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If we give ourselves time to reflect, it will not be difficult to realize that our life is actually a long search for something. Once upon a time, there was a poem that said, “Life, life is looking for things in the wrong places, looking for love in the wrong faces.”
We are looking for something in life because we are not content with what life is offering us. Sometimes we look for it intentionally, as for example, you go to the store, buy something, and go home immediately. What you want to buy, what you want to get, what you want to possess, is already clear in your mind. Sometimes, we just do some window-shopping until we find something that we like and then we get it. So we find it accidentally. We find it unintentionally. That is the second way of finding things and finding faces.
The third way is: we are looking for something but we are too busy and too preoccupied that even if it is right before our eyes, we still ask, “Where is it?” The classic example of that is your grandparents who look for their eyeglasses, when all along they are wearing them. We are looking for something intentionally but we cannot find it because we are much too preoccupied with less important matters.
Solomon was looking for something and God dared him, “Ask for anything. I will give you a blank check, write down the amount you need and it is yours.” But Solomon did not ask for long life, he did not ask for wealth. He did not ask that his enemies be eliminated. Solomon only asked for wisdom, he only asked for understanding because he knew that in asking for wisdom, he was asking for God.
The Gospel is also about searching, a search for fine pearls, for a hidden treasure. Ask yourself, “What are you looking for?” Sometimes what we look for is what we want. But it is different from looking for what you need. Let me warn you, however.
If you always look for the things you want, you will always be unhappy because our wants are unlimited. But if you look for only the things that you need, you will certainly find happiness because the only thing that we need is God. With God, all others are inconsequential.
What are you looking for? Are you looking for the things you want? Are you looking for the things the television tells you that you should have? You will be unhappy even if you buy everything that the commercials tell you to buy. In order to be happy in life, we should look not for what we want, but for what we need. Solomon saw that. He only needed understanding and he asked for it and it was given to him. What are you really looking for? What are you really searching for? Let St. Augustine help you in your search. Because when St. Augustine found God, he exclaimed, “Oh beauty ever ancient, ever new, how late have I known you. And my heart is restless until it rests in you.”
WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?
Mt. 13:45
Looking For Jesus
