INTRODUCTION
Today’s readings drive our attention to the fact that if there is anything that we should desire most in this life it must be God because He is that Eternal Wisdom that was revealed to Solomon which made him to surpass any of his equals in handling the chair of leadership over Israel (first reading). He is the one that predestines and congigures those who believe in him into the image of his beloved Son (second reading); and He is the Eternal Treasure and Pearl that fills the hearts of those who encounter him with an inexplicable joy to the point of emptying themselves in order to have total embrace of him (the gospel). The readings are thus meant to help us retrace our steps and to reinvest our energies to searching for God and to be ready to lose ourselves for him. No matter how we see it, every other treasure we posses is corruptible but God is the only treasure that knows no corruption. What can we give up today as an exchange for God? This is the question particularly from the gospel reading and which begs for the response of each one of us.
FIRST READING: 1 Kings 3:5, 7-12
Before he joined his ancestors, king David whom history considers as the greatest king in the land of Israel and the only king tagged with name, “the man after God’s own heart” , counselled Solomon his son born of Bathsheba the wife of Uriah and his legitimate successor to remain faithful to the laws of Yahweh and never to deviate from any of them (1 Kgs 2). It was an adieu message of David that will eventually produce its first fruit at the first moment of Solomon’s first encounter with Yahweh. The first reading today describes the first ever revelation of Yahweh to king Solomon through dream. In the Old Testament, dreams were the accepted means of Divine communication, especially for rulers seeking God’s guidance. God revealed himself as a providential Father who has an unlimited treasure through which He gives a fill to his children: “Ask something of Me and I will give it to you.” Solomon surprised God with the type of request he made. He requested for wisdom which clearly explains the fact that his primarily ambituon is the desire to shepherd his people other than personal enrichment and demonstration of foreign power and diplomacy. Thus, when Solomon says, “Give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people and to distinguish right from wrong,” he’s simply requesting a mind capable of seeing what others overlook. He asks for an understanding heart so that he will be able to deal well with people whom he understood to be a difficult people to handle. This selfless request was granted with an unlimited blessing from Yahweh. In other words, he surprised Yahweh and the latter in turn surprised him beyond limits. The gift of Wisdom gives us insight into what is truly important in life, an awareness of the meaning and purpose of living, of what really matters. Wisdom is an understanding of where our real well-being and happiness lie. The New Testament reveals Jesus as the Wisdom of God such that whoever possesses him possesses eternal treasure and eternal pearl as described in the langauge of the parables in the gospel.
SECOND READING: Romans 8:28-30
This chapter 8 of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans is by no doubt the most famous and most quoted among his writings to the christian community of Rome. In today’s message, the Apostle points the attention of his audience to the inalienable characteristics of their calling as Christians, and this could be summarized in two powerful statements: i) “All things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose” and ii) “and those He predestined He also called; and those He called He also justified; and those He justified He also glorified.” The second statement simply means that God is calling people through the stages of spiritual growth needed for enjoying eternity with Him: we are predestined, called, justified, and glorified. When Paul speaks about those whom God has predestined, he doesn’t mean that God chooses some to be saved and others to be lost. God’s plan is for all to be saved. This means it is God’s active will that all be saved, but God’s permissive will allows individuals to accept or reject God’s salvation. In other words, God’s original intention (and still existing desire) is for all mankind to be with Him in Heaven; but only those who respond by fulfilling what is asked of them will be able to reach the throne of God. The first statement means that the “Kingdom of Heaven” is present when all things somehow work together for good for those who love God. The “Kingdom of God” is present when we know that there is absolutely nothing in this world or out of it that can separate us from Christ’s love for us. If we are following in the footsteps of Christ, they will lead us to the Kingdom of the Father. The Kingdom of God is a treasure worth our selling all that we have in order that we may possess it. This treasure is of such great value that anything else we may own pales by comparison. It would be easy to give up everything else in order to have the Kingdom of God, and, unlike the treasure hidden in the field, the love of Christ is a treasure everyone is invited to possess (Fr Anthony Kadavil).
GOSPEL: Mt 13:44-52
The use of parables is part of Jesus’ method of teaching. They constitute memorable stories which are often dotted with imageries which are meant to covey religious and moral lessons.
On this 17th Sunday in ordinary time year A, we conclude with the chapter 13 of the gospel of Matthew a passage that contains the highest number of parables in the whole of the gospels. And today we are presented with the parables of the buried treasure and that of the costly pearl as well as the parable of the dragnet. The parable of the buried treasure reminds us that in the ancient Palestinian setting, treasures such as money, jewelries and even religious treasures such as the scrolls were often buried in the fields as almost a secured way of preservation them due to frequent battles and foreign inversions, although sometimes, these valuables were either forgotten or left unclaimed.
The parable of the buried treasure tells of how the man covered it and went home to sell everything he had in order to acquire it. This simple pinpoint the nature of the Palestinian law of the time. The mere finding of a buried treasure even when forgotten did not in anyway entitle the finder the ownership of the valuable.
The first and the second parables are very much alike but is also important to note the little differences. The treasure means abundance of gifts, while the pearl indicates the beauty of the kingdom. The treasure was described as something stumbled upon, while the pearl was discovered through a lengthy search; but in both instances, the finder was filled with joy. This is very fundamental in the whole of the narratives. It is not enough that each discovered what he was looking for, but they were filled with deep-seated joy that spurred their subsequent actions. They had no need to rationalize or think about it. They immediately perceived the incomparable value of what they found and resolved to lose everything in order to acquire them. But why would they need to sell everything? Jesus simply tells his audience that when one truly comes in contact with the richness and beauty in God, he will certainly start anew by renouncing the od self and emptying whatever false treasure he had been living with; the things that are incompatible with the new life. Yes, when we discover Jesus and his vision of life, everything else becomes secondary. This is exactly what St. Paul meant when he said: “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as nothing, in order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8). And again, he says: “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). Therefore, the parables of the treasure and the pearl challenge us today to sell everything that we have for the sake of the kingdom. But the question is, what is exactly is this everything?
Matthew’s emphasis on the concept of everything must be understood from the point of view of the total exchange in which the individua looses himself to God because he understands the ‘inequitability’ and the incomparability of God with any other thing in his or her life no matter how precious it might be to him or her.
Matthew’s view equally infers that the search for the kingdom of simply means having though everything but at the same time renouncing this everything in order to have God who is the Eternal Everything. It doesn’t matter how one comes across this Eternal Treasure; this Eternal beauty as expressed in the language of St. Augustine of Hippo. What counts is that one must loose something in order to have it. There are those who discovered God through shine and shin, that is through miraculous events that marked their lives, and this is the very sense of the treasure that is being stumbled upon by the farmer. There are still those who had to go though nights of labour like Peter in Luke chapter 5, passing through thick and thin, and rough experiences of life until they finally encountered him at the dawn of the day. This expresses the sense of the lengthy search by the merchant. The attitude of the two persons in the parables shows that the kingdom of God is not an already-made neither is it predestined; it is rather revealed to those who are on a move, those who must under spiritual metamorphosis and are ready to give up themselves for its sake. Jesus is not asking us of an extraordinary thing. No! He is only concerned with that particular thing; yes that idol in our lives and that false treasure and pearl that we have so much held so much in high esteem, and which have severally obstructed us from responding positively to God’s invitation. O how often have we dwelt in repeated sins and the embrace of false treasures and the glittering pearls that the world offers to us. Jesus tells us today that we’ve got to exchange them for God because they are the things that render us ‘scrabs’ in the net of God instead of good fish. We can do that today and now in order to avoid the eventual separation when it is already late. Hence, it is an invitation to live every moment in view of our precious goal. Most of the time, we are chasing false treasures such as money, status or pleasure, and often, we are locked into regrets over the past, or focused too much on the future. As a result, the enriching present passes us by, and the treasure is never discovered. Thus, the really valuable pearl of sharing in God’s life through Jesus here on earth and later in Heaven is never found. Let us always remember that Heaven is within the reach of all of us who try to do the will of God, following the ordinary vocations of life and enjoying this world’s joys and pleasures within the framework of God’s Commandments. Right now, it is for us to use the time given to us to go in search of the pearl of great price and to help others in their search.
Finally, we must note that if we are the good fish in the dragnet, we must be grateful to God and never flaunt our pride. And let us never look down on those who are still struggling with their weaknesses or try to create unnecessary distinctions between who is good and who is bad. It is only God who has the power to sort out the good and the bad from the net. We must learn to be tolerant, compassionate, correct others with humility whenever necessary and pray for them too. Sometimes, people do not intentionally decide to be bad but due to challenges and circumstances of life, they fall pray to the enemy and become his instruments. Let us learn to pray for these while recognizing also that everyone of us without exception is a mixture of good and bad, and that even the good in us is possible through the grace of God. This singular fact should make us to humble ourselves and to declare like St. Paul, “I am what I am with the grace of God” (1 Corinthians 15:10).
PRAYER
May the power of the Holy Spirit descend upon each one of us and infuse in our hearts the grace of God so that we may learn to align our lives with the plan of God, and remain ever focus in our daily journey towards discovering and rediscovering God the Eternal Treasure, so that at the evening of our lives, at the moment of separation we may be counted among the good fish in his net. Amen.
PAX VOBIS!
