Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Treasures steal our hearts, creating desires that drive us beyond our abilities. Driven, we comb the world looking for that one treasure which fulfills all our desires. It is the priceless pearl, the golden vessel, pandoras box? This one treasure, so hard to find, yet so satisfies we will do anything to obtain and indulge in such ecstasy.
Ecstasy, that experience in which we lose ourselves totally and completely into the transcendent, becomes our quest. Mystical experiences create ecstasies. They transcend our human experiences leading us to divine encounters. These powerful experiences need discernment which protects us from being deceived or manipulated settling. Easily fake, fabricated, and foolish ecstasies trick us.
Addictions create foolish ecstasies. We lose our minds and bodies into the feelings and emotions only to be ensnared lusting for more. Powers seduce too, creating a sense of self-worth in which we govern and guide our lives so successfully that others admire, even adore. Possesses too impress. The more we have and more exquisite it is the more satisfaction we feel knowing this is mine. But when compared to the Source and Creator of our desires, nothing satisfies unless it is God. He is the Priceless Pearl. He is the Treasure, infinite and omnipotent.
Our greatest treasure, as Scripture reveals, ought to be wisdom. Wisdom is more precious than jewels, finer than gold, better than pure silver. Wisdom makes one happy, wise, and wealthy. Our happiness comes from knowing God. Our wisdom comes from divine knowledge. Our wealth is rooted in our relationship with Him.
King Solomon, King David’s beloved son, asked God for wisdom; that is an understanding heart, a discerning mind that could interpret and read the minds and hearts of others. With divine wisdom, Solomon ordered everything: his kingdom, himself, and his family, justly, wisely, and honestly. He had no duplicity. He had had no agenda. He wanted neither long life, military might, nor earthly riches, but “An understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil” (1 Ki 3:9).
Wisdom, the attendant at God’s throne, most precious for from this divine insight, we live a transcendent life, knowing not only the pure desires of our own heart, but also the ability to read hearts of others. We read souls. We understand intentions. We have mystical experiences which give us supernatural abilities. Wisdom unveils God’s will, his ways which are not ours. His ways lead to holiness, an ability to interpret from God’s perspective. Divine Wisdom ultimately unveils Divine Providence. Everything that happens in this life: blessings or curses, health or sickness, fortune or poverty, and friendships or isolation, is ordained by God leading us closer into the divine presence. As St. John Paul II tells us:
"Wisdom" is not mere intelligence or practical ability, but rather a participation in the very mind of God who "with his wisdom [has] established man" (cf. v. 2). Thus it is the ability to penetrate the deep meaning of being, of life and of history, going beyond the surface of things and events to discover their ultimate meaning, willed by the Lord (Pope John Paul II, General Audience Wednesday 29 January 2003).
God’s personal gift of self to us, Wisdom, empowers us to participate in the mind and heart of God intimately and directly. In this participation, Wisdom, the tree of life for those who lay hold of her (Pro 3:18), fulfils every longing of our heart, not only in this earthly life, but also our desire for eternal life (I Kings 3:13).
Humans desire. We thirst, hunger, long, and expect every desire to be fulfilled. King David knew of the power of desire. He, as we all do, long to empty ourselves of anything that enslaves or suppresses our desires. Empty of our foolishness: seeking gratification in behaviors that cannot nor ever satisfy, we enter and dwell in the house of the Lord. David’s desires so immense writes expressing what we all want:
One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple (Ps 27:4).
Wisdom steals our hearts. So exquisite, we lose ourselves wanting to be one with the Beautiful One. Knowing we have found the source of our fulfillment; Wisdom helps us discern what pleases the Lord; what contents our hearts. Or as St. John Paul II offers, “That God may be close to us with his wisdom and "assist us and support us in our (daily) toil" (cf. v. 10), revealing to us the good and evil, the just and unjust” (Pope John Paul II, General Audience Wednesday 29 January 2003).
Sadly, as did Lucifer, having our heart’s desire aroused by Wisdom’s beauty, we, in turn, want to possess and make Wisdom our very own. Yet, how do we possess a person? How do we own God? We can’t. Yet, Lucifer thought he could. Because Lucifer sought to steal Wisdom, he was brought low, as Isaiah explains:
I (Lucifer) will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most High.’ But you are brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the Pit (Is 14:14–15).
In this Great Fall, Lucifer could not accept God’s gift freely. He wanted Divine Beauty all to himself. He sought to lord it over the Lord, the one who created him. This unmanageable desire caused the great downfall. Having Wisdom is one thing but possessing—ruler over—the Person who is Wisdom is quite another.
As dominating and controlling a person may be, no one ever possesses another. No one ever controls, nor one owns another’s heart! In fact, Wisdom instructs us that we are not our own. We belong to another as St. Paul reveals,
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body (1 Co 6:19–20).
We are merely stewards, and good stewards never allow Divine Wisdom to seduce our hearts, as it did Lucifer. He, so incensed at God’s Wisdom, wanted to lord it over God, but since he could not dominate God, he entices us. Lucifer seduces us to envy God too, to decide personally and privately what is good and evil, just and unjust. God, despite the envy of the Evil One, graciously and constantly gifts his wisdom to us. He inspires us to receive Himself as a pure gift, not to lord it over Him, but to participate fully in his Wisdom.
Jesus, Wisdom Incarnate, offers us Himself as the Priceless Pearl. He the Pearl is the beauty, luster, and brilliance of Divine Wisdom, “stealing” our heart’s desire. His beauty beyond compare, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, attracts our heart overwhelmingly. We cannot help ourselves but to engage and be absorbed into his presence.
Encountering a person who is beautiful is one thing, but when the person offers his heart is quite another. So enmeshed in Wisdom’s presence, we know nothing other satisfies our deepest longings. He is the fulfillment of all our desires. Jesus the Pearl of infinite value, offers us his Kingdom. His invitation drives us to exhaust every means to acquire it. We sell everything, give up everything, for we know this Pearl of such immense value gives us everything we ever wanted. Or as Jesus tells us, “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well” (Mt 6:33).