“He sells everything he owns and buys it.”
Matthew 13:44-46 has two little parables on the kingdom of God. Both has this common theme: He sells everything he owns and buys it. In the first, the one who finds the treasure, sells everything that he owns in order to buy it. In the second, the merchant who finds the pearl of great value sells everything he owns in order to buy it.
In the first parable, there is a strange but interesting piece of information: "He hides the treasure again." Henri Nouwen has a beautiful reflection on it.
"You have found a treasure: the treasure of God's love. You know now where it is, but you are not ready to own it fully. So many attachments keep pulling you away. If you would fully own your treasure, you must hide it in the field where you found it, go off happily and sell everything you own, and then come back and buy the field."
"You can be truly happy that you have found the treasure. But you should not be so naive as to think that you already own it. Having found the treasure puts you on a new quest for it. The spiritual life is a long and often arduous search for what you have already found. You can seek God only when you have already found God. The desire for God's unconditional love is the fruit of having been touched by that love."
"Because finding the treasure is only the beginning of the search, you have to be careful. If you expose the treasure to others without fully owning it, you might harm yourself and even lose the treasure. A newfound love needs to be nurtured in a quiet intimate space. Overexposure kills it. Finding the treasure without being ready yet to fully own it will make you restless. This is the restlessness of the search for God. It is the way to holiness. It is the road to the kingdom. It is the journey to place where you can rest."
No comments:
Post a Comment