What shall we ask for?
Seventeenth Sunday - A
1 Kings 3:5, 7-12; Romans 8: 28-30; Matthew 13:44-52 (44-46)
Today Jesus ends his sermon about the kingdom of God (Matt. 13:1-53). The parables about a treasure, a pearl, and a net are added to those about grains and yeast. The value of God's Kingdom exceeds everything (Matt. 13:44-46) and whether we have become worthy of that Kingdom will be revealed at the end of our lives (Matt. 13:47-50).
A group of boys played hide and seek and one of them hid so well that his playmates unable to find him stopped looking for him. Is the experience of that boy not similar to the experience of God who is hiding (Is. 45:15)? The Word of God, "in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col 2:3), hid himself in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Church. Saint Paul "found" that "hidden treasure” (Matt. 13:44) in those he persecuted (Acts 9:5). By law, a treasure belongs to the owner of a field where it was found. Therefore, to be a rightful owner of the treasure one has to buy that field and its price equals all that one has (Matt. 13:45). “The surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus" demands that we give up everything (Phil. 3:8).
"You lack one thing," said Jesus to a rich young man (Mark 10:21). The merchant from the parable searched for this one thing and eventually found it. "Seek, and you will find" (Matt. 7:7). Finding that one pearl ended the merchant's life as he knew it. No more looking for fine pearls, because he will not find more precious than the one he has already found. If Christ is the treasure, could the pearl be his beautiful bride - the Church? The holy city Jerusalem has twelve gates, “each of the gates made of a single pearl” (Rev. 21:21). And through these pearly gates, one enters the city whose temple is “the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb” (Rev. 21:22).
In the last parable (Matt. 13:47-50) Jesus again directs our thoughts to the end of the ages (Matt. 8:12; 13:40-43). The word 'fish' does not appear in the parable. Could that dragnet then, like the Catholic Church, gather together every kind of people? We live immersed in the 'sea' of time and space, rarely thinking about the moment when God decides to bring us into the shore of eternity. What has been hauled up on the shore is sorted out into "beautiful" and "rotten". Which group will I be qualified to?
The book of Isaiah and Jesus' sermon end with a vision of the tragic fate of the wicked (Is. 66:24; Matt. 13:49-50). Is there a hidden message in such an ending? A call to conversion (Mark 1:15). St. Teresa of Avila had a vision of hell which she considered the greatest favour and benefit that God bestowed on her. That experience profoundly changed her and stimulated her on the path to holiness and care for the salvation of others. "All things work together for good" of those who love God (Rom. 8:28). We know that God does not predestine anyone to hell (CCC, 1037) but desires everyone "to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:4). But we too must desire it and work out our salvation "with fear and trembling" (Phil. 2:12).
"Ask something of me and I will give it to you" (1 Kings 3:5). Solomon put an understanding heart over long life, riches, or revenge on his enemies (1 Kings 3: 9-11), and the psalmist God's Law over large quantities of silver and gold (Ps. 119: 72). And what is valuable to us? God is pleased when we ask for things truly valuable - to understand the mysteries of God's Kingdom, to know deeply Christ and the Church, to be counted among the righteous. What shall we ask God for?