In his book Raising Your Child to Be a Messiah, Neil Kurshan tells about the medical student who went to see a counselor about whether she should complete medical school or drop out to raise a family. The counselor suggested that she could do both with a little outside help. The student explained that she had vowed never entrust her children to a housekeeper. The counselor asked why, and the young woman explained that when she was a young child, her wealthy parents would vacation in Europe each summer and leave her with a nanny.
One year, when the girl was eleven, the housekeeper suddenly quit shortly before the parents were to leave for Europe. The parents were upset that their vacation was jeopardized, but a few days before their intended departure, they found a replacement. When the daughter noticed her mother wrapping up all the family silverware and jewels, she asked why, since it had never been done before. Her mother explained that she could not trust the new maid with the family valuables. That insensitive remark stabbed the little girl in the heart. Was she not a “family valuable” of more worth than knives and forks?
A rather challenging story for some of us to hear!
Today’s Gospel speaks of value. It speaks of a man who found a pearl of great price and was willing to sell everything that he had in order to buy it. It speaks of the fishing net that caught all kinds of fish from the sea; the fish, in turn, were sorted – the good ones were kept and the bad ones were thrown away.
On the surface, obviously the Gospel speaks of the important of one’s faith – the treasure of the Kingdom and the price of striving to possess it. However, I wish to stretch it further for I believe that it also speaks of finding the treasure, the valuable, and the essential of our life.
What then is truly important to us?
It is sad to say but we, people of today’s world, seemingly have lost the sense of knowing the value of things. We fail to realize what is truly important. And I must confess that, at times, I am, too, guilty of this.
We so very often focus all our energy and resources into pursuing things that are not that important and, thus, in turn, neglect the essential.
The world’s scale of success focuses on how much money one has, how big the house one lives in, what type of expensive car one drives, etc. Hence, who we are depends on what we have. The measure of our value depends on the amount of property we own.
Therefore, without realizing it, we joined the searchers of these false valuables.
There is nothing wrong with seeking success and wealth. We all want to be successful and a bit well-to-do. But, when our goal of becoming successful and rich turns out to be more important than our family, our loved ones, and our transcendental values, then it becomes problematic.
When property becomes more important than people, when spending time working becomes more important than spending time with our family, especially our children, when we no longer have time for God, then we have become enslaved in searching the wrong valuables.
The Gospel presents to us today a challenge. It challenges us to look into our life and to question ourselves to see how much energy we spend on that which possesses less value, instead of focusing on things and, more importantly, people that are much more important in our life.
A missionary told a story of an American family who spent years doing mission works in China. The family consisted of a mother, father and two children. When the communist took over, they were all under house arrest. One day, a soldier came in and said, “You can all return to America. But you may take only two hundred pounds with you, no more, no less.”
They had been there for years and yet only two hundred pounds to leave with? So they got the scales, and the family arguments started with the husband, wife and the two children. “Must have this vase. Must have this typewriter; it’s almost brand new. Must have these books. Must have this, must have that.” And so they weighed everything and took it off the scale. Weighed it and took it off, until, finally, right on the dot, they got to two hundred pounds.
The soldier came the next day and asked, “Ready to go?” They said yes. He said, “Did you weigh everything? They said yes. “Did you weigh your children?” “No, we didn’t.” “Weigh your children,” he said. And in the moment, off went the typewriter, off went the books, off went the vase into the trash.
The time has come to put things in perspective.
What really matters?
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