Today’s Readings invite us to re-examine our goals in life. What am I living for? What do I want in life, for myself? For those I love? Is there something still hidden that if I found it I would give everything up for it? Among the broken and unexplored shells, is there a precious pearl waiting for me that would make all the searching and all the suffering worthwhile?

The Gospel says: Yes, there is. And it is God himself calling me into a close communion of love – a love for which I am made. It is this communion of love that is the only life worth living. Nothing else, however attractive, can take its place, and to have this communion is to have everything. It makes everything worthwhile, for then everything becomes a sacrament, revealing God.

Today’s First Reading invites us to join Solomon in praying for a heart to know God (1Kings 3:9). The Responsorial Psalm invites us to see ourselves as God’s first-born. St Paul tells us in the second reading, we are to ‘share his glory’. (Romans 8:30).

In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that a life of communion with God is like a treasure hidden in a field. It is close to us all. If there is anything holding us back from it, let us give it away and accept the gift of this treasure that God offers us. This is the pearl of great price. Nothing that deprives us of it is worth pursuing.