Seeking the Pearl of Great Price and the Buried Treasure

In today's Gospel, Mt 13: 44-46, Jesus says to us:  "The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.  Again, the Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When...[she] finds a pearl of great price,...[she] goes and sells all that...[she] has and buys it." 

We are on a journey initiated by God, who calls us to discover "a treasure," the "pearl of great price."
St. Paul tells us, in 2 Corinthians 4:7, that we hold "this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us."  God is the buried treasure, the pearl of great price.  Every disillusionment, every disappointment in life--and there will be many--is an opportunity to discover our true treasure, the only One who does not disappoint, is not a disillusionment.  These moments of discovery can be gut-wrenching as we come face to face with things, events and  persons (ourselves included) that do not live up to our idealistic and perfectionistic expectations.  Eventually, we will face the most difficult moment of all: "parting with the last of our jealous possessions: our sense of success, our reputation for holiness, the control of our future, the control of what our future ought to be.  The excruciating pain of a good, maybe [a] very good person called to be
better!" (Stuhlmueller, Carroll, C.P. Biblical Meditations for Ordinary Time--Weeks 10-22, Paulist Press, New York/Ramsey, 1984, p. 148). 

My prayer is, quoting parts of Stuhlmueller's meditation for Wednesday of the 17th week in ordinary time, that at the end of my life I may be ready to climb "the holy mountain, free of all earthly attachments," totally God's. I ask the Lord to rescue me "from evildoers," from my "own selfishness," so that I may, at that moment, be seeking nothing else but the real treasure and the pearl of great price, willing at that moment to sell absolutely everything to be one with my Savior in mind, heart, and soul.  I also pray for the grace to be assuming this challenge in my day to day living in the here and now.