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There are many ingredients that go to make up our lives. We have mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, children, grandchildren, uncles, aunts, friends, enemies, work, business, unemployment, health, sickness, wealth, debts, poverty, joy, sorrow and etc. etc. The list is almost endless.

Running through this enormous hotch-potch uphill and downhill is the golden thread of our faith. For some people life becomes so turbulent with either good or bad things, that this golden thread is almost forgotten. Yet this is the gold! All the rest is dross! Let us get our priorities right as the man did in our text word.

What wonderful parables the Lord used to teach us the value of the kingdom of heaven. Nothing even begins to compare with this greatest of all treasures which our dear Lord Jesus has brought within our reach, and which He makes accessible to us through His Ministry of Grace embodied in the living Apostolate. Jesus told us in His parable that when a man discovered the treasure hidden in the field, he was overcome with joy and sold all that he had to buy that field. The field is life and the treasure is the kingdom of heaven. When the man discovered the kingdom of heaven in his life he was prepared to part with everything else to gain that kingdom. He got his priorities right. The same applied to the merchant who sought good pearls, when he found one of great value he went and sold all that he had to buy that pearl. Jesus wants our faith to be like the faith these men had in their treasures. No sacrifice was too great for them. How foolish are those who are reluctant to part with their time, money, work or energies and give these into the service of the Lord’s work.

Jesus taught us how to get these priorities right. “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” Those who think, let’s look after the things like money, job, business, position, prestige, respect and all these important worldly things first, and after we have done all that then we shall look around and see if we have got something left over for religion. What fools these people are. Jesus continued by asking us, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? ‘or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?’ Matt.16:25-26.

Again He taught us to beware of covetousness, for our lives do not consist of the abundance of our possessions. A rich man made great plans how he would store his riches and lead a life of luxury “But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” Luke 12: 15-21.

Life is much more than the material things in it. We worry too much about the field and not enough about the treasure in the field. The ravens neither sow nor reap, but God feeds them. Are we not more than these birds in the sight of God? Let us have faith, brothers and sisters, and be not stingy towards God, then we shall discover that the abundance of His blessings will overwhelm us.