think about God. He was an  avowed  atheist.  But  the thoughts of God wouldn’t go away. They became more and more frequent. Then one day the question crossed his mind,  “Could I talk to God?”

Jeremy rejected the idea immediately. For  as long as he didn’t believe in God he could never talk to Him. Otherwise, he’d be living in a  world of make believe. He’d be kidding himself.  He’d be losing his grip on reality.

But  the thoughts of God continued.  Soon Jeremy became preoccupied with them. Phrases like “God loves you”  and  “God bless you”  kept bombarding his mind. Commenting on this, he wrote later: “Even snatches of what little I had read in the Bible came back to me… [I] was like a thirsty man holding his mouth open to raindrops… I was consumed with pondering everything I had heard about God and the one called His Son, Jesus.”

It was in this frame of mind that Jeremy awoke  on  Tuesday, April 10. On that day – just 12 days before Easter – Jeremy did something he never dreamed he would ever do.  He made an act of faith in God.

He spoke his first words to God.  They were very simple. He said,  “Oh Father, please take care of my wife and family. Please reunite us.”  Then Jeremy did something else he never dreamed he would do. He forgave his captors and asked God to forgive them too. “For the first time in my life,” he said,  “I felt whole.”

In the months ahead, Jeremy was moved to several other locations. His guards became more friendly. Then came Christmas Eve. One of the guards asked him,  “What do you want for Christmas?” Jeremy looked at him in amazement and blurted out,  “A Bible!”

Two days later, Jeremy received a small red-bound New Testament. He proceeded to devour it. He was especially moved by Jesus’ words: “All that you ask for in prayer,  believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours.”

From that moment on,  Jeremy prayed for a chance to escape. On the night of  February 13, 1985,  11 months after his capture, that chance came. A guard got careless, and Jeremy bolted from the house and zigzagged barefoot down the frozen mountainside to safety.

Jeremy Levin became the CNN bureau chief in Washington, D.C. In his spare time he crisscrosses the country, sharing with audiences his new-found faith.

To discover Jesus is to discover a treasure. Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to a buried treasure or a fine pearl. When they are found, they should be purchased by sacrificing everything. Nothing is worth more than this treasure, this  fine pearl: the Kingdom of God.

Jesus tells this to his disciples because he wants to instill in them the value of the Kingdom of God. They must come to  value God’s reign over their lives. They must come to  value justice, peace, and mercy. They must come to  value love of God and neighbor more than anything else. To  value the Kingdom of God is the first step of discipleship.

Once the disciple recognized the value of the Kingdom, just like the merchant seeking fine pearls, and just like the man looking for buried treasure, only a  driving desire could propel that person to  seek for ways to make God’s Kingdom alive. Such a person would be  willing to endure setbacks, limitations,  and  trials. With this driving desire,  such a person could come to his destination – the Kingdom of God.

Through this Gospel,  Jesus calls us to begin taking hold of the Kingdom of heaven here and now. The  desire to be in the Kingdom should be our life’s journey. Like  King Solomon  we must  desire to make the world a place of justice, of understanding, and of charity. We must be  willing to forgo any desires of self-grandeur or self-preservation.

If we do not value God’s Kingdom, we will not have the desire to search for it. If we do not have a driving desire to possess the Kingdom, we will not sacrifice to acquire it. If we are not willing to sacrifice all to acquire the Kingdom of God, we will never possess it.

The  third parable  shifts the  value of the Kingdom  to the  value of our lives. When the  day of the great dragnet  collects us all, our value will be determined by  how we valued, how we desired, and  how we  sacrificed  for God’s Kingdom. If we have lived so as to possess God’s Kingdom, then we possess it. If we have not, well,  what would you do with something that is worthless? (FREEMAN)