In a country where it is illegal and punishable by death to preach the Gospel, a bishop, priest and deacon were arrested and convicted of doing that—of proclaiming the Gospel. And so they were sentenced to death in front of a firing squad.
The day came for the execution and as the command was called out—“Ready, Aim…”—the bishop screamed “earthquake” at the top of his lungs, and as everyone looked around in confusion he managed to escape.
Well, when things got back to order, they were prepared to execute the priest and the deacon, and at the command “Ready, aim…” the priest pointed to the sky and yelled: “Tornado!!” Everyone looked up and in the confusion he too was able to escape.
That left the deacon, and he thought he knew what he needed to do. So, when the command rang out “Ready, aim…” he yelled at the top of his lungs: “Fire!!”
Silly story, I know, but it has at its core the fundamental message of two of the parables which Jesus tells in today’s Gospel—the idea that our membership in the Kingdom of heaven entails putting everything that we are and have at the service of the Kingdom.
The two parables—the “pearl of a great price” and the “treasure buried in a field” both are told just to Jesus disciples, not to the crowd in general, as if to emphasize for those who have decided to follow Jesus just what that entails. In both parables, the person in question—the merchant or the person who finds the treasure in the field—takes everything that he has and sells it all and uses the proceeds to buy this one thing of tremendous value.
Put another way, the merchant puts everything he has accumulated throughout his life in service of this one purchase, and the one who finds the treasure does the same—sells everything and buys the field.
Nothing is held back. Nothing is in reserve. Absolutely everything is given over to this tremendous opportunity, this tremendous purchase, this chance of a lifetime.
And in the same way, Jesus is saying, that is what we are called to do as his followers— put all that we have and all that we are in service to the Kingdom of Heaven. All in, as they say in Las Vegas.
So we might ask ourselves today if that is how we life our lives—with our fundamental focus on the Kingdom of Heaven—or whether we are in some sense folks who think we have dual citizenship—citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, and also citizens of the Kingdom of Earth— in some sense carrying two passports.
For years I had a client who did that—had two passports. He had been born in Russia as the son of a man who was one of the heads of the Russian nuclear program, and he had a PhD. in physics. He was also a medical doctor, and with that combination he had moved to the US in the 1980’s, become an American citizen and invented some of the fundamental devices in the world of interventional cardiology.
He was also for a time the judo champion of Russia for his weight class, and was married to a former prima ballerina of the Bolshoi ballet in Moscow. Fascinating guy.
He had managed to keep two passports, his Russian passport and his American passport. Sometimes he’d use his Russian passport. Other times he’d use his US one.
I asked him once why he did that, why he kept two different passports. He said: “Bob, governments change. Situations change. Sometimes a US passport works better than a Russian one. Sometimes it doesn’t. Always good to have a back up.”
I wonder if we don’t think that same way about our spiritual passport, if you will. We’re just a little wary of putting everything on the line with the Kingdom of Heaven. At some times and in some contexts we might find that the Kingdom of Earth seems to work better for us.
In a sense we may find ourselves carrying two spiritual passports.
Sure, on Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning we come to Mass and get our Kingdom of Heaven passport stamped, waive it around. And maybe we’re travelling on that passport when we say grace before meals or pray at the end of the day.
But what about those times when we seem to take great joy in talking other people down—behind their backs, of course—or in gossiping or in just being negative towards others. Kingdom of Earth stuff for sure.
And what about at work? Are we people who truly pledge allegiance to the Kingdom of heaven and all that entails, or will we shade the truth, fudge a report, do what it takes to get an order—pulling out that Kingdom of Earth passport.
What about our habits, our language, our use of money and time and energy? Those are all moral statements, occasions for use to be citizens of God’s kingdom or not.
I’m guessing that if we’re honest with ourselves, most of us are really dual-passport sort of folks.
Having dual passports as a matter of civil law is tricky. Some countries allow them. Some don’t.
But on a spiritual level the question of having two passports is a simple one. The Kingdom of heaven doesn’t permit dual passports.
We’re either citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, or we’re not. No dual citizenship.
That’s the message of the two parables today. And that’s a message Jesus gives us throughout the Gospels. We can’t serve two masters, as Jesus tells us. We have to choose.
So we might ask ourselves—when we show up at the pearly gates and St. Peter asks to see our passport, what will that looks like? We’ll need to show our Kingdom of heaven passport and what will that look like?
Will it be a well-worn Kingdom of Heaven document, showing a lot of use, pages dog-eared and a stain here and there, a document that was front and center in our lives?
Or will we sheepishly produce a Kingdom of Heaven passport that’s nice and clean and tidy and pristine, that looks like it was kept at the back of our sock drawer in our dresser most of the time, rarely used?
That’s the sign of someone travelling on a different passport, the passport of another kingdom—not the Kingdom of Heaven.