Treasure the Kingdom

Homily for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Deacon Thomas Stephenson

July 27, 2014

For the past two Sundays, we have heard parables from the 13th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, and we continue with more from that chapter today. How did we begin two weeks ago? We heard about the sower, and the how the seed, the Word of God, bears fruit to differing degrees depending on the type of soil on which it falls, on how receptive our hearts are. And what about last week? That was the parable of the wheat and the weeds, which grew up together, to be separated finally at the harvest. This week, the parables take a different turn. We are told of two different men, each of whom finds something of great value, and then gives up everything he has in order to obtain what he has found.

Before getting any deeper into the Gospel, let’s take a look at the first reading. God gives Solomon the opportunity to ask for whatever he wants. One thing for us to consider is how old Solomon was when he became king. One reference puts him around 20 at the time, but most, including several ancient Jewish sources, conclude that he was between 12 and 14. Now, Solomon does not ask for anything out of selfishness, anything that would bring him more riches or power. Instead, he asks for an understanding mind, so that he may govern God’s people well. It sounds like Solomon was already wise, doesn’t it? His request demonstrates his commitment to the task that God has given him as King of Israel, to be not only a ruler but also a servant, to the Lord and to the people of Israel. It was Solomon who had the First Temple built in Jerusalem; and the Book of Proverbs, The Song of Songs, and the Book of Ecclesiastes are all attributed to him. His wisdom was a treasure, a pearl of great value, not found but given to him by God, and it has had effects on the world that continue to this day.

The men in the parables had to search for what they eventually found. These things were not at first apparent to them – they were hidden from these men, and had to be discovered. The men needed to put some effort into finding them. From what we are told, we can guess that these men were already well-off. They had the resources necessary to purchase what they found. Yet, even though they may have been wealthy, they wanted something beyond mere riches, something special, something of greater value. It seems that the treasure that the man found must have been more valuable than what he needed to spend to buy the field where it was hidden. And the pearl that the merchant found must have been of such great value and beauty that, to him, it was worth anything to purchase it. As the Gospel tells us, these men sold everything they had – everything – in order to obtain these things that they valued.

Jesus is quite clear in telling us that the kingdom of heaven is like the treasure in the field and the pearl of great value. How many people today, how many of us, may be searching, not for something of material value, but for something even more highly prized – the kingdom of heaven? Is this not truly our deepest desire? Is this not our greatest treasure? And how much might it be hidden, how much is it concealed by the distractions that we encounter in our daily lives, even the good things that are going on around us? We need some of what Solomon received, we need the pearl of wisdom, to help us to discover that which leads us to the kingdom of heaven. That type of wisdom has been likened to increasingly thinking in ways similar to the way God thinks, to sharing in His priorities and His vision for us. We may not need to sell all that we have in order to obtain this, but there may be things in our lives that are interfering with how much we treasure the kingdom; things that, perhaps even unconsciously, we value more than the kingdom. If that is the case, we need to eliminate the influence of those things. The reality is that the kingdom of heaven costs, and is worth, everything. The treasure, the pearl to seek is for us to so desire the glory of God and his kingdom that we would be willing to sell all we have, to give anything, that we would be so enthusiastic for the things of the Kingdom that the loss of anything else would mean very little to us.

In speaking about the Gospel readings of the past couple of weeks, Father Paul has explained what these parables tell us about the Word of God. Listening to the Word is one of the primary ways that we can develop our desire for the Kingdom so we prefer it over other things, that we can work on our faith and our salvation. The Word is meant to be lived, to grow and bear fruit in our lives. Through the word, we can, as the Lord says in Matthew Chapter 6 “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Toward the end of today’s Gospel, Jesus asks “Have you understood all this?” They answered “Yes.” Pope Emeritus Benedict wrote “The struggle to understand the parables correctly is ever present throughout the history of the Church.” So, are they understood, or not? Jesus told the parables in order to teach the people in ways that they could understand, if not all the deeper nuances, at least the basic message. And so it is with us. We have an almost instinctive knowledge of what Jesus is telling us in the parables, but may not grasp all the many meanings – and may not need to do so. They are concrete examples of life experiences that, even almost 2,000 years later, we can still identify with. Listening to the Word, especially the parables, can help us to more fully understand the kingdom of heaven, in our minds and our hearts. So, let us pray for the Lord to give us an eager and willing spirit, and a deeper appreciation of the surpassing worth of God’s Kingdom.