The Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 30, 2023

Matthew 13, 44–52

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. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind. When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away. Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. Do you understand all these things?” They answered, “Yes.” And he replied, “Then every scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old.” 

If we go by the Lord’s explanation of the parable of the net thrown into the sea we can understand the searchers in the earlier parables as the Lord or his angels.  Thus, the man who finds the treasure in the field is the Lord who finds a person who is striving to lead a virtuous life.  The Lord “sells” all that belongs to him or, rather, he comes down from heaven to take on our flesh and buys him with the price of his Blood.  Of course, the Lord laid down his life for all people, but only a relative few will take advantage of the grace he offers and will repent to receive it.  This is the meaning of the treasure “buried in the field”.  The one who strives to lead a virtuous life cannot get very far without grace, which will unearth him and bring him up out of the field and into the light of God’s presence.  There are many other things buried in the field, but very few treasures.  Likewise, the merchant searching for fine pearls is the Lord.  Comparatively few humans respond to the Lord’s invitation to be saved.  Only a few grains of sand choose to become fine pearls, as it were.  And this is why the priest, when consecrating the wine at the high point of the Mass, says, “. . . the Blood of the new and eternal covenant which will be poured out for all, etc.”  The Lord pours out his Blood for all, in fact, but only a fraction of those for whom he pours it out will respond and make his sacrifice effectual for themselves.  In the third parable, a large number of things are brought up in the net from the sea, that is, the general resurrection at the end of the world, and the angels will separate the good, who are to be kept, from the wicked, who will be cast into the furnace.  That is, those who chose to become saints versus those who chose wickedness.

We can also understand the searchers in first two parables as the person who is searching for God.  These searchers look everywhere.  They are not born with wealth and have no one to point out for them likely places for wealth to be found.  Yet they persevere until they find him.  However, all the while God is drawing them to himself invisibly, imperceptibly.  He rewards their endurance and persistence with his grace.  The searchers immediately recognize the One for whom they sought and do not hesitate in giving up everything in order to possess him utterly.  As St. Paul says, “I count all things to be but loss for the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ, my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but as dung, that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3, 8).

The one who finds the Lord Jesus should not allow himself to grow complacent for that is a sure way of “losing” him — losing our faith.  We should always be finding him.  A truly great treasure must be examined and studied and shown to others for us to grow in our knowledge and appreciation of it.  A truly great book must be read over and over and studied, and each time it is read the reader makes new discoveries, and this is true of a great piece of music.  And every prayer we make to Almighty God, every glance at the crucifix, every verse which we read in the Bible leads us deeper in the Lord’s majesty and love, where we will find the end of all our desires.