Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish

FR MICHAEL BIBLICAL IMAGERY

(Fr Michael Boakye Yeboah: Vice Rector of St Gregory Seminary, Kumasi-Ghana)

INVESTMENT

            Someone once said “Investment is an asset or item that is purchased with the hope that it will generate income or appreciate in the future.” Some people invest in themselves, their children, their health, education, lavish lifestyles, political careers, and other earthly things. These transient things have since time immemorial occupied the minds of millions of people. These things may have preoccupied the minds of these people to the extent that some of them have lost sight of investing in spiritual things. I am strongly touched by the lives of the saints who “sold” all they had to invest in the “Kingdom of heaven.”

            Jesus gives three parables in today’s Gospel but I will focus on the first parable. When you study the parable very well, one will appreciate the fact that, there are other pearls but only one pearl of great price. That is to say, there are many fine things in this world and many things in which we can find loveliness. We can find loveliness in knowledge and in the reaches of the human mind, in art and music and literature and all the triumphs of the human spirit; we can find loveliness in serving our neighbors, even if that service springs from humanitarian rather than from purely Christian motives; we can find loveliness in human relationships. These are all lovely, but they are all lesser loveliness. The supreme beauty lies in the acceptance of the will of God. This is not to belittle the other things; they too are pearls; but the supreme pearl is the willing obedience which makes us friends of God.

            When one reflects on INVESTMENT, what comes to mind can be regular markets, banks, stock markets, etc. People invest in different ways and manners: for some the best way to invest and make profit is through buying and selling. In Africa most of our mothers through buying and selling at market have made sufficient investment and succeeded in educating us from our primary to College education. For us to be educated, our mothers at times sell their precious clothes and jewelry to send us to school – for them their investment is our education. The investments and sacrifices of our mothers are why most kids in Africa treasure Prince Nico Mbarga’s song “Sweet Mother.”

            Others go by the “Silas Marner way” of investment; they keep on depositing money in banks and their balance sheet is a source of great joy for them. I know someone who checks his phone for his balance and when he sees his millions every morning it bring him great joy to start his day.

            In the Gospel Jesus once more tells three parables that are intended to give a clear view of the Kingdom of heaven. The first two resemble each other in what they say and in what is required by what they say: earthly prudence alone requires that the farmer and the merchant sell everything in order to acquire something much more valuable: the treasure found in the field and the precious pearl. To do so is largely shrewdness rather than any sort of wager.

            In the ancient world, pearls had a very special place in peoples’ hearts. They desire to possess a lovely pearl, not only for its money value, but also for its beauty. They found a pleasure in simply handling it and contemplating it. They found an aesthetic joy simply in possessing and looking at a pearl. The main sources of pearls in those days were the shores of the Red Sea; but a merchant would scour the market of the world to find a pearl which was of surpassing beauty. There are certain most suggestive truths hidden in this parable.

            It is suggestive to find the kingdom of heaven compared to a pearl. To the ancient people, as we have just seen, a pearl was the loveliest of all possessions; that means that the kingdom of heaven is the loveliest thing in the world. Let us remember what the kingdom is. To be in the kingdom is to accept and to do the will of God. That is to say, to do the will of God is no grim, grey, agonizing thing; it is a lovely thing. Beyond the discipline, beyond the sacrifice, beyond the self-denial, beyond the cross, there lies the supreme loveliness which is nowhere else. There is only one way to bring peace to the heart, joy to the mind, beauty to the life, and that is to accept and to do the will of God. This is the reason why the saints did everything to possess this particular “pearl.” St Francis of Assisi was promised and given the wealth of his Father to dissuade him from the heavenly pearl but St. Francis chose the latter. 

            In the first reading, the author of the First Book of Kings offers us another graphic example. We are told that Solomon was given the chance to ask for any “pearl” and he will be given it, but Solomon did not ask for any “earthly pearl” of value. He asked God to bless him with the gift of discernment, so that he can distinguish right from wrong. And listen to what God told him after Solomon had made his choice: “Because you have asked this – not for a long life for yourself, nor for riches, nor for the life of your enemies, but for understanding so that you may know what is right – I do as you requested. I give you a heart so wise and understanding that there has never been anyone like you up to now, and after you there will come no one to equal you.” If one emulates Solomon’s wishes, then the words of St Paul in the Second Reading will come true for him/her: “Brothers and sisters…all things work for good for those who love God…” Please as you invest in earthly things for your sustenance, dedicate time also to invest in things of the Kingdom of God. Remember the old inspired adage: “Seek first the kingdom of heaven and all other things will be given to you. God bless you.