Today, God told Solomon to ask for the deepest desire of his heart. Solomon asked for wisdom, to have a heart like God in order to govern. With our minds filled up with all kinds of demands and distractions, our focus naturally is directed towards getting on with life. And not just getting on with life, we also want to progress materially or economically. When chasing a better life is our goal, it is easy to lose sight of what must come first.
There are three parables in today’s Gospel. They reveal what the Kingdom of God is like and they are linked directly to what our hearts desire and want. The parables clearly direct our attention to what we should be searching for. We must seek the end for which we have been created. Thus the Kingdom of Heaven is our treasure and the finest pearl.
In a way, we are captives to our yearnings, fuelled by deep-seated longings. This opens up a window for our reflection. The Kingdom of Heaven is not something which God throws at us whether we want it or not. See, when a person desires wealth the easy way, that is, without effort, he or she will not get it just by wishing for it. Remember the story of the disappointed man who had spent a lifetime praying to God to strike lottery but never seemed to get a big payout. Angrily he asked God why. The answer was simple, “How could I answer your prayers when you have never bought lotteries”.
We have an instinctive longing for God and God wants to fulfil it. What happens is that the instinct is merely that, an instinct that is created and left there by God. It is like the compass that points toward God. What has happened is that Original Sin messed up that compass and wounded our natural powers. Instead of loving purely, thinking clearly and choosing properly, we tend towards that which is less than good for us. Humanity seemed to have acquired a persistent inclination to evil. Theologians called it concupiscence.
Our ability to choose God has been compromised by sin. Thus, the question now is how can we be disposed to choosing God, again and again? The beginning of the act of choosing properly is baptism. It restores us to the grace of God. Baptism, however, does not take away our inclination to sin. Instead it provides a channel to the strength needed to fight against temptation. It means we need to cooperate with God’s grace.
That is to say, praying is important both publicly and privately. The act symbolises our desire to keep the channel of communication open between God and us. Prayer is the language of our covenantal relationship. However, we go to Mass not because it is obligatory but because we need Him. It is mutual in the sense that God reaches out to us, to feed us. We go to Confession because it expresses God’s grace and forgiveness. Prayer is our lifeline to and with God but sadly, we often turn to Him only when we are in trouble. That is not a friendship but a utilitarian relationship which reduces God to a transaction. We pray or “pay” so that He will “reward” us. It is basically a conditional relationship which brings us to the next point.
We need discipline. Without discipline, our inclination to evil will overpower us. Take up your Cross and follow me is Christ’s disciplinary command but it is not to punish us. Given that our nature has been compromised by Original Sin, we need some semblance of discipline. Have you seen a child that runs wild when Mass is going on? Now, I am not taking a swipe at any parents here. It must be tough for you to raise a child in this age of digital distraction and endless entertainment. We witness this replayed over and again at eating places etc. People who sit together but are not with each other or present to each other. So, it is tough to a bring up a child in such a situation. Parents with teenage children can appreciate this situation, right? Your children are glued to the computer screen and despite your calling them for dinner, they do not respond or they come late.
We all need discipline and even self-denial because there is a time for prayer if God is not to be just our convenient stop, a time for resting if we want a healthy lifestyle, a time for working if we want to contribute to the progress of society. The Kingdom is build on the bedrock of an ordered life. In fact, an ordered life is necessary for our growth in holiness.
That means our progress towards the Kingdom will always be incremental for we do have a chequered history of cooperation with God’s grace. The one myth we should avoid is that our choice for God is fixed in the sense that once we have chosen God, we can do no wrong. The reality is despite our best intentions we can go astray because of concupiscence. For the majority, the struggle to remain faithful to God will continue even until the moment we die. There is a prayer in the present Rite of Anointing of the Sick which says, “Free him/her from sin and do not let him/her to give way to temptation”. There you have it, a person already half dead and you are left wondering what the person can still do. Well, he or she can “give in to the temptation to doubt God etc”. In other words, our journey will never be easy. We will always have to fight so as to keep faith in God.
In summary, we all have an instinctive desire to live in the Kingdom of God. We want to live eternally for if that were not true, then why are the rich building monuments? To purify our desire, we ask God for grace to know what we should hope for and work towards that goal. We pray for the courage to give up anything that does not lead us to God and the wisdom to choose the path that will lead us to eternal life. If we are earnest in our quest for God, somehow He will find us.
