"By faith he sojourned to the Promised Land."....First reading

"Where your treasure is there is yoUr heart..."

In the movie Brooklyn, we can get glmpses about the meanings of today's first reading and the Gospel.

Like Abraham and all the ancients the heroine is on a journey and she must travel by faith.

Se leaves Ireland like so many before her embarking on a long ocean passage to  what so many imigrants  see as "the promised land." WE GET GLIMPSES OF HER ANGUISH AT LEAVING HOME AND HER FEELING SHE IS SUCH A GREENHORN, AND SO UNINIATED IN THE WAYS OF THE WORLD.

AND INDEED IT MUST BE SO FOR ALL IMMIGRANTS LEAVING THE KNOWN AND EMBRACING

THE UNKNOWN, WHICH IS SO VERY FAR AWAY FROM ALL THAT IS FAMILIAR.

In America,she falls in love. And then when the story is about to have a happy ending, she is called back to Ireland by the sudden death of her sister and by her grieving and lonely mother.

Back home again she begins to fall in love with the familiar and begins to be courted by an Irish lad.

And now she is torn by the question: "Where does my treasure surely lie?

She also has a moral dillemma, for she had entered into

a quick civil marriage in the USA just before she returned to Ireland.

Where does her true treasure lie?

It seems our hearts are made for treasure,and we are all treasure seekers.

The Gospel reveals to us that our truest treasure is love. Often not heeding the Gospel, people seek their treasure in possessions, or in prestiege, yet so much of that is hollow.

In another current movie, Cafe Society written by Woody Allen, this is exemplified in the hollow Hollywood scenes, and the hero and heroine are confused about their true treasure, and it ends with them dreaming about their unrequited love, which is a major theme in all literature.

For the Christian, God IS love and the ulimate source of all our humaN longing.

We can receive God's love every time another human being says;

'I LOVE YOU!"

BUT THERE IS EVEN MORE TO BE GIVEN AND MORE TO BE ATTAINED:

And so according to Saint Augustine who spent his life in the pursuit of love as his treasure,

"OUR HEARTs ARE RESTLESS TIL THEY  REST IN THEE."