If one believes that Christ gives the heavenly and holy treasure of eternal life, then there must be authorized entrusted heirs to guard, distribute, and teach it to the generations. The treasure of eternal life must not be just mapped in a sacred book and left to personal interpretations with the slightest hint of hit or miss. We know that many intelligent thinkers and scholars missed the treasure. Among them Saul, the Jews high priests, King Herod, and scores of His disciples and followers and even the Apostle Judas missed the treasure, “As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.” (John 6: 66). Additionally, since the treasure is not obvious to mere human eyes, the treasure cannot be recognized unless, “They shall all be taught by God.’” (John 6: 45) Or the individual may misunderstand the treasure under the influence of a demonic spirit. Even Satan recognized Christ as, “the Son of God” (Matthew Chapter 4) and in another incident the demons shouted, “Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the appointed time?” (Matthew 8:29). Thus, to depend on our own unauthorized interpretations to map the hidden treasure in the Sacred Scripture raises the possibility that God is the one revealing the truth to us, but also it also raises the possibility that the demons are revealing a corrupted version of the truth. The truth is never revealed from our own intellect alone.
Christ taught and performed incredible graces that must be carried out with fidelity. Christ's treasures are controversial; ultimate Holiness must remain hidden to avoid manipulating our freedom of choices. As all treasures, they must be hidden from thieves and the ignorant, but entrusted to the closest confidants. Christ’s treasure is “a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14). Christ is and gives “The Bread of Life” (John 6:35).
Christ’s treasure is converting the water into “the Good Wine” (John 2:10). Christ gave us the ultimate treasure in converting bread and wine into “this is my Body...this is my Blood” (Matthew 26: 26 &28). The treasure that Christ gives is the ultimate hunt for thieves. Christ is the treasure and was hunted as a lamb, persecuted, falsely testified against, and Crucified. Likewise, for eternity, those who were authorized to receive and be entrusted with His treasures are guaranteed to be hunted, persecuted, falsely accused, and killed. Furthermore, Christ’s treasure will also be downplayed and misrepresented to deceive and distract honest seekers from finding Him.
Because of all that, Christ must entrust His most valuable treasures not haphazardly to onlookers, but to authorized sons who would be willing to accept humiliation, persecution, torture, and death. Indeed, Christ must entrust His treasure to those who understand bloody relationship and He will reward them as sharers, heirs, and coheirs of His treasures that they treat as their own. Thus, to expect and search for an authorized successive eyewitnesses led by one fatherly figure, is the norm when one understands the Creator's design.
Readers of Christ’s life story are emotionally moved but that does not mean that Christ wished them to become interpreters of the fullness of His truth and defenders of His treasure. The claim that Christ builds his house on sands with vague plans is blasphemy. Christ left His treasure on earth among wolves, thieves, enemies, and deceivers. Therefore, He must not entrust His treasures to written scrolls or bonded papers entrusted to the justice of the earthy god to preserve them untainted in a museum for truth seekers. No, the god of the earth is Satan, “the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that they may not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Corinthians 4:4). Nor can Christ entrust His message to be interpreted by any educated reader, for the children of this world are not His children and do not seek His Truth, “You belong to your father the devil and you willingly carry out your father’s desires. . . does not stand in truth. . . tells a lie, because he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44). It is logical then that Christ trusts His treasures to His own children who are born again – “a new Creation” of the same parents just as Christ had on earth. The parent whom Christ assigns to teach and nourish His sons and daughters during life on earth is an adopted Father. Just as Christ had His human adopted father Joseph and His Mother Mary during all the days He lived on Earth as Christ, likewise, His children have the Pope as adopted earthly Father. And just as Christ was a son of Mary, on Earth we are sons of His established Catholic Church, our Mother. Indeed, then we begin to understand how His earthly design distributes and carries on His treasures to the letter and for all generations.
Once we understand the Church as the entrusted method of teaching, explaining, and distributing of Christ's treasure, we can look at the treasures themselves. The prodigal son decided to leave the home of his father to seek other treasures in the world. The prodigal son took a portion of his inheritance and left, seeking his interpretations of what true treasure is and where it is found. Like the Prodigal son, Judas took his intimate knowledge and authority and power over the earth and his followers and left his Father's Kingdom, the Church that Christ established on earth. Judas left the established Church seeking a more understandable and logical treasure – pure silver coins that could be seen and held in his hands and that undoubtedly had been recognized as valuable for thousands of years. Both Judas and the prodigal son sought outside treasures and personal understanding of treasure according to their own interpretation. To feed his pride and personal greed for power, love, joy, happiness, fame, and achievements, the prodigal son shared his father's treasures with outsiders until he became so depleted of the treasure that “he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed, but nobody gave him any.” (Luke 16: 15). An incredible wake-up reality is that the SOURCE of the father's treasure remains in the home when a son leaves the father's home or kingdom on good terms. Like the prodigal son, Judas left after dipping and sharing in the last intimate supper of inheritance. Both Judas and the prodigal son left the father in pain over their plans that were outside the father's wishes and design. Even though they felt they were mature enough and old enough to find real treasure on their own, they were not.
The prodigal son returned to his father's home, authority, teaching, and mentoring. He returned to enjoying the father's treasure after realizing a shocking and painful, yet expected reality that the source of the treasure remains entrusted in the father's home and does not leave even with authorized legitimate sons. This reality likewise hit Judas; he found himself lonely without any of the family brothers, including Peter the hand-chosen Fatherly figure and Christ the Risen God. Judas was left with shiny earthy silver and with his clouded misinterpretation of Christ’s teaching about His treasure Flesh and Blood as real Food and Drink, “But there are some of you who do not believe.” Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him.” (John 6:64). Judas and the prodigal son are eyewitnesses, heirs, and coheirs of their father's house, yet when they deserted the house and the one family genealogical lineage they became starved, poor treasure-squanders by their free choices and free rejection of the Father's design, “squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation. When he had freely spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he found himself in dire need.” (Luke 15: 13-14).
The prodigal son returned in sorrow and accepted all possible requirements the father would place on his unification. The prodigal son returned, longing for his family and leaving the world and what it offered behind. As a result, he was accepted as a son, heir and coheir, with festive and royal joy. On the other hand, Judas returned without letting go of his personal misinterpretation and silver gain, but instead he returned as an observer, onlooker, accuser, and as a searcher for a justification to his desertion and criticism, “Peter turned and saw the disciple following” (John 21: 20).
Both the prodigal son and Judas returned to the house of their father, but in different manners that led to different results. The prodigal son emptied himself of the earthy treasure and sought the father in sorrow; he accepted his father's potential harsh punishment. While Judas returned as an onlooker, curious, inquisitive, and full of wealth. Thus, the prodigal son returned empty and humble, and found Christ and the love of his father. Judas returned full of pride as if patting himself on the back because his interpretation forced Christ to be unquestionably revealed as the immortal God. Therefore he felt that no real death could hurt him; thus he lost Christ. Judas’ painful realization is evident – he committed suicide because he realized that the source of the treasure does not move out of the one family; it remains under the one earthy father Peter. This should be a wake-up warning to anyone loving Christ and His truth – do not be tempted to get out of the one Catholic Church even if you are convinced of doing Christ's desires and even if you have strong love for Christ and desire to minister and share Christ’s news with the world. Likewise, it is also dangerous to be Catholic and at the same time be callous, passive, uninvolved, and unappreciative of the great treasure and design we have, “stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always oppose the holy Spirit.” (Acts 7:51).
To summarize, a wise father would give his inheritance to his trusted sons in a specific plan, not because of any discrimination against the daughters or the extended family members, rather actually to benefit the entire family for generations. Furthermore, when the wish is critical, the trusted sons carried the original father's wishes successfully by being eyewitnesses of the unfolded plans from the original father to their eyewitnesses and hand raised children in authorized successions. Additionally, Christ's design must be carried out with ultimate precision and authorized steps in the matter of interpretation and specific instructions related to permanent salvation which is the most crucial treasure. Therefore, it is vital to carry out Christ's plan in its entirety. The specific plan must be explained and entrusted to those who were handpicked, eye witnessed, and instructed in the plan.
The authorized eyewitnesses and their authorized eyewitnesses successfully maintained my ancestral village for 1300 years. But more than a catholic village, you and I even after 2000 years and beyond deserve not to wonder with our own interpretations, but to accept the fullness of truth as Christ taught it. I am in awe at how Christ gifted us the magnificent Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church to preserve the fullness of truth. For without Her, I would have never tasted the incredible fullness of truth that She preserved faithfully and authoritatively handed down so someone two thousand years later could enjoy such incredible beauty.
Those who miss the fullness of truth in the Catholic Church perhaps remain unaware of what they miss because they never sincerely indulged in the fullness of truth “for to everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” (Matthew 25: 29). The Holy Catholic Church has the fullness of truth and over time grew rich and I am mesmerized by the fullness of treasure that I am fortunate to indulge in. The choice is either someone's personal interpretation or the rich treasure of the Holy Catholic Church. But, you and I are just a drop of salt, a tiny branch, and a single cell in a magnificent body that, by itself, is really ineffective to salt anything or give a total life. I choose the rich interpretation of the Holy Catholic Church. Therefore, my little reflections become an enlightened cell, an energized drop of salt and branch that nourishes and is nourished by the fullness of treasure and truth of the one family Catholic Church. Thus my personal life is constantly enlightened by Her light.