Where did you invest?

Philip Arthur Fisher was an American stock investor best known as the author of Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits, a guide to investing that has remained in print ever since it was first published in 1958. He says, “The stock market is filled with individuals who know the price of everything, but the value of nothing."
 
This weekend reading talks about investment and marketing. What is investment? If you are a business man, you will talk about investing in the stock market. If you are a social worker, you will talk about investing in the people.
 
Msgr. Joseph A. Pellegrino says a story about a grandmother who pulled out pictures of her three grandchildren, all under two, and showed them to a friend saying, “These are my grandchildren.  That one’s the rich doctor, that one’s the rich lawyer, and that one’s the chairman of the board of a large corporation.”
 
We all look differently at investment. What is the real investment? Do you have one? Fr. Bloom reported from Krakwo, 2016 World youth day. He says, Pope Francis is a big soccer fan and when he mentioned the sport, young people cheered. When he referred to the World Cup, it brought even louder cheers. Then he paused, looked at the sea of youth and said, "Jesus is a greater prize than the World Cup!" Young people stood, raised their hands and gave a sustained cheer.
 
Jesus is the one great prize. That's what we see in today's readings. In comparison to Jesus everything in this world is vanity. Only Jesus has ultimate worth - and only in him does anything have value. The first reading from Ecclesiastes says, “Vanity of vanities, “All is vanity.” Author Qoheleth’s point is that the only real values are the spiritual values.
 
In the Gospel, Jesus calls the rich a fool? Jesus is not disregarding his skills and ability to acquire wealth, but rather for his selfishness. Jesus was called the rich fool, because he lost his aptitude to invest wisely. His life was consumed with his possessions and his only interests were in himself. Jesus is not talking against wealth or rich; but he is talking about use of it.
 
We do need good investments: good financial stability. When you invest, you don’t invest in one company, do you? No, you spread it out based on your research. Because you expect the best outcome. In the same way we also need to invest in our family, community and so on. But we should have God in the first place. Everything else should be the secondary.
 
The parable in the Gospel is a study of our heart. Where is our treasure? Treasure has always had a special connection to the heart, the place of desire and longing, the place of will and focus. The thing we most set our heart on is our highest treasure. Then a question for us to ask, what/who is our treasure? Does God have the right place in our heart?
 
Where did you invest?