The most important decision

The gospel records two short parables with the same message. In both accounts the main character discovers an enormously valuable treasure or a pearl of incalculable value. And both main characters react in the same way: they decide gladly to sell what they have to acquire the treasure or the pearl. According to Jesus, that is how those who discover the kingdom of God react.

It seems Jesus is afraid that the people may follow him for varying interests, without discovering what is most appealing and most important, namely, this exciting project of the Father, which consists in leading human beings to live as brothers and sisters in a more just and happy world and in directing them thereby towards their definitive salvation in God.

What can we say today after twenty centuries of Christianity?  Why do so many good Christians who practice their religion strictly have the feeling that they have not discovered any “treasure” in it?  What is the root cause of that lack of enthusiasm and joy in not a few aspects of our Church, incapable of attracting to the core of the Gospel so many men and women who are drifting away, without renouncing, by doing so, either God or Jesus?

After the Council, Paul VI made this resounding affirmation: “Only the kingdom is absolute and it makes everything else relative.”  Years later, John Paul II reaffirmed this by saying: “The Church is not an end unto herself, since she is ordered toward the kingdom of God of which she is the seed, sign and instrument.”   Pope Francis comes repeating to us: “Jesus’ mission is to inaugurate the kingdom of his Father.”

If this is the faith of the Church, why are there Christians who have not even heard anyone speak of this project that Jesus calls “the kingdom of God”?  Why do they not know that the passion that drove Jesus’ whole life, his raison d’être and the goal of all his action was to announce and advance the Father’s humanizing project, namely, seek the kingdom of God and his justice?

The Church cannot be radically renewed if she does not discover the “treasure” of God’s kingdom.  To call Christians to work with God in the great project of making the world more human is not to call them to live caught up in practices and customs that make us forget the true core of the Gospel.

Pope Francis is telling us that the kingdom of God challenges us.  This cry reaches us from the very heart of the Gospel.  We must heed it.  Surely, the most important decision that we need to make today in the Church and in our Christian communities is that of recovering the project of God’s kingdom joyfully and enthusiastically.

José Antonio Pagola

July 27, 2014
17 Ordinary Time (A)
Matthew 13, 44-52