Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish

FR MICHAEL BOAKYE YEBOAH

CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESE OF KUMASI, GHANA.

THE TREASURE

The stories that have dominated the years of history on voyages has been the search for treasures. Searching for treasures in the new world at the dawn of the modern age, kings like King Ferdinand of Spain and the Great Kings of the United Kingdom and their Queens who have sat on the sovereign throne of England spent fortunes for their voyagers to bring home treasures. What would bring voyagers to the Western coast of Africa, if not for the abundance of diamond in Sierra Leone and Liberia, and the gold in what was referred to as the Gold Coast, now Ghana. The beauty and elegance of the white ivories brought French voyagers to the Ivory Coast. When the great voyagers started their voyages, the quest for treasures eliminated the fear of losing their lives.

It is not that the great and iconic voyagers like Vasco Da Gama and Christopher Columbus were extremely fearless but rather the value of the treasures they sought made fear disappear. When treasure is an ultimate goal of man, he will not fear anything that comes his way – he just moves until he finds his treasure.

Similar ambition is seen in the story of those who search for the treasure of the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus, in telling the story of the buried treasure in the 13^th chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew, preached to his disciples the need for a disciple to make all the needed sacrifices to acquire the treasure of the kingdom that seems “buried”. The treasure is buried but the ardent disciple will use all means to search for that precious treasure. There are some steps I would like to suggest for those who go in search of the treasure of the Kingdom of Heaven.

The first step is knowledge of the treasure. History has no place for clueless and aimless voyagers. Before the great navigators set sail, they knew where they were going and what they were going to search for. Those who take a “chance” are not good planners and guides of life. Knowledge is power. Do you have knowledge of the Kingdom of Heaven? A person has not moved to the depths of spirituality because (s)he may lack depth in the knowledge of the Kingdom of Heaven. In the Acts of the Apostles, a story is told by St. Luke on the conversion of an Ethiopian Eunuch. We are told that for many years, he made the journey to Jerusalem, searching for the knowledge on the Kingdom of God but as often as he read the writings of the Prophet Isaiah and probably other Jewish literature, knowledge of the Kingdom eluded him. Now, when Philip led him to understanding and knowledge, the path leading to the treasures of the Kingdom of Heaven was opened to him and he never looked back. That day, he did not care whether the stagnant water was muddy or clear, he just wanted to be baptized and be initiated into the kingdom. What is the level of your knowledge of the Kingdom of Heaven? The level of your knowledge can help assess the depth of your life in Christ. 

The second step in the process of one’s acquisition of the treasure of the Kingdom of Heaven is equally important. The second step is one’s willingness to search for the treasure. Day dreaming of a treasure can never bring one to the acquisition of the treasures (s)he longs for. The willingness to acquire the treasure can be measured by one’s life choices. What is your regular daily schedule? In your daily “to dos”, can we find prayers and a place of God in them? Do you find time to go to Mass and in the morning or evening, do you gather your family to pray? The Psalmist is apt on this when he confessed “I was glad when it was said unto me, let us go to the house of God… and now we find our feet standing in the house of the Lord.” Add pragmaticism to your desire for the kingdom. Do not only dream to go to church, but when we gather every day in the daily feast of thanksgiving (the Mass), we want to count you and your family. Family willingness like this has kept the names of some families in gold in the bible. Joshua said: “I and my household, it is the Lord we will serve…” What is the state of your life and that of your family.

If willingness to search for the treasures of the kingdom of heaven does not come easily to you, then you need to consider my third step. The third step is “seeking guidance” from those who know the Christ way. We can get this guidance from spiritual directors and other Christian help-givers. We live in a world that the search for the treasures of good health and preservation of wealth occupy the minds of many people and so some people have hired private physicians and bankers, but when it comes to spiritual directors some do not see the need for them. Those who are reading my reflection today, can you be sincere with me if you have a spiritual director or can you indicate the last time you had a spiritual direction session? We are just novices in spirituality and we are not acquiring the means through which we can get to spiritual heights. At times when I read the life of the saints, I come to the realization that my limitations are so many. A great mystic like St. Teresa of Avila made the search for a competent spiritual director, her life long quest. If one can get closer to the treasure of the Kingdom of Heaven, (s)he should consider spiritual direction a conditio sine qua non (something you cannot do without).

It is by the grace of God and guidance of a good spiritual director that can help one to acquire and keep firmly the treasure acquired. This last step is very important. The journey towards acquisition of the treasure may be long but preserving and keeping it safe is a lifelong endeavor. Remember that once you acquire a treasure, others will find all means to steal it from you so it is important to keep and protect it.

I will like to bring in the first reading in here to connect it with the last step of preservation. The inspired writer tells a very heartwarming story of the youthful King Solomon. He was given the opportunity to ask for any treasure he wants and he did not ask for gold nor silver but he asked for wisdom to know God (the treasure of life) and to serve God’s people in justice. What Solomon did that day can be considered as highly noble and worthy of emulation. But what is the value of a treasure if it was not acquired to be kept safely for life. King Solomon was religious as a youth but became pagan and fetish in his adult life. All the treasures that he acquired, disappeared. Please do not go through all the steps to become a good Christian by day and lose all that you have acquired by nightfall. Put efforts in preserving the treasure you acquired on the day of your Christian initiation. May God’s grace help all of us to march on gallantly until we reach our true home in heaven. OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL HELP PRAY FOR US.