Dying Now

 

Wednesday’s Gospel (MK 13:44) has Jesus telling of the man who found a treasure in a field, and sold everything to buy it, and of a man who finds a perfect pearl and does the same.  Jesus is talking about the kingdom of heaven, in parables about how precious it is.  It is worth selling everything to obtain; nothing, no matter what our perception of happiness, nothing will make us happier.  There is no earthly thing which can make us happier, no matter how appealing it sounds now ---- Adam and Eve found that out.  Unfortunately, so do many humans since them.

So many things “seem” to make us happy, or “sound like” they will make us happy, and they are the focus of much of the world.  And so many people DO achieve those things, and then they long for more.  There is never enough money or friends or “likes”.  And many, having achieved their goal, ask: “Is that all there is?”  And yet they still struggle for one more thing or one more friend --- or one more day to live.  But they all eventually die, leaving behind what they struggled their whole life to attain.  Was that struggle to attain things worth it?

Jesus’ two stories tell of a different struggle, parables to explain the unending happiness He came to bring.  He is the treasure, the pearl.  Selling of our “self”, and all we have, to focus on Him and His teaching will bring us eternal happiness.  Even after dying, to this earthly life, our possession of this treasure lasts forever.  Jesus’ apostles forsook everything to follow Him.  They found Jesus Christ a cause worth living for, and a Kingdom worth dying for.

We will all die to this human life, and are dying even now as our remaining minutes tick down.  Are we better striving for earthly things which we will leave behind soon, or eternal things, which we will share, face to face, with God?  Our earthly focus on things here, which this body can appreciate, are like preparing for the best dinner ever.  Everyone says it is best; it costs an outrageous amount of money and time to make, but when we finally get it and eat it we say (as we belch happily), “it was forth it.”  But then tomorrow comes; it is all gone, and we ask ourselves “was it worth it?”

We are all dying now.  Do we focus on getting something here before we die, or do we focus on getting an eternal life, eternal happiness.  It might take a little longer to achieve, and perhaps take greater efforts (but maybe not), but the results will be better than we could even imagine, and last forever.  It took the apostles a long time to understand what Jesus was preaching, but they and millions after them took the time to learn, what God came to teach us.  We are made in His image, but we have to work to be His forever.

What are you focused on right now?  Is knowing and getting close to God at the top of your “bucket list”?  You know, you are dying now.