Scripture Scribbles: July 30, 2023

the Gospel

Matthew 13:44-52

Jesus said to his disciples:
"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.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea,
which collects fish of every kind.
When it is full they haul it ashore
and sit down to put what is good into buckets.
What is bad they throw away.
Thus it will be at the end of the age.
The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous
and throw them into the fiery furnace,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.

"Do you understand all these things?"
They answered, "Yes."
And he replied,
"Then every scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven
is like the head of a household
who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old."

the devotion

I think I am beginning to understand that joy is my vocation within my Vocation.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve had a natural joy about me. I’ve had a natural joy in experiencing and embracing life and all of its little intricacies and details.

I can remember being a child and looking up in awe as I compared the veins of the leaves in the trees with the ones found in the palms of my hands.

It brought me such joy to know that this world was created by Someone with such a heart for detail. Throughout life, whenever I’ve felt overwhelmed, I look up at the leaves outside and then down at the palms of my hands to remind myself that this world has a Creator and that I am not alone in it. While I always connected it to a Creator, I didn’t necessarily always understand that this was God, His only Son, Jesus, or even the one found in the Catholic Church.

When I found the Lord (or should I say when He found me), it was like someone took the volume on my joy and just turned it all the way up. If before I was naturally joyful, it was as though my heart had found the true source and ultimate home for this joy— and it was overflowing with gladness.

It wasn’t until recently that I realized that joy is, in fact, a fruit of the Holy Spirit.

The Catechism tells us that the fruits of the Spirit are perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory. How beautiful is that? The tradition of the Church lists twelve of them: “charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity" (CCC 112).

Joy. A fruit of the Holy Spirit.

Today we hear Our Lord explain the kingdom of heaven to us as a treasure found in a field. When the person finds the treasure, out of joy, he goes and sells all that he has to buy that field.

I think sometimes we miss that the selling of everything he has is out of joy.

See, the Lord does not just expect us to drop everything and do as He says out of fear, or out of obligation, or even out of expectation. He wills that we do it out of joy.

I remember my teenage days, begging my parents to let me sleep in and stay at home rather than go to Mass. Oh, how truly lost I was. I didn’t understand or see the treasure that was laid out before me, just waiting for me to come and bask in it.

And the real kicker, friend, is that He wills that this joy, this complete surrender of everything out of joy, starts right now. It isn’t all just doom and gloom on this side of Heaven. Jesus tells us, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). He wills that we experience deep and lasting joy… right now!

So how do we find and obtain this treasure?

It all begins with surrender.

Humility.

The ability to let go.

To let go of our own plans and actually give them to Him.

Ask Him to lead you to the treasure and, I promise you, life will begin to open up right in front of you.

And before you know it, out of joy, you will be running to sell everything you have to buy the whole field.

Today’s devotion is written by Rachel Smith