Wednesday in the Seventeenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 28, 2021

Matthew 13:44-46

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.”

These two little sayings are short in length but very rich in meaning.  In his sayings and in his parables, the Lord Jesus truly shows himself to be God, so perfect are they in their wisdom and in their ability to make us wonder and continually find new depths in them.  Here, the Lord says, very simply, “The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field.”  Now, the Kingdom of heaven is “hidden” in that few people notice it or care about it.  It has nothing to offer them in comparison with that offered by all the other “kingdoms” that shine their lights and signs so brightly.  But along comes a person who is unsatisfied with these others or is not interested in what they promise.  This person examines this Kingdom, perhaps skeptically at first, and then realizes its true worth, and is amazed that so many people pass it by without a second look.  He covers it up, “hiding it again”, that is, he covers it up in his heart in his excitement for it, and “of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field”, that is, he abandons all that he once held dear in order to possess it alone, and in order to give himself to it alone.  He throws himself into the outstretched arms of the Lord Jesus, who welcomes him into the world of true life and overflowing love.

Likewise, “The Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls.”  This merchant is not looking for lesser pearls, but for “fine” ones, which would be more rare.  He would go days picking his way through innumerable baskets of oysters, rejecting each one, without certain hope of ever finding a “fine” pearl.  Perhaps just at the moment he is giving up, he finds what he is looking for, and it is well worth the painstaking days, weeks, months.  It is a perfect sphere of white translucence.  A king would give half his kingdom for it.  The merchant who finds this “pearl of great price” then “goes and sells all that he has and buys it.”  That is, he will stop at nothing to possess it.  He sells out, holding nothing back, in order to purchase the lot of oysters in which he found this pearl.  And then he is truly rich, far wealthier than anyone he will meet in his lifetime.  He walks through the bustling crowds thronging the marketplace, each person intent on his own business, while he, with the pearl clutched in his fist, walks among them as though anonymously.  This is the Christian in the world.

Among the other ways to understand these sayings is this: that the man who finds the treasure in the field and the merchant who finds the pearl is Jesus, and we are that treasure, that pearl.  Seeing us, he gives up everything — “he lays his glory by” — and, “out of joy”, comes down from heaven in order to possess us.  We are the pearl of great price for our Lord, who did not hesitate to pour out his Blood in order that he might have us.