It is said that when the largest library in the city of Alexandria in Egypt was burned down, only one book was intact. From the outside, this is just a trivial book like any other book. But perhaps this is the most valuable book in the world because its back cover contains the secret of a gem. No matter where the stone reaches, it all turns into gold. The writing on the back of the book adds that this gem is mixed among thousands of other stones on the North Sea coast. In shape, it is like every other stone. The only difference is that while the other stones are cold, the gem is hot when you touch it. Accidentally a poor farmer bought the book and discovered the secret. He sold all his possessions and set out to find the gem. He set up a tent on the North Sea coast and picked up each stone day by day. Picking up any stone, he threw it into the sea. For a whole year, every day he repeated the same movement over and over. Pick up a stone and throw it into the sea. But he has yet to find a hot stone. All the stones were cold. He continued the work for another year, but still could not find the gem, and one afternoon, his hand suddenly heated up when it touched the stone. But the habit of picking up rocks to throw into the sea became an instinct. So the farmer threw the hot stone into the sea, too. He let the treasure slip away from his hands.
At some point, we will ask ourselves what do we live for? What does this life mean to me? Perhaps the answer for most of us is to live in search for happiness. Happiness is the most precious fortune that all humanity desires to seek daily and hourly. There are people who spend their whole life seeking happiness but never get satisfied. There are people who voluntarily lose everything to achieve the happiness they expect, then get frustrated and continue searching.
Happiness is the jewel, the fortune that we have to attain at all costs and we must by all means protect and to preserve it forever in our lives.
But where is that treasure of happiness? How can we find it? Some people believe that happiness is only when people have a lot of money. Some people believe that happiness is in career and success. That is right! But if only because of money, because of love, because of the title or of the career, we sold out conscience, losing our dignity, and make others suffer, whether we are happy or not? If we had to choose between temporary happiness and eternal happiness, what would we choose?
There are people who just want to have money so they greed, steal and cheat. They have the joy of having illicit money but how long will that joy last?
There are people who are out of love, living in an unrighteous way, surreptitiously in conjugal marriage, whether it still deserves the dignity of a human being?
There are people, because of their position, trampling, depressing and overwhelming others, whether they have a peaceful or worried life?
Today God invites us to make a choice. Choose between the eternal and the temporary. Choose the earth to pass quickly or the kingdom of eternity. Make a definitive choice halfway through. The choice must have a trade-off. Trade-off the fortune, what you have to buy for heaven. The choice must be reckless. Bring all the fortune to buy in the field, to buy the pearl. In short, if you have to be poor, lose your job, and lose your social status for the sake of happiness of the Kingdom, you must be sacrificed! Because in the end, money for fame and fortune is only at this moment, but we are for tomorrow. It is not exclusive to me, nor do I possess it for the rest of my life!
One day we can say, “I’ve made the right choice, the treasure is in my hands, I have it all!”
For us CMT searching the treasure- the will of God is essential part of our lives as Father Palau said: “allow things to go on by its regular course and God will lead everything to its own destiny… God will never abandon those who sincerely desire his glory and offer themselves in sacrifice for the welfare of his Church” (Letter 52,2).
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