In one of his teachings Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to a treasure that has been hidden in a field. A man who is ploughing the field accidentally uncovers the treasure. He feels that this is what he has been searching for all his life but never knew what it was. He then goes off and in order to buy the field he must sell everything that he owns to ensure that the treasure will be his. While the parable is more succinct, such is its essence. Our true self is hidden in the field that is our life. It is only in embracing the whole field of our lives, with all its poverty and frailty included, that the treasure can become ours. The entire field of our humanity needs to be bought. Any spirituality that even suggests we can bypass our humaness in order to discover our spiritual nature has to be false. It is precisely in the mud that we find the treasure that we seek. However there is a price, the worker had to sell everything that he previously had in order to buy the field. In other words he had to let go of his false self; that which he was not, in order to come into possession of who he really was.
The Hook of Faith congratulates Fr Jim on the publication of his new book 'MY LIFE - MANY LIVES, ONE WONDER-FUL LIFE'
The book was written to mark his 40 years in the priesthood and is now available at the shop and Church at Our Lady's Island.