Matthew 13, 44-46
FAITH CELEBRATED
44 Jesus said to the crowds: ‘The kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which someone has found; he hides it again, goes off in his joy, sells everything he owns and buys the field.
45 Again, the kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls;
46 when he finds one of great value he goes and sells everything he owns and buys it.
Source
The New Jerusalem Bible 1985.
CONTEXT IN MATTHEW’S GOSPEL
The two parables in this shorter Sunday reading – the 5th and the 6th among seven parables in Matthew 13 — focus on the mystery of the kingdom of Heaven. Both are related to daily experiences of common people in Jesus’ time. The parable of the buried treasure concerns peasant farmers while that of the priceless pearl, small-time merchants.
The sketchy picture stories painted in these parables presume the listener or reader in the first-century Mediterranean world of Jesus’ time could fill in details from shared knowledge of their socio-cultural contexts. Citing what anthropologists would label such societies as being “high-context,” Malina and Rohrbaugh thus point out the minimal comments on the parables narrated. We are prompted to first get into the world of the people in Jesus’ time. Having grasped the meaning of these simple stories in their world we are to bring the message of the story into the current contexts of our social locations.
WORKER FINDING BURIED TREASURE
Parable of
Finder of Buried Treasure
It was customary in the ancient Mediterranean world for people to bury treasures in the ground or other places like walls and tree trunks. Achan told Joshua he hid silver and gold in the ground inside his tent [Jos 7, 21]. In the parable of the talents, one servant hid his master’s money in the ground [Mat 25, 18].
Bridging Egypt and the great empires Palestine was often invaded and ravaged upon. The common people were also robbed without warning. In the absence of banks and owing to wars hiding wealth was one practice for security. The original owner might have left or died without the secret hiding place of the treasure being made known to his heirs for instance.
In the parable told it was likely the finder of the treasure was a hired worker and not the new landowner since the land was not his. With the kingdom of Heaven as the focus, whether it was ethical for the finder to keep the treasure seems a moot point. Understandably the finder would sell everything to buy the field since the treasure and the field would have worth much more than “everything he owns.” Whether it was feasible for such a scenario for a paid worker would also appear a moot point.
MERCHANT LOOKING FOR FINE PEARLS
Parable of
Merchant Finding Priceless Pearl
In Jesus’ time pearls were much valued and admired for being round, colourful, and brilliant. Before the technology of cultured pearls, they were rare objects fished in the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Indian Ocean. Referring to scripture scholar Joachim Jeremias and historian Pliny the Elder commentators cite values of pearls connected to Caesar and Cleopatra that were worth millions of sesterces – with each having a modern value between USD 0.5 and 50 owing to differing and problematic conversion methods.
Although pearls were not as much valued by the Hebrew people compared to other jewels and gems, Jesus’ disciples were from Galilee familiar with Gentile traders looking out for fine pearls for their royalties.
MESSAGE OF PARABLES IN OUR CONTEXT
Taking the cue in the former parables of the sower of seeds in Matthew 13, Jesus associates the “kingdom of Heaven” to himself who has found disciples as he begins to proclaim the good news of this same kingdom to those who would listen [Mat 4, 17]. Like the man who finds the buried treasure, Jesus rejoices in finding disciples who would follow him and would sacrifice his own life to be their Master, accompanying them in their seeming “burial” in a world that oppose them.
Related to the parable of “someone finding the buried treasure” the parable of the “merchant looking for fine pearls” has elements similar to and different from the former. Like a deeper reflection on the former, the “someone” in the former is specified as a “merchant” who sets out to “look for fine pearls.” The “buried treasure” in the former takes concrete form in a “pearl of great value.” As Jeffrey Gibbs summarizes it, the pairing of the two parables “functions to intensify and reinforce the basic message of each parable.” The “kingdom of Heaven” is God’s ministry in Jesus Christ on behalf of his people whom he loves and treasures like priceless pearls. Amidst opposition and persecution the one who finds and seeks them gives his all for them.
Sources consulted:
Jeffrey A Gibbs, Parables of Atonement and Assurance: Matthew 13, 44-46. Issues, Inc.
Bruce J Malina and Richard L Rohrbaugh, Social-Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels. Fortress Press 2003.
John J Pilch, The Cultural World of Jesus, Sunday by Sunday, Cycle A. The Liturgical Press 1995.
FAITH KNOWN
In catechesing adults, adolescents, and children themes derived from the gospel passage could be developed.
Key themes include:
Jesus’ teaching style through parables
Jesus’ parables of hidden treasure and pearl as invitation to enter God’s kingdom
God’s relentless love for his Church
Radical choice of humans in accepting divine invitation
WORD – CREED
Mat 13, 44-45 > CCC 546
Parables of the treasure and the pearl
The whole life of Jesus was a continual teaching often characterized by the use of parables. These simple stories are told by Jesus to invite his listeners to enter the kingdom of heaven. In the parables of the treasure hidden in a field and the pearl of great value the listeners are asked to make a radical choice to enter the kingdom — to give up everything.
Source
Catechism of the Catholic Church, Burns & Oates 2006.
FAITH LIVED
PRINCIPLE AND FOUNDATION
In his convalescence St Ignatius of Loyola was founded by God. As Inigo prayed over and pondered on how he was to relate to this loving God pursuing him in his life he shared what has been called “The Principle and Foundation.”
![St Ignatius Loyola Principle and Foundation [SpE 23] Art - Mark Esquibel](https://tillchrist.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/4-17th-princple-and-foundation.jpeg)
St Ignatius Loyola
Principle and Foundation [SpE 23]
Art – Mark Esquibel
All the things in this world are gifts of God, presented to us so that we can know God more easily and make a return of love more readily.
As a result, we appreciate and use all these gifts of God insofar as they help us develop as loving persons. But if any of these gifts become the center of our lives, they displace God and so hinder our growth toward our goal.
In everyday life, then, we must hold ourselves in balance before all of these created gifts insofar as we have a choice and are not bound by some obligation. We should not fix our desires on health or sickness, wealth or poverty, success or failure, a long life or a short one. For everything has the potential of calling forth in us a deeper response to our life in God.
Our only desire and our one choice should be this: I want and I choose what better leads to God’s deepening his life in me.
St Ignatius Loyola
David Fleming SJ, A Contemporary Reading: First Principle and Foundation, Spiritual Exercises [23].
How might the Principle and Foundation serve
as a worldview of Christian faith
to guide us as disciples of Christ
in orienting ourselves in living and fostering
the kingdom of Heaven?
FAITH PRAYED
INTENTIONS OF POPE FRANCIS
With the Pope and the universal Church we pray:
- That sports may always be occasions of human fraternity and growth.
- That the Holy Spirit may support the work of the laity who proclaim the Gospel in the poorest countries.
PRAYING TO GRASP GOD’S RELENTLESS LOVE
Show us the wonder of your great love.
– Psalm 17, 7
You asked for a loving God; you have one.
The Lord is present:
Not a senile benevolence that drowsily wishes you to be happy in your own way
… not the care of a host who feels responsible for the comfort of his guests,
but the consuming fire Himself,
the Love that made the worlds,
as persistent as the artists’ love for his work …
as venerable as a father’s love for a child.”
– C S Lewis
The Problem of Pain 1940
I pray that you,
being rooted and established in love,
may have power, together with all the saints,
to grasp
how wide and long and high and deep
is the love of Christ,
and to know this love
that surpasses knowledge—
that you may be filled to the measure
of all the fullness of God.
– Ephesians 3, 17-18
FAITH IN COMMUNITY FOR MISSION
God in Christ continues to value us
his disciples
as a great treasure and a priceless pearl.
Imagine ourselves to be Christ
looking at our lives in common,
what are five main values he would see
God valuing and loving us in ourselves:
- a family as a domestic Church and
- a BEC as a neighbourhood Church?
- How might our living these elements of God valuing us bring us closer to God and to one another?
- How might we foster these elements in our lives together such that others in society might see Christ in our day to day living?
With peoples of other nations we remember:
28- 29 July Hari Raya Idul Fitri – 1435 Hijriyah
Hari Raya Idul Fitri 2014
In a multi-ethnic society and a world marked by conflicts implicating religion how might we mirror God’s relentless love towards people of other religions, especially Muslims after their Ramadan month?
28 July World Hepatitis Day – WHO
30 July International Day of Friendship
30 July World Day against Trafficking in Persons
FAITH CONVERTED
God as the merchant looks for us continuously
desiring the fine pearl of
a fuller communion in his love.
Like the “Hound of Heaven” God pursues us.
Am I like Francis Thompson as he begins his poem:
I fled Him down the nights and down the days
I fled Him down the arches of the years …
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after. …
Or like Thompson somewhere later in his poem:
Naked, I wait thy Love’s uplifted stroke!
My harness, piece by piece,
Thou hast hewn from me
And smitten me to my knee,
I am defenseless, utterly. …
God as the Hound of Heaven
following a deer moving away from it
Or somewhere in between … in my journey to God?
Fancies as lost,
I have stored for thee at home:
Rise, clasp My hand, and come!’
What do I need to change in myself to being that finer pearl God desires?
till Christ is formed 