Slow Reset from Chaos

The Treasure Worth Finding

A reflection on recognizing Christ as the priceless treasure hidden in plain sight.

Some homilies stay with you long after Mass ends. Today, Fr. John’s homily did that for me.

What stayed with me was this simple truth: the treasure worth finding is not a thing, but a Person. It is Christ, the incomparable treasure hidden in plain sight.

I walked away asking myself a deeper question: do I truly recognize the treasure I have been given?

Did you know that the largest pearl ever found measures 2.2 feet long, 1 foot wide, and weighs a whopping 75 pounds? It was discovered by a local fisherman who kept it under his bed for a decade as a good-luck charm. Its estimated value was $100 million, but he had no idea what he had.

That image has stayed with me. Like the fisherman, I wonder how often I carry something priceless without fully realizing its value. How often do I hold the gift of faith, the presence of Christ, and the promise of eternal life as if they are ordinary things? It made me ask myself honestly: what do I treasure most?

Fr. John also reminded us of the 21 Coptic Christian men who, in 2015, were paraded and beheaded for refusing to deny Christ. The last man to be executed was asked one final time to deny Christ and save himself. He answered, “Their God is my God.” I cannot stop thinking about the courage it took for them to choose Christ over their own lives.

Father continued with the story of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, a group of Roman soldiers from Legio XII Fulminata who refused to deny their Christian faith in 320 AD. As I listened, I pictured them stripped of their clothes and forced to stand in the open air beside an ice-covered pond until they froze. One soldier broke away and ran to the warm bathhouse, but he died instantly. At that moment, a guard named Aglaius saw a miraculous vision of radiant crowns descending from heaven. He immediately stripped off his own clothes, professed his Christian faith, and ran onto the ice to join the remaining thirty-nine, keeping the count at forty. Those who survived the night had their legs broken; their remains were burned and cast into a river.

I keep thinking about these martyrs and saints who found something far more valuable than their own lives. When all the pleasures I chase have lost their taste, and when my mind can no longer remember my own name, what can this world offer me that is worth more than eternal life in Christ?

Maybe that is where the invitation begins: to loosen my grip on every false identity, every temporary treasure, and every lesser love so I can finally recognize Christ within me.