17th Sunday of the Year (A)
Mt 13: 44 – 52
1 Kings 3: 5. 7 – 12
«Give your servant an understanding heart»
Dear brethren:
Once
more the Liturgy of the Word presents
us a text from the Gospel according to
Saint Mathew. And today´s text (Mt 13:
44 – 55) contains three parables regarding the Kingdom of Heaven.
The
first one uses the image of a man who, in a field, finds a hidden treasure.
According to the text, this man hides the treasure again «and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field»
(Mt 13: 44), so he can own the
treasure.
The second parable uses the image of 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»
(Mt 13: 45 – 46).
«The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure…»
Both
parables use images that speak to us about the value and worth of things. We
speak of a treasure to refer to “very valuable things, usually in the form of a
store of precious metals, precious stones or money”[1].
We all understand that a treasure is worthwhile an intense and hard working
search. The same idea can be apply to the pearl.
So,
Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure -or like a pearl-
that is very valuable and that we should work hard to find it and keep it. Why
does Jesus use this image? Why does he compares Heaven to a valuable treasure?
I
think he does this because he knows very well the human heart. He knows very
well that each person has within his heart a set of values that he or she
considers to be important and valuable. Each one of us has a treasure in his
heart.
Some
people value friendship or loyalty, others may value truth and authenticity;
some people set their hearts in material things: money, cloth, lands or cars.
Others wish for prestige and power, and so on. The list could go on as people
we can find.
Also each one of us has a set of values within his
heart, a set of things that we believe to be important and that we try to
achieve in our everyday life. As the Lord says in other passage of the Gospel: «For where your treasure is, there also your heart will be» (Mt 6: 21).
Therefore,
when we believe that something is valuable, that something is important, we
strive with all our forces to get it; to achieve it. Maybe, today we can ask ourselves:
What are the things in my life that I consider to be my treasure? What are the
things in my life that I have worked hard for? If we can answer these questions
we will realize which ones are our treasures in life.
«And out of joy goes and sells all that he has»
Therefore, if we have realized that our
heart, that all of our being, moves in the direction of the things we believe
to be important; then we should discover that the Kingdom of Heaven, that is,
the presence of God our Father in our life and the personal relationship with his
Son our Lord Jesus Christ, is the most important and precious treasure we can
aspire at.
¡Yes
the Kingdom of Heaven is valuable! ¡The Kingdom of Heaven is a precious
treasure! More precious and valuable than all the earthly things we hold dear.
That
is why the psalmist says: «The law of
your mouth is to me more precious than thousands of gold and silver pieces»
(Psalm 119 (118): 72). That is why
Saint Paul says: «Whatever gains I had,
these I have come to consider a loss because of Christ. More than that, I even
consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ
Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I
consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ» (Phil 3: 7 – 8).
So we
must be like the man who found the buried treasure in a field. We have to go
and with joy sell all what we have and buy the field (cf. Mt 13: 44). That means that we have to give up certain things in
order to receive the treasure of the Kingdom of Heaven. Yes, we have to give up
sin, selfishness and indifference. But, also, some times, we may have to give
up even good things to be more open to the presence of God.
 |
| The Virgin Mary as Seat of Wisdom - Sedes Sapientiae. Saint Stanislaus University College Chapel. Ljubljana-Šentvid, Slovenia, May 2004. |
Which ones are the things we have to renounce to in
order to receive the Kingdom of Heaven in our life? Do we have the motivation
and the strength to do it?
And
as we ask ourselves these questions, we begin to understand the content of the
prayer of King Solomon: «Give your
servant an understanding heart» (cf. 1
Kgs 3: 9). Yes, we need an understanding heart, a wise heart in order not
only «to distinguish right from wrong»,
but to see clearly where is the true treasure in our life. We need an
understanding and wise heart to perceive the Kingdom of Heaven in our life. And
wisdom comes from the Lord God.
So lets us constantly ask for this gift in prayer. The
wisdom that allows us to make the right choices, that allows us to choose the
Kingdom of Heaven above everything else.
«The Kingdom of Heaven is like a net thrown into the
sea»
And
if we learn to choose every day the Kingdom of Heaven as our treasure, we can
be confident that at the end of time when the angels come to «separate the wicked from the righteous»
(Mt 13: 49), we will be chosen as the
Lord´s own treasure.
May our Blessed Mother, Sedes Sapientiae - Seat of Wisdom, with her intercession and her active presence in the Shrine, obtain for us a heart wise and understanding, a heart that is set on the Kingdom of Heaven. Amen.
[1] CAMBRIDGE DICTIONARY,
Treasure [on line]. [Date of
consultation: 30th of July 2017]. Available at: <http://dictionary.cambridge.org/es/diccionario/ingles/treasure>
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