TRADING TIME FOR ETERNITY


WEDNESDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Exod 34:29-35; Ps 99:5-7,9; Mt 13:44-46

The Purchase of Eternal Life

We read that Moses, the servant of Yahweh, stayed forty days and nights on the Mount of Sinai interacting with Yahweh. Such a feat only demonstrates the presence of the divine reality interacting with Moses, for such is not possible with our mere human strength. At the first occurrence of this, the people waiting for Moses at the foot of the mountain got tired and decided to make a god they could easily access. They regretted the decision afterward. Moses had to go back again to receive the Ten Commandments inscribed on two stone tablets anew after the people’s repentance and appeasement of God. He broke the first out of anger at the sight of Israel’s idolatry. Not to stray from our point of interest, we need much patience to receive God’s self-communication, for he is our priceless gift. To demonstrate the reality and the glory of what Moses received from Yahweh for his people, and how much he imbibed from the Lord through the forty days with the Lord, the people noticed the glow on his face, such that they could not look steadily on his face. “When Moses came down from the mountain of Sinai—as he came down from the mountain, Moses had the two tablets of the testimony in his hands—he did not know that the skin on his face was radiant after speaking with the Lord.” The radiance on Moses' face indicated the value of what he received from God to the people.

Listening to God makes our hearts glow with divine life and glory. Apart from the visible cloud that descended and enveloped Moses whenever he went up to receive instructions from God, there were no other visible manifestations of Yahweh to Moses. Thus, the radiance on his face was an outflow of the radiance of the word of God that filled his mind and heart. Aaron and the people could not look at the glory on his face because its source was not visible to human eyes or senses, but the word of God, which is spiritual. Moses shared the source of the glory with the people by passing on to them what he received from the Lord. “Then all the sons of Israel came closer, and he passed on to them all the orders that the Lord had given him on the mountain of Sinai. And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.” Hence, while Moses was able to pass on to the people the source of the glory, he could not pass on to them the glory itself, which is a result of his reception of the word of God in his mind and heart. For the glory of Yahweh to reflect on our faces and through our lives, we must receive the word of God generously, devoting our time, minds, hearts, and strength to the presence of God within his word. The Lord taught this lesson in his parable of the sower, where the seeds that fell into rich soil produced plentiful fruit to the glory of God.

In today’s Gospel, the Lord deepens the teaching by giving us another parable revealing the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which someone has found; he hides it again, goes off happy, sells everything he owns and buys the field.” What determines our reception and treatment of the word of God given to us is our understanding of the value of the reality or mysteries therein. If we are in search of the meaning of life on earth, there is no other place to seek it than in the word God communicated to us. The meaning we attach to human life and the activities therein is what drives our motivations in life. The word of God is the inexhaustible life God offers to us; we are to sell everything to own it as Moses did. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for tine pearls; when he finds one of great value he goes and sells everything he owns and buys it.” The Lord tailored the parable to the quest of a merchant, knowing that our love for gain drives us. The important lesson in both parables is that we must trade everything we own to possess the fullness of life and glory that the word of God offers us. The difference between Moses and the people is generosity; he gave them all that God gave him. While he gave everything and received the fullness of the glory of God, which shone through his face, he gave them everything he received, but they did not give everything to God. To receive all from God, we must offer all to him.

Let us pray: O God, protector of those who hope in you, without whom nothing has firm foundation, nothing is holy, bestow in abundance your mercy upon us and grant that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may give up the good things that pass to receive even now those that endure forever. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.  

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