Hey! So I sold all that I had and bought this giant field. Oh, don't you worry! Buried inside this field is a great treasure. Alright, I know it looks like this barren, flat field, with nothing in it but thick dirt, but I'm serious, there is a treasure buried in it! By the way, the language I am speaking is parables! Jesus' clever, clever parables. The treasure hidden in a field is one of my favorite parables and one of the shortest: "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" (Mathew 13:44). So, are you curious about this treasure that I have? Would you like to take a look at it? Sure! Well, here is the treasure... Careful! Oh no! Are you okay? I know! I know! Looking at the treasure can be blinding if you look at it straight on. It can be so bright that we turn our faces from it and don't dare look at it again. Here, is this better? Please tell me you see the crucifix in the eye. It's not just an eye! There is something the eye is looking at. There is something inside the looker. It's the treasure! This view of it isn't as blinding, is it? Sometimes it's best to just look at the treasure through someone else's eyes before we look on it with our own. That way, we get a taste; a sample; an image of the actual treasure. Then, it beckons us to come closer and closer and see the treasure face on for ourselves!
Alright. Let's take a look at this treasure through my eyes. I just want to be glorified. I feel like this slave in a world of imperfection. Imperfection in the world, in others, and in myself. How can I be glorified? I try to glorify myself by chasing after my own pleasure, delight, and satisfaction. I glorify myself by deciding for myself what is good and what is evil. I glorify myself by tearing apart myself and anyone in my way apart so that I can be the one in control. I see that I am the center of the universe. But I am no more the center of the universe than the earth is. In truth, I was designed to revolve around the Son. I was made to glorify the Shining Light. I was made for blissful union with the Creator. Alas, I pursue the things of this earth over the Creator of the earth. I use the people, the places, and the things on our planet for myself. I become so thickheaded that it looks to me that I am the creator of the earth and the universe and can thus use all that resides in it for my own glory. Or, I become so thickheaded that it looks to me that there is no creator of the earth and the universe and I can thus use all that resides in it for my own glory. I become trapped seeking fulfillment where none can be given to me. I do what brings me glory, but I find that glorifying myself is in no way glorious. So the Creator Who is Glory Himself chooses to stand beside me. Instead of peering down at us little people on this little earth He created, He becomes one of the little people in the ginormous universe. He takes on all that is imperfect in me and all that is imperfect in others. Every selfish attempt at self-glorification that is actually due to Glory Himself, He takes on. The imperfections of mind, soul, body, and heart, due to my sin, He takes upon Him, and takes upon Him, and takes upon Him, until it literally kills Him! I look at Him questionably and wonder how one can be glorified by denying oneself and giving oneself totally for another. But this is all my little self knows! I only know the way of self-glorification, so how can I understand Love? How can I understand laying down one's life for one's friends, which is Love? Love Who Is Glory. Love Who Was. Love Who Is To Come. Love Who creates me. Love Who nestles inside my soul of sin and imperfection. Overwhelmed by this totally strange and foreign, yet totally attractive and appealing and glorious Love, I follow Him. I chase Him like a madwoman. My sin and imperfection are still there but Love has saved me and shown me Himself. So I bound after Him. I follow Him and try to imitate Him; He Who teaches me the Way of true glory: Love. ....... That is the treasure that I show you through my eyes. I would keep it to myself, but that only brings self-glorification. Now that I have my Teacher, Love, I glorify Him. And what glory it brings to Him when I show you His bright shining Love so that you too may glorify Him. You can just look at the treasure through my eyes if that is what you're able to take. If you want, you look upon the treasure yourself with your own eyes. If you want even more, you can take the treasure. Please, take it, for I'm dying to share it with you (literally dying with Love Who dies to share the treasure). Know that when you take the treasure, you have a choice to make. You can either throw the treasure away as trash or keep it. Before throwing it away, though, I suggest that you hold it, feel its weight, and study its glory. Instead of simply listening to me ramble on about how much I love this treasure and how this treasure has transformed my life, I suggest that you take the treasure home and ask: Who made this treasure? How did Jacqueline get the treasure? Why do I now have the treasure? What is this treasure? What does it feel like when I hold it? What does it feel like when I'm not holding it? Where do I put it? What do I do with it? What do I believe about this treasure? Do I even consider this to be treasure? If I find this treasure in a desolate field, is it worth hiding it again, and out of joy, going and selling all that I have and buying that field?
2 Comments
Chris Betowski
6/23/2018 04:28:44 am
Hi Jackie,
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Jacqueline
7/7/2018 03:13:03 pm
Thank you thank you! Praise God!
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AuthorJacqueline St. Clare: I spent six months in a cloistered convent, and now I'm a college student! Archives
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