July 30, Sunday of the 17th Week in Ordinary Time
Daily Readings: First reading: Kings 3:5, 7–12; 2nd Reading: Romas 8:28–30; Gospel: Matthew 13:44-52/13:44–46
People in my inner circle asked me, "What's wrong with you?" when I had already developed a strong desire to enter religious life. This is due to the fact that, in their eyes, I already had a stable career, I was youthful and energetic, I am intelligent, and the majority of my family members are already permanent U.S. residents.
These are the things that I needed to face when entering religious life. Looking back at those questions, I have never given them an exact answer that will satisfy their curiosity. Instead, I focus on my calling by strengthening my prayers and looking deeper into my heart to see where it truly belongs. During that time, I also knew for myself the things that I had, yet there was a deeper longing in my heart for any honors, awards, lucrative job offerings, or anything else the material world could offer. This longing was fulfilled when I entered the formation of being religious.
In the Gospel, Jesus speaks about comparing the Kingdom of God to a treasure buried, which a person hides and finds again. The person is overjoyed when he sees it again and sells everything that he has. It is good to ask, Where is our Kingdom of God? Our treasure? Have we found it already? Or is it still buried?
This Gospel invites us to become closer to Jesus by knowing ourselves. Jesus invites us and calls us to be with him. In this sense, what we need to be selfless people is the ability to offer ourselves to God. This is not to say that accumulating riches is bad or sinful. You can still dream of having a good life, but we are reminded to go beyond the riches that we can obtain on this earth.
We must go beyond our selfish desires if we want to be in the Kingdom of God. If we know that there is more waiting for us beyond this, should we be more sincere in our Christian living and resist letting the consumerism of this world influence us if we think there is a Kingdom of God beyond this life?
Let us be aware that our real treasure is God Himself, let us own this treasure in our lives.
Radio Veritas Asia (RVA), a media platform of the Catholic Church, aims to share Christ. RVA started in 1969 as a continental Catholic radio station to serve Asian countries in their respective local language, thus earning the tag “the Voice of Asian Christianity.” Responding to the emerging context, RVA embraced media platforms to connect with the global Asian audience via its 21 language websites and various social media platforms.
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