Homily for the Week of July 24, 2011

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2011

President William McKinley signed the Newlands Resolution that annexed Hawaii on July 7, 1898, making it the Territory of Hawaii, a possession of the United States.

In 1993, with the support of Senators Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, Congress passed a joint resolution, called the “Apology Resolution,” that was signed by President Bill Clinton on Nov. 23, 1993. The resolution apologized “to Native Hawaiians on behalf of the people of the United States for the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii on Jan. 17, 1893...and the deprivation of the rights of Native Hawaiians to self-determination.”

The driving force behind the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands was monetary. Hawaii had massive sugar and fruit plantations that were owned by only five corporations. The plantations had been begun largely by missionaries who went to Hawaii in the mid-1800s to convert native Hawaiians to Christianity. Many of the missionary families became very wealthy.

Bishop Desmond Tutu was interviewed in the 1980s, the time of apartheid in South Africa. Responding to a question he said, “When the white people arrived, we had the land and they had the Bible. They said, ‘Let us pray.’ When we opened our eyes, they had the land and we had the Bible. And we got the better end of the deal.”

For the past two weeks and, finally, today we have been reading from the 13th chapter of Matthew, often called “The Day of Parables.” Jesus used these parables to teach about the kingdom of Heaven. On one level Matthew had to answer the early Christians’ questions concerning the Church and the Kingdom. If Jesus really was the Son of God, why were not all people turning to Christ? Answer: “The Sower and the Seed.” Why had not more people chosen to follow Christ? Why did some believers either become traitors or become a scandal for the rest of the community? Why cannot the community kick out someone who seems to be a problem? Answer: The parable of the “Wheat and the Weeds.”

There were many problems in the early Church to make members wonder whether pursuing the Kingdom was worth it. Today’s first two parables give us our answer. Pursing the Kingdom is worthy of great sacrifice.

The difference in the first two parables — the buried treasure in the field and the pearl of great price — is interesting. In the first parable, an individual going about his work finds a great treasure while digging. Finding the treasure was entirely accidental. Though accidental, once the workman realized what he had found, he sacrificed everything to possess it. The parable is not at all concerned about the legal issues involved. (What the workman did was probably legal.) What the parable wants us to see is the great sacrifice that was made to possess the treasure.

In the second parable, the merchant’s finding the beautiful pearl was not an accident. Pearls were the most highly regarded things of beauty, even more than gemstones. The merchant traveled the world seeking the most beautiful pearl ever, and he succeeded. Like the workman in the first parable, the merchant sacrificed everything he had to possess the pearl. The pearl would not put a roof over the man’s head or food on his table, but the sacrifice of everything for an object of great beauty was worth it.

It is easy to understand that Jesus is leading us to see that pursuing the Kingdom of Heaven is worth every sacrifice. Nothing should deter us. Are we pursuing Heaven, or are we pursuing something else?

What we pursue makes us who we are. What we pursue will either make us or destroy us. The pursuit of land and its wealth in Hawaii eventually led to the overthrowing of a long-existing kingdom in Hawaii. President Grover Cleveland, who preceded President McKinley, saw the injustice and tried to restore the deposed Hawaiian queen to her throne, but those pursing land and money won the day.

The dynamics in South Africa were not much different. Missionaries seeking to convert the native population discovered diamonds and other wealth. Corporations moved in, and apartheid was the result.

What do we pursue? Will it result in treasure or a pearl, or will our pursuit leave victims in its wake?