Replies

The Pearl of Great Price

Pastor’s Column

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

July 27, 2014

“I conceive that the great part of the miseries of mankind are brought upon them by false estimate they have made of the value of things.” --Benjamin Franklin

If only we knew the true value of things we would always make right choices! How often we can fail to see a valuable opportunity until the time has completely passed us by. This is particularly true at funerals, when many often realize that what matters most in life are not possessions at all, but relationships with those we love, our family, our friends, and God himself. Jesus offers two parables this Sunday (Matthew 13:44-52) which speak to the true value of things.

In the parable of the Pearl of Great Price, a merchant is actually searching for a truly valuable pearl. This person is driven to find the best and recognizes it when he sees it. The catch, of course, is that he must sell everything to be able to buy this pearl, but it is worth it!

In Jesus’ second example, a man is digging in a field when he just happens to encounter a buried treasure! Unlike the merchant in the first example, this is an accidental encounter with something truly valuable. What does this laborer do? He re-buries the treasure and then sells all he has so as to be able to afford to buy the whole field and the treasure it contains.

Sometimes a treasure is searched-for and, at times, we stumble upon it. Would I recognize something truly valuable if I encountered it? Almost all of us can tells stories of an investment opportunity we may have missed, a relationship that we failed to take advantage of, a job that we did not act on or a possession we gave away without realizing its true value until much later.

Of course, the real under-valued commodity in the world today is the Gospel and Jesus’ offer of eternal life! People in the world often chase after all kinds of things that are passed off as valuable, but whose true worth is actually not very much.

At the present time, Jesus offers us a friendship with himself, our redeemer and creator, and eternal life as well; but he appears to many as a beggar, as a person of little worth, that can be passed up or taken up later.

Other, more immediate items of seemingly greater value seem to beckon us. It may seem more attractive to watch television than to pray; or to stay in bed rather than to attend church on Sunday; instead of an act of kindness, we might be tempted to selfishness because it offers immediate gratification.

Yet all of this is a test! When we reach the end of our lives, nothing on earth will be as valuable as having a real relationship with the Lord of heaven and earth, who is literally holding the key to the future. Then every investment we have made with him, though seemingly small at the time, will bear interest forever! Father Gary

Reflections from Scott Hahn

Treasures of the Kingdom: Scott Hahn Reflects on the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted by Dr. Scott Hahn on 07.25.14 |

1 Kings 3:5,7-12
Psalm 119:57,72,76-77,127-130
Romans 8:28-30
Matthew 13:44-52

What is your new life in Christ worth to you?

Do you love His words more than gold and silver, as we sing in today’s Psalm? Would you, like the characters in the Gospel today, sell all that you have in order to possess the kingdom He promises to us? If God were to grant any wish, would you follow Solomon’s example in today’s First Reading—asking not for a long life or riches, but for wisdom to know God’s ways and to desire His will?

The background for today’s Gospel, as it has been for the past several weeks, is the rejection of Jesus’ preaching by Israel. The kingdom of heaven has come into their midst, yet many cannot see that Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promises, a gift of divine compassion given that they—and we, too—might live.

We too must ever discover the kingdom anew, to find it as a treasure - a pearl of great price. By comparison with the kingdom, we must count all else as rubbish (see Philippians 3:8). And we must be willing to give up all that we have—all our priorities and plans—in order to gain it.

Jesus’ Gospel discloses what Paul, in today’s Epistle, calls the purpose of God’s plan (see Ephesians 1:4). That purpose is that Jesus be the firstborn of many brothers.

His words give understanding to the simple, the childlike. As Solomon does today, we must humble ourselves before God, giving ourselves to His service. Let our prayer be for an understanding heart, one that desires only to do His will.

We are called to love God, to delight in His law, and to forsake every false way. And we are to conform ourselves daily ever more closely to the image of His Son.

If we do this, we can approach His altar as a pleasing sacrifice, confident that all things work for the good—that we whom He has justified, will also one day be glorified.