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Homily for Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

READ: (1 Kgs 3:5, 7-12; Rom 8: 28-30; Matt 13: 44-52)

REFLECT: Seek good of the other, Seek God’s plan and purpose, Find God’s Kingdom…

Dear friends, today we are in the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. We all of us are seekers on earth. We seek for different things based on our wants and wishes, dreams and desires. What we seek for we shall find, because we give heart and soul to what we seek or search for. If we seek for the good, we shall find the good, but if we seek the bad we only find the bad. The result is accordingly obtained based on what we seek. The liturgy of the word invites each one to seek the good of the other, to seek God’s plan and his purpose and find the kingdom of God, which God has predestined for each one of us. So based on the liturgy of the word, I would like to share with you three points of reflection.

1. Seek Good of the other: 

We as human beings have the capacity to be extremely selfish but at the same time we also show selfless dedication and commitment towards others in life. But more than the self, when we focus on the well-being of others, somehow we obtain wellness and goodness to ourselves. Our goodness towards others makes us good and satisfied. In 1 Cor 10: 24 St. Paul very clearly states the practical solutions in seeking the good of the other, “Let no one pursue his or her own interest but the interests of others.” Yes, something similar we find in the first reading, where King Solomon asks God to give him wisdom to govern the people of God. In fact, it is God, who asks Solomon; “ask what you want me to give you.” The greatness of King Solomon lies in acknowledging God’s greatness. It is God who wanted Solomon to be king; it is to God’s people who are numerous that Solomon is made King. Therefore, the kingship of Solomon and the people he served are the merits of God. So in order to govern God’s chosen people, Solomon asks for wisdom. We know that God granted the wish of King Solomon, a king as wise and discerning mind as Solomon was never there before and will never be after as well. This is the gift of God to King Solomon. 

Perhaps, King Solomon owes everything he has to his ancestors and everything he has from them is from God. The reason why King Solomon asked God for wisdom is to have peaceful reign of life, because a wise man will have the ability to discern perfectly well in the face of turmoil and persecutions and bring about ways and means to promote peace and tranquility in the place, where one lives and where one governs. The Lord was indeed satisfied giving Solomon wisdom, because Solomon did not ask wisdom to consider himself as great in the sight of people or to gain name and fame. What is quite striking is that Solomon prayed for the ability to govern wisely, God knew it as an unselfish prayer. Solomon’s prayer is considered good because he did not ask for things to satisfy himself but gave up the chance to ask for such things in order to obtain good for God’s people. So such should be our prayers of petitions which need to be characterized less for personal good than for the good of the community of God’s people or the neighboring places we live. 

Today, it’s just a question to pause for a while and take action in life.  If God were to give us an option today, what we would like to have, what we would ask or choose? Would it be wealth or wisdom? Health or heritage? Best of best things for oneself or best of best things for all in common? It all matters in what perception we would look at things or with what perspectives we would choose. However, selfishness only thinks of the self and centers on self. All that begins and ends or revolves around is self and the other does not exist. Such attitudes hamper our human growth and spiritual growth as well.  Today let our prayers be unselfish, praying for the growth and development of each individual. I am sure when we pray for others’ good and their goodness; God grants us good thing and good times to come and God assures as well the peace and tranquility in life we need. There may be in life a chance to seek attention for oneself, to seek attraction for oneself, but let us realize in seeking the good of the other, we seek our own good too. When we seek the good of other God blesses us in super abundance, which no one could think or measure out its depth or width. So let us seek the good of the other. 

2.              Seek God’s plan and purpose:

It is very well said that, “A way to know that you are following God’s plan for your life is by being in prayer. Take time each day to devote yourself to the Lord and the plans He has for your life. If you are giving each area of your life to God, then He will bless it and be able to work through it abundantly.” Yes, when we are intimately united with God in prayer, God takes control of us completely. In order to be completely possessed by God, we need to love God, love his plans and move towards the purpose for which he has called us. The one who loves God and the one who lives according God’s plan and purpose would make all things work for good by God. That’s what we hear in the second reading from St. Paul to Romans. St. Paul inspires us with the word of God that those who love God and are called by God according to his purpose all things would work together for good. 

Perhaps the reading is a reminder for us as how Jesus loved God and lived according to the purpose of God, the Father. God the Father exposed the Son to the realities of life and death; he was justified and glorified ultimately. So we too in our lives can expect the same kind of process. When we live according to God’s plan and purpose, he makes all things fall in line, makes as best as possible. We shall also be glorified by God, when we co-operate with his plans and purpose in our lives. At the end of the second reading, St. Paul also speaks that everything is foreknown and pre-destined by God. Our destiny, the beginning and end is in God, so whatever we do, it shall go the way that God has planned and destined us to be. It simply points out to the fact that God knows the end to which he will bring his creation, namely redemption, and that destiny is firmly set in his purposes. Therefore our destiny is no longer in what we think or act but in the hands of God who plans and puts everything according to His purpose. 

Today, the realization that everything is God’s and we are just co-workers or participants would solve many unnecessary pitfalls of life like power crazy, settling for the future while we are in the present without thinking of the other, planning to build a castle in the air, thinking that we are powerful and financially well-to-do always. Let us remember, if God thinks or plans, we can become whatever he wishes and nothing can go against his wishes and plans. So let us be firm in our conviction that God’s plans and purposes work always. At times one may think, what I wanted could not be executed or have not been successful. It is a reminder for all of us that if God plans or wishes, it would happen somehow. For such convictions, we need to believe and trust in God. Let us pray and believe that God’s plans and purposes are best and when we incorporate his plans and purposes, our lives become better and happier. 

3.              Find the Kingdom of God:

In order to seek and find the kingdom of God, we need to make God the king of our hearts, minds, body and soul. We can call perhaps that God be integrated and intimately united completely in us. That’s what in the Gospel of Matthew we hear, “Seek you first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you,” (Matt 6:33). Yes, all these things shall be joyful and peaceful, when we seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness. The joy can’t be expressed in words but it’s experiential, because such shall be the joy that can be added to our lives, if we seek the kingdom of God. The focus of the Gospel reading too is the same. We are presented with kingdom parables leading to final judgment day. The first two parables speak of the value of the Kingdom of God. That’s why it is compared to a treasure in the field and a merchant seeking a fine pearl of great value. The last parable of the catching and sorting fish speaks of the final judgment, when good is separated from the bad 

The first parable speaks of the treasure in the field lay hidden. It is said that people in Palestine often hid treasures, and a treasure might remain hidden if the hider died before he could recover it. Probably the central character of this parable is a farmer working a wealthy landowner’s field who when plowing finds a treasure box. Once he buys the field, the field’s contents legally belongs to him, freeing him to later rediscover the treasure. Jesus emphasizes on the price the man is ready to pay in order to invest in this treasure far greater than any he already owns. Although this treasure, like the kingdom, is hidden to most of the world, not only does the man recognize that its value outweighs all he has, but he acts accordingly. He sells everything in order to get the treasure in the field. So we need to give up everything to obtain the greatest treasure, the Kingdom of God.

The second parable speaks of the merchant in search of fine pearl and invests everything to get one such fine pearl of great value. Ancient reports tell that pearls are worth tens of millions of dollars in modern currency. This merchant, uniquely sensitive to the value of the pearl, wisely invests all he has to purchase it. Here Jesus emphasizes only the value of the pearl and the joy of finding it. So certainly the treasure and the pearl for which the man gives up everything, in order to get indicates our nature and call for sacrifice and detachment, a steadfast love for the treasure, the kingdom of God. So the Disciples of Christ are called to seek or possess the Kingdom of God more than anything or any precious jewel that captures human eyes or minds. 

Further, the section of the last parable by Jesus is closed with the separation, the good and the bad. The fishing net and the separation of good and bad fish refer and remind us of the final judgment of God before one could enter the Kingdom of God. Only on the day of judgment we will know who was truly committed to the kingdom and how wise the committed were to invest their lives in it. We know our actions bear fruits and the fruits of our actions will determine whether one is true or false disciple of Christ or one is fit to enter the kingdom of God or not. Perhaps, Matthew the Evangelist by saying twice the phrase “he sold everything he had” points out beyond the imagery that one has to renounce all that makes us possessive and obsessive and be a worthy disciple of Christ. If we want to be part of the kingdom of God, we need to give up all that is worldly. 

And so the kingdom of God demands from us the lives based on the kingdom values that Jesus proposed. One such proposal could be the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus calls us for the blessedness of life, which we have in the gospel of Matthew 5-7 chapters. Certainly, the kingdom of God is accessible to all but only by the grace of God through faith we manifest. Genuine faith is the manifestation of embracing and being docile to God’s reign in our lives completely. Genuine faith brings growth to oneself and to others. Genuine faith enables us to live for the cause of the faith that we profess. So let us treasure the kingdom of God by seeking in genuine faith and by transcending ourselves from worldly wisdom to divine wisdom, worldly pleasures to divine pleasure and world views to divinely revealed truth. Let us forego all that hinders us to get closer to the kingdom of God. May the kingdom of God become a treasure that we wait or long for. May the kingdom of God become a fine pearl that we like to have one such valuable in life. May the kingdom values become an access for all of us to dwell in the heart of God, the kingdom of God. 

RESPOND: 

Do we seek the good of others or Do we seek one’s own self-interests and self-benefits?

Do we obtain satisfaction in the plans and the purposes of God or our own plans and purposes?

Do we come forward to find delight in the kingdom of God by foregoing worldly views, worldly values and worldly pleasures and transcending ourselves to all that is godly and divine?

Let us seek the good others, abide in God’s plans and purposes and find delight in the kingdom of God by transcending ourselves form worldly ways to godly ways, the ultimate destiny in God himself. Amen. 

God bless us all! Live Jesus! 

Fr. Ramesh George MSFS

rameshvkmsfs@gmail.com

9500930968