Wednesday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time (2025)

When you hear the word “treasure,” what comes to your mind?

For me, I often think of an old pirate map — with a big X marking the spot.

Or Captain Jack Sparrow from the movie Pirates of the Caribbean.

In one scene, Jack is talking to a young man — pirate named Will Turner.

Jack says to him:

“You’re obsessed with treasure.”

And Will replies,

“That’s not true. I’m not obsessed with treasure.”

Then Jack looks at him and says,

“Not all treasure is silver and gold, mate.”

That line is the key: Not all treasure is silver and gold.

In our Gospel today, Jesus speaks about the treasure.

Of course not the pirate’s treasure hidden somewhere in the island.

It is about a much deeper one.

Jesus speaks of a man who finds a treasure buried in a field, and in his joy, he goes and sells everything he has to buy that field.

Another man finds a pearl of great price and does the same.

What kind of treasure is Jesus talking about?

It is the Kingdom of Heaven!

We are reminded today about a purpose, our vocation – that we have to find.

Finding the purpose – we find easier our path to heaven.

Sometimes, when we think about marriage, consecrated life, the priesthood, or our profession and work,

it doesn’t come to us at first that this might be our map to find the treasure — to find the Kingdom of Heaven!

It happens sometimes that these very things become reasons to complain.

Being unsure about our vocation is very confusing and stops us from going further.

Saint Josemaría Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei, said:

“Understand this well: there is something holy, something divine hidden in the most ordinary situations, and it is up to each one of you to discover it.”

Can washing the dishes be the way to become holy? It can be!

Can your smile to a person you don’t like be the way to become holy? It can be!

Can your humble and unnoticed work be the way that makes you holy? It can be!

In the entire Bible, God gives us the message that what has real value is not what is great in the eyes of the world.

These days we hear the readings from the Book of Exodus.

The main character, Moses, is the leader of the Israelites.

He has been chosen by the Lord to set the people free.

The Lord chose him not because of his abilities — he even needed his brother Aaron to speak for him.

From the human perspective, there was nothing appealing about him.

The Book of Numbers 12:3, says:

“Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth.”

The word humility comes from the Latin word humilitas, which is related to another word: humus — earth.

The treasure was found in a field, in the ground — the Gospel tells us today!

The treasure, which is the Kingdom of Heaven, can be found —

but only by those who know how to bow down humbly before the Lord with open minds and hearts.