The Pearl of Great Price
The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it. (Mt 13:45-46) Most of us think of Heaven as somewhere in the clouds with the angels singing and where everyone is happy, but a closer look informs us that the Kingdom of Heaven is not just a place to go when we die. It is an experience, a state of being beyond human understanding that exists in the present moment and in the eternal now. Jesus knows our limitations – we cannot understand what cannot be conceived even in our imagination, so He speaks in similes, giving us concrete images we do understand. He wants us to truly seek Heaven because He desires our highest good and wants us to experience unending joy. We have the tendency to keep ourselves very busy, preoccupied with the small details of going to school, raising families, performing well at work, saving for a house -- or a bigger house. Pursuing these things is not wrong as long as we keep them in the right perspective. Are we serving God in the fulfilling of our duties, or are we merely serving our own egos? There is a simple test we can give ourselves to see if we are on the right track. When we obtain the object that we seek, whether it be a new pair of shoes or a promotion, how do we act two weeks later when the thrill of the new thing wears off? Do we appreciate what we have and express gratitude, or do we fill ourselves with dissatisfaction over what we do not yet have and focus on acquiring the next bright, shiny object? The first mindset leads to joy and the second mindset leads to depression; the first mindset focuses our thoughts on our Creator and the second mindset focuses only on ourselves. We can turn this around with one simple change – The Morning Offering. It’s a very short prayer we can place in front of the coffee pot, on the bathroom mirror, or the refrigerator. It's twenty five seconds a day that can change our entire perspective. Every one of us needs this change in perspective, even the saints. St. Thérèse of Lisieux wrote of wanting new shoes for Christmas in spite of her family’s poverty, St Francis of Assisi was busy enjoying the pleasures of extraordinary wealth and position, and St. Catherine of Genoa used her wealth to distract herself from a miserable marriage. Each of them had an encounter with Love, however, that made them want to change course --Thérèse going to a cloistered convent, Francis abandoning his worldly goods for a life of poverty, prayer, and preaching, and Catherine caring for the sick at the hospital in Genoa, while making a life habit of frequent confession and offering penances. They became saints because they encountered God’s love and spent their lives searching…
