17th Sunday of Ordinary Time

So often when we hear the parables of the merchant who sells everything to buy the pearl of great price or the man who finds a treasure buried in a field and goes and sells everything to buy the field, we think we must try harder to search and find the greatest treasure, God. But it's actually the opposite. It is God who searches for us and upon finding us, goes out and sells his very life to buy our soul. Yet we are so quick to give away our inheritance, to give away parts of our field, or to loan out the pearl, but even in the midst of that, Jesus is so quick to restore to us what we have lost, what we have given away. All we have to do is turn toward Jesus and let him give it back to us.