Public Television’s Antiques Road Show features people and the valuable objects they find at yard sales, auctions, or estates. The show taps into two deep, universal, human desires. One is to be rich. The other fundamental desire is a deep longing to be thought by experts to be intelligent and insightful.
A predictable line on every show: “I saw it at a yard sale. I didn’t know what it was, exactly, but it just appealed to me. I just liked it.” is told to the category expert, who nods wisely in apparent agreement.
We may translate. “I saw it at a yard sale.” actually means: “I want to strike it rich! I go to garage sales and auctions to find bargains, preferably one so great that I can make a fortune!”
“I didn’t know what it was, exactly, but it just appealed to me.” means: “I am smart enough that my lack of knowledge won’t keep me from being successful. I will find the bargain I’m always seeking.”
“I just liked it.” means: “My feelings about value indicate a great, and overlooked ability that is only now, on this show, being properly recognized in front of the millions of viewers whose approval I deserve.”
Finding, buying, and selling bargains is an obsession for many. Such a business, no matter how small, is so beguiling that it’s hard to escape. That’s why Jesus provided His instructions on the subject in Matthew 13: 44-46, which tells us something of the nature of earthly attachments.
“Jesus said to his disciples:
“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 he finds a pearl of great price,
he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.”
Jesus recognizes that, at one stage of our lives, our concerns are material. Then, if we are blessed, we may find greater treasure. We may discover that immeasurable joy may, if we play our cards right, be our soul’s eternal fate. We help it get to eternal joy by leaving earthly concerns behind. We focus on His Body and Blood, and on being good, obedient Catholics.
We may begin by picturing this: The Big Yard Sale in the Sky. At it, our soul goes to the highest bidder. Jesus made the painful offer of His sacred Body and Blood. He agonizingly gave up both for us in His great sacrifice as the Lamb of God.
If we are blessed, we may let Him help us put our concerns in proper order. We will not worry about making the big find at a garage sale. We will consider where our immortal will spend eternity. We will move into the big leagues of human endeavor as we exchange earthly concerns for the unspoken joys found in The Luxury High Rise beyond.
More primitive souls may begin their pilgrimage by imagining that in Heaven there is: The Big Yard Sale in the Sky. Those who come and go are featured on “The Antiques Road Show Up Above”.
There, they are featured being admired forever for endless finds of ever-greater value. “Look, I found an old beer mug carved out of a solid diamond the size of a football! It’s worth half of Jupiter!”
