Leicester, 27th July 2008

 

Dear brothers and sisters,
Where is your treasure?
Hidden in a field?
In the market?
In the sea?
Where is my treasure? 

To know where my treasure is, I have to know what my treasure is.
So… what is my treasure?
Faith in God is my treasure.
The feeling that he is next to me is my treasure.
The conviction that he will never abandon me is my treasure.
The belief that he can everything is my treasure.
The experience that he helps me is my treasure.
The certainty that with him every cross has meaning is my treasure.
The sureness that only following him I will be happy is my treasure.
The credence that he forgives me all my sins is my treasure.
The certitude that only he loves me infinitely, faithfully and for free that is my treasure.
Faith in God is my treasure. 

Jesus says:
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field
is like merchant looking for fine pearls
is like a dragnet cast into the sea.
What is the kingdom of heaven?
Is it not the life where God is king?
Is it not the life when the earth becomes heaven?
That is the kingdom of Heaven.
Saint Paul wrote: “The kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

Dear brothers and sisters.
Actually we have two problems:

The first: the treasure is hidden.
In all three parables the treasure is hidden.
In the field, in the see, in the market.
What does mean?

If something is hidden it means that there are people who don’t see it.
There are people who say: “there is no God”.
There are people who have never met him, never felt him.
There are people who don’t see the actions of God, don’t see the meaning of the teaching of the Church, who don’t see the meaning of some commandments. There are such people and there will be forever because the treasure is hidden. This is the first problem, because if you meet a lot of people who don’t see any treasure you can think, “maybe they are right?” 

The second problem is: “There is no treasure without sacrifice”.
The man in the gospel sells everything he owns to buy the field with the treasure.
The same the merchant looking for fine pearls.
Both dedicated their time and money, everything they owned.
There is no treasure without sacrifice.
This is the second problem. Because we don’t like sacrifices. The modern world doesn’t like sacrifices. And this is one of the reason why a lot of people will never find the hidden treasure. 

Dear brothers and sisters.
This is my last Sunday homily.
I would like to leave you, to leave Leicester with this message: Faith in God is a treasure. Maybe hidden, maybe too expensive, but who find it, will never regret.