Homily For Wednesday Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time Year B, 31st July, 2024. The Memorial of St. Ignatius of Loyola

 

Readings: Jer. 15:10.16-21; Ps. 59; Matt 13:44-46

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia.

 

WHAT IS OUR ULTIMATE TREASURE OF LIFE AND HOW CAN WE ACQUIRE IT

 

Today we are called to reflect on what should be our ultimate treasure and how we can acquire it. This is because every day, under terrible scourges of the sun and noisy streets, people struggle to acquire things that they value as treasures of life just to realize that all these things sooner or later pass away as we expire from this world.

 

So, in the Gospel passage today, Jesus used two parables to describe to the people that the kingdom of God is the greatest and ultimate treasure anyone can and should acquire. He said to them: the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which someone has found; he hides it again, goes off happy, sells everything he owns and buys the field. Again, he said, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls; when he finds one of great value, he goes and sells everything he owns and buys it.

 

Here, the parables describe the kingdom of God as the ultimate treasure that cannot be compared to anything whatsoever we have in this world. Using these parables Jesus explains what the kingdom of heaven is like and what we need to do in order to acquire it. The essence of these parables is to remind us that the kingdom of heaven is so precious and great, that it is worth more than our entire life and our worldly possessions and treasures.

 

Therefore, we must do all that it takes to ensure that we acquire it; losing it over the temporal pleasure, glory, fame, power, and influence of the things of this passing world will be complete foolishness. For none of them last forever, and what good is it for us to gain the whole world but lose our soul out of God’s kingdom? Hence, for the sake of this kingdom the Lord in our first reading said: I will make you a bronze wall fortified against this people. They will fight against you, but they will not overcome you because I am with you to save you and to deliver you.

 

Dear friends, what is our ultimate treasure in this life? How many of us are paying attention to the ultimate heavenly treasure? How many of us think and search for this ultimate treasure of our souls? How many of us desire to personally discover God in our life? How I wish we would understand the shortness of this life, the emptiness of this passing world and the danger of losing our soul out of greediness for the things of this passing world.

 

Then, we will sincerely desire to experience God personally, because in him lies the greatest and ultimate treasure of life. Discovering God personally in our lives is the greatest treasure anyone can ever have. Therefore, like St. Ignatius of Loyola, whose memorial we celebrate today, let’s be courageous and steadfast in our heavenly race no matter the condition we find ourselves in now.

 

LET US PRAY: Lord God, the world is full of distractions from false treasures; give us wise and discerning hearts in order to give up all our attachment to worldly possessions in pursuit of the heavenly and ultimate treasure of your kingdom. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Peace be with you.