The kingdom of heaven cannot be bought or sold. It is received as a gift by those who love God and respond to His will for their lives. In this weekend's Gospel, we hear Jesus telling parables about the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, or a pearl of great price, that whoever would find it can immediately recognize its value, then go and sell all that he or she has in order to purchase it. These are beautiful parables for us to mediate on, when contemplating a vocation. But Jesus does only briefly mentions a step that His hearers must have understood - the person who finds it has to be looking for it, and has to know what a treasure or pearl of great value is, in order to know that he or she is indeed in the presence of something worthy of giving everything else in order to possess.
Our society does not value a vocation to priesthood or religious life, at least as Christ and the Church define it. True, the media seems to enjoy running stories of priestly scandal, mock ceremonies, and dissenting voices. When it comes to someone embracing the vocation as it is, they simply do not know what to do, and often reduce the priest or religious to a social worker, a psychologist, or something less. But those who see the true value are willing to give it all up for this one vocation!
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