The Kingdom of God is a wonderful
treasure worth more than we can ever imagine.
It is like a gem of such wonder and glory that we would give up
everything else in order to acquire it.
Yet, do we place our values in the pleasures of the world and give up
the values of the Kingdom in the process?
We look at a man like St Ignatius of
Loyola, who was a soldier, who enjoyed worldly pleasures like fancy clothing,
many women, and many of the vanities of the world. Yet, after an injury and after a period of
convalescence, he read a book about the saints and had a very profound
conversion experience. At the age of 30,
he went on a pilgrimage and lived as a hermit in a cave for a while. He went through a long period of searching
and longing. He asked himself the same
questions that he wrote in his spiritual exercises that are still asked by many
believers today: What have I done for Christ?
What am I doing for Christ? What
ought I do for Christ? Ignatius spent time
studying Latin and theology, he was even jailed a couple of times during the
Spanish Inquisition for his passion and eccentricities. We know how Ignatius persevered and founded
the Society of Jesus, known as the Jesuits.
Our own Pope Francis is a member of that religious congregation. Ignatius found a treasure that was far beyond
the worldly treasure that he pursued in his youth and young adulthood. The Jesuits were suppressed throughout the
world from 1773 to 1814 in all places throughout the world in all places
besides Prussia and Russia. Yet, the
Jesuits remain the largest religious order of priests and brothers in the world
today.
What worldly treasures are we pursuing in
our lives, and are we pursuing those treasure rather than those of God’s
Kingdom.
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