How about that billion dollar Powerball jackpot that someone recently won; can you imagine that you just won that? Or, as we heard in today’s gospel account, imagine unearthing a great treasure or a pearl of great price while digging in your garden or shopping at a local flea market. Stories of buried treasure, sudden wealth, magic wishes and dreams that come true are among the oldest and most universal fables in human culture. Even the thought of sudden wealth quickens the pulse and stirs the imagination. What if? Would all our troubles be over if we were rich? Would doors open to a new and exciting future?
Maybe. Wealth without wisdom is another common theme in fables. “The fool is easily parted from his money” is a well-known adage. Wealth is really just another form of power. And, having power increases our options but also complicates our lives, bringing more responsibility. It can create indolence or attract false friends and ironically it can make us more avaricious and obsessed with money than when we were before.
We quickly learn another popular saying that money can’t buy happiness. How many lottery winners later report that their sudden windfall proved destructive and distracting to the more important values of their personal lives, straining family relationships, blurring former career goals and lessening the discipline that once held their lives in focus and on course.
Jesus compared the kingdom of God to finding a treasure or a pearl of great price, but he was not describing earthly wealth or power. His many parables drew people into the drama of how they might respond to God’s invitation to enter his kingdom. He stirred imaginations as the first step toward understanding that true happiness is found not in things but only in right relationship with God and with one another.
We hear in today’s first reading that God was pleased when Solomon asked for wisdom rather than wealth or power for this showed he was already wise and would be a good leader. Jesus appealed to the spiritual seekers in the crowd who already knew that finding God brings every other gift, and that life without God, even with wealth and power, is empty and pointless.
Jesus came to establish God’s kingdom in our midst. Through his life and teachings, he responded to our most primal desire for happiness. We all spend our lives trying to figure out what will make us truly happy. The gospel that Jesus presents offers a path that often seems paradoxical – that to find our life we must lose it, that only love given away freely comes back to us in joy, that seeking first the will of God is the secret of finding everything else we need as well.
The truth of the gospel affirms that peace of mind and happiness come to those who develop and use their gifts to serve others; that’s the wisdom that young Solomon displayed as he asked for the wisdom he needed to serve the people of his kingdom. Wisdom is to know how to apply this truth to our choices day by day. The choices we make in life will determine the outcome of our journey. Blessed are they who find the treasure of God’s love and spend their lives giving it away to others!