Gospel Reflection from Notre Dame

There are some things that are just worth saving up for, sacrificing for, and waiting for.

When I was very young, I worked and saved and scrimped together enough money to buy a car. I can still remember how good it felt to drive it out of my grandmother’s driveway (yeah, it was my grandmother’s car; I was sixteen, okay?). When I was a bit older, I saved up to buy an engagement ring so that I could propose to the woman I love. I still remember those sacrifices sometimes when I see that ring on her hand. After that, together we worked hard to save enough money to put a down payment on our first house. And the list of saving, sacrificing, planning, and living just continues to unfold from there. Things seem to get more and more intangible and uncertain as we plan for things in the more distant future like our daughters’ education, care for our aging parents, and long term financial security in our retirement years. But the one thing that all these plans have in common is that we think about what we value most and then we move in the direction of our values.

I think this parable is inviting us to think about our faith and the kingdom of God in a similar way. Our spiritual lives require planning, commitment, patience, and sacrifices. We need to invest ourselves in our spiritual futures just as we do in our financial lives. For me, the underlying image of this parable is very powerful. It can be very easy for me to think of my place in the kingdom of God as something that will be decided as a matter of judgement, once and for all, in the distant future. But the reality is that everything I do, every day, is leading me to the kingdom of God (I hope and pray, by the grace of God). This gospel helps me realize that this pearl of great price, this hidden treasure, is something that I need to be planning for, sacrificing for, and living for already, now, every day of my life.