Friday, August 13, 2010

Treasure and heart

More about possessions and attachments. Why? Wasn’t the work we did last week enough? Apparently not! And with good reason. Possessions create deep roots in our hearts, and these may shape the form and give direction to our lives.

Of all that I have, what do I consider a treasure? I would like to say that God is my treasure, but I am not there yet. When I say it, I know that I desire that with all my life, but I struggle. Struggling is good, I believe; we struggle for things that we consider important enough to struggle. (This made me think of the lyrics in a song “what’s worth the prize is always worth the fight.”)

God is all that I want. God is all that I seek. And yet, at times I feel as though He escapes me. I cannot box God and place Him into a treasure box.

The continuous struggle towards the Treasure becomes a basic struggle for importance, meaning and relevance in my life. What fills my thoughts? What gives reason to my being?

If God is my Pearl of Great Price, the Treasure hidden in the field, what am I going to do to protect such a gift?

6 comments:

Mary Collins said...

What if we are the Treasure box, God being within us? The problem would be that He gets covered up in the box by our humanity. The struggle I have is trying to take humanity out of the box to make God more easily seen, trying to remove human blindness and weaknesses to be able to get myself out of the way to let God shine through me. I want people to look in me, my self Treasure box, and see God.

Fr Stanislao Esposito said...

I like your analogy. In order to have other people see God in us, we have to become transparent. We achieve this "Transparency" by being like Mary, fully filled by the Living Word of God.

mrmg81 said...

I think relationships can be like possessions. We can let our relationships with others become more important than our relationship with God. Even in marriage, God must come first.

Mary Collins said...

That's a great point. I never really thought about relationships being like possessions, but that's true in a way. Interesting.

Fr Stanislao Esposito said...

This can certainly be possible. Let's keep in mind, if I may, that the primary way of loving God is by loving our neighbor. Therefore, while relationships sometimes can get in the way, let's keep in mind that there are no excuses: in love what matters is to love.

Mary Collins said...

Yes. Some people, though, do use their relationships in a way that leaves God out of the equation. A Christian dating a non-Christian, for example, might choose give up church or prayer or some other aspect of spiritual life in order to "please" the significant other non-Christian. The relationship with the significant other becomes more important than the relationship with God. The Christian may truly "love" the other person--but the relationship still happens in a way that pulls the Christian away from God. The point that even in relationships, God has to come first is a valid one. At the end of the day, so to speak, we stand before God alone to be judged. So, I see it as yes--no excuses...and yes, God first.