Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field,
which a person finds and hides again,
and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. 
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant
searching for fine pearls. 
When he finds a pearl of great price,
he goes and sells all that he has and buys it. 


The son of an upwardly mobile middle-class merchant, Saint Francis of Assisi understood this parable instinctively. Only a fool would pass up a golden opportunity for wealth and riches. A peasant might suppose the wealth belongs to the landowner and rebury it in spite. An aristocrat would not be digging in a field; that's below his dignity. But an opportunist is always on the watch; and no work, no matter how demeaning, is below his dignity. And Francis was nothing if not an opportunist. 
Like King Solomon he saw that nothing of this world will last. Francis saw poverty as he was growing up though his family was wealthy, and he had suffered the disillusionment of war as Assisi and nearby Perugia were continually at war. 
Finally he was chosen and blessed by God to be a prophet, and so he was given a most extraordinary insight. He saw clearly that EVERYTHING IS GIFT. Even discovering buried treasure is not dumb luck; it happens through the guidance of God the Giver. 
He started out to love the Lord Jesus and he was led to imitate his Savior, but he had to wait a long time before he understood exactly how he should imitate the Lord. He often went into the forests and hills around Assisi and, for one long stretch, hid in a cave as he prayed. His simple-minded companion, whose name is lost to history, supposed he was digging for treasure in the cave. The anguish of Francis' prayers left him exhausted and filthy. 
But at last the Lord blessed him with the vision of Lady Poverty. She was the Bride of Christ, widowed and abandoned since his crucifixion. Francis wooed her as ardently as any young man might pursue a beautiful young lady and, as others started to follow his joyous example, he espoused her to himself. 
Poverty is the easiest, fastest and simplest way to know Jesus. There is no more satisfying way to be close to him. Francis contemplated the meaning of Jesus' birth in a manger "because there was no room in the inn." He considered the Baby's escape into Egypt and his growing up in exile. He remembered Jesus' peripatetic life style, his wandering around Galilee and Judea. Finally he remembered Jesus agony and death on a cross, and his burial in a borrowed tomb. Francis contemplated the Humility of God who would willingly undergo such ignominious treatment in obedience to his beloved Abba-Father and for the love of sinners. 
And to imitate his Lord all he had to do was walk out of his Father's comfortable house into the lonely streets of Assisi. What could be simpler? If his family abused him and the children mocked him, all the better! Didn't they do the same to Jesus? He soon found that people would feed him, as they fed beggars, "For the love of God." He learned that he did not starve to death once he abandoned his station in life, but lived like the birds of the air and was clothed like the lilies in the field. He relied from day to day on the Goodness of God and God never failed him. If he ate, that was God's gift; if he went hungry, that too was God's gift. Clothed or naked, warm or cold, dry or wet, sick or well, lonely or surrounded by friends -- it was all gift. The moment he began to prefer comfort over discomfort he felt the tug of Lady Poverty leading him back to the Lord. 
When we imagine Francis as a brother to nature, with birds and sheep flocking around him, we see the result of his abandonment to God. Like the wild creatures, Francis permitted God to care for him one day at a time, storing nothing for tomorrow, and God lavished gifts upon him. Owning nothing he became the master of everything, and the wisest of all people. 


Not everyone is called to live precisely as Saint Francis of Assisi lived, not even his Franciscan friars. But we are called to the Imitation of Christ and to find the treasure God has buried in the field of our lives. We are called to the discipline which will sell everything and purchase that field. 


Many people are called to abandon the carefree ways of their youth as they enter the Sacrament of Marriage. They soon learn that owning everything in common costs more than they ever imagined! They discover the limits of their understanding, patience and forgiveness and that God must widen their hearts to make room for two -- and three and four and more as children are born. It's not easy but it's easier than any other way of life, and it's beautiful. 


Every Christian, married or single, young or old, rich or poor is called to a disciplined, intensely focused way of life. Toward the end of his life Francis wrote to his friars, 

"I have done what was mine to do. May Christ show you what is yours to do."