FR. JOEL’S REFLECTION
“Going just Half-Way with Jesus…gets you Nowhere”
A lot of people “dabble” in religion. They went to church as kids (because their parents made them). They were Confirmed as a teen. But once they graduated high school, they rarely attend church - mostly Christmas Eve, Easter, weddings, funerals, and maybe now and then when the mood hits them. But God isn’t really a priority in their lives. There is work and family and finances and friends and fun. And if there is any time left over, they might give a bit to God.
But at the core they are Self-centered, Self-serving, and Self-pleasing rather than God-centered, God-serving, God-pleasing. Most of the time God just gets in their way. Oh, they are happy to have the blessings God gives: the gift of life, the gift of living in this country with all the opportunities it provides. If you live in Council Bluffs, you live better than probably 98% of the people in this world and better than 99.9999% of all human beings who have ever lived. How blessed are we! God has been so good to us.
If they are lucky one day they wake-up and ask themselves, “I am busy living, but why am I living? I am busy running, but where am I going?” Maybe their wake-up call is the death of a loved one, or their own health-scare, or a financial setback. So, they start to consider God seriously.
In the Gospel Jesus offers a treasure, but to obtain it one must be willing to go all in. Going halfway gets you nowhere. The one man sold everything to buy the field. The other man sold everything to buy the pearl he had been seeking his whole life. Jesus reminds us that we don’t have all the time in the world. Eventually, we know not when, we will take our last breath with only two destinies: either to dwell with God for all eternity or to be separated from God for all eternity. Many people will be separated from God in eternity because they separated themselves from God while they lived.
God offers us a treasure. And those who are God-centered, God-serving, and God-pleasing will receive it.
