In explaining the core meaning of these two parables in today’s Gospel, Jesus expresses what is of primary importance to achieve the Kingdom of Heaven: putting into effect a plan of life that will not be ignored, modified or evaded.
That plan is to choose the best option to achieve the end for which I was created, that is to seek the Kingdom of God in this life and find it completely in the next, when I see God face to face in the glorified Church. In other words, to choose in this life “the magis", “the better”, as St. Ignatius put it, in order to realize the Kingdom of God.
To live out this plan does not mean that I should reject the good things in this life, but to enjoy them in so far as they fit the plan of life God has given me to achieve the Kingdom of Heaven. I am not less a person by rejecting persons, places, and things that prevent me from achieving the purpose for which I was created. Rather, I am more a person because my life is not limited to this world.
Prayer causes me to be alert, energetic in discerning choices that distinguish between false and true ways to achieve the Kingdom of Heaven, to obtain joy, even in spite of trials that come into my daily life and to live out what I read in scripture.
Resolve: Today, along with considering the Kingdom of Heaven, we celebrate the feast of St. Ignatius Loyola, who stressed the importance of “the magis", "the better”. I will pray that, through his intercession, God will give me the grace to know better and to choose better the ways to put into effect the plan to achieve the Kingdom of Heaven.