Today's Thoughts...

Today’s Thoughts: The Gospel for today (Matt. 13:44-46) talks about the Kingdom of God and Jesus uses two images for the Kingdom, a buried treasure and a fine pearl. In the case of the treasure the person sells everything and buys the field where the treasure is buried and in the case of the pearl the merchant too sells everything in order to buy the pearl. In other words, when it comes to the Kingdom of God we must be all in because it is worth more than anything else.
 
I thought the following quote from St. Ignatius of Loyola seems to say the same thing about the Kingdom of God as Jesus in today’s Gospel but St. Ignatius says it a little differently!
 
“God freely created us so that we might know, love, and serve him in this life and be happy with him forever. God's purpose in creating us is to draw forth from us a response of love and service here on earth, so that we may attain our goal of everlasting happiness with him in heaven.
 
All the things in this world are gifts of God, created for us, to be the means by which we can come to know him better, love him more surely, and serve him more faithfully.
 
As a result, we ought to appreciate and use these gifts of God insofar as they help us toward our goal of loving service and union with God. But insofar as any created things hinder our progress toward our goal, we ought to let them go.”
 
Have a great Wednesday everyone!