Life is full of risks, right? There are things that have health risks-- watch all the drug commercials during the evening news and you can see (quickly) pass through the screen a litany of risks you probably didn't even know existed. There are financial risks, again the disclosures on financial products like annuities will give you more detail than you can imagine. We know that as we walk down the street all kinds of things might happen-- cars out of control, bicycles, electric scooters, you name it. In today's Gospel (Mt 13: 44- 46) we hear Jesus give two brief analogies to the Kingdom of Heaven, both of which involve risks as well. We hear of the treasure hunter who finds a treasure in a field that belongs to someone else, reburies it, and goes off and sells all he owns to buy the field (and the treasure). One might wonder what the man is doing digging in someone else's field, but Jesus probably does not want us to get distracted from His analogy with that kind of legalistic question-- just assume it was ok somehow. We also hear of the merchant who finds a very-valuable pearl and also goes out and sells all he has so that he can buy that pearl. Again, we might ask ourselves how this merchant knows something about the pearl that its current owner does not know, but that is a distraction from the message too. So we get the idea that Jesus is telling us that the Kingdom of Heaven should be considered to be something of immense value, like the treasure or the pearl of great price. But we might overlook one additional point-- the fact that being part of the Kingdom involves risk. Both the merchant and the man who bought the field took immense risks. They sell everything in the hope that they will be able to make a great profit when they buy the field or the pearl. But what if during the time it takes to do all that selling, something has changed? What if someone else found the treasure in the meantime and took it? What if the pearl turns out not to be so valuable because people don't care so much about pearls or other, even bigger and better pearls have been found? Nevertheless, both the merchant and the buyer of the field are willing to risk everything-- and the buyer of the field does it with joy-- because the reward will be so great. We might remember the risk part of these analogies, and not just focus on the reward, the value, of the Kingdom of Heaven. I say that because the Kingdom sometimes requires that we take risks, and we can forget that part of the equation in our need to be risk-averse. There are risks at work if we are obvious about our faith. People may disagree with us, not like us, decide (subconsciously, I suggest) not to give us good reviews or promote us. There are risks with our friends, who may no longer go to Church and are offended by the fact that we do. There may even be risks with our families. But like the merchant and the buyer of the field, we are called to take risks-- to risk everything, in fact-- as members of the Kingdom of Heaven. Easy to say; tough to do. But something to keep in mind, because if we don't remember what our faith requires, we may not have the strength to do it.