The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to seek treasured Wisdom that will increase our understanding of the Kingdom and the actions appropriate to people who are seeking God.
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| Treasure seeking |
The reading from the First Book of Kings places the early promise of Solomon’s reign in desiring a wise and discerning mind.
* [3:1–15] The third major unit of the Solomon story depicts the bright beginning of his reign. It includes the narrator’s remarks about Solomon’s marriage and his building projects, and a divine appearance to Solomon. Compare 11:1–13, where the same themes recur, but in negative fashion. The story of the divine appearance is told also in 2 Chr 1:1–13.1
Psalm 119 declares God imparts understanding to the simple and praises God for giving such splendid laws and instruction for people to live by.
* [Psalm 119] This Psalm, the longest by far in the Psalter, praises God for giving such splendid laws and instruction for people to live by. The author glorifies and thanks God for the Torah, prays for protection from sinners enraged by others’ fidelity to the law, laments the cost of obedience, delights in the law’s consolations, begs for wisdom to understand the precepts, and asks for the rewards of keeping them.2
In the passage from the Letter to the Romans, Paul shares God’s indomitable Love in Christ expressing that all things work together for good.
* [8:28–30] These verses outline the Christian vocation as it was designed by God: to be conformed to the image of his Son, who is to be the firstborn among many brothers (Rom 8:29). God’s redemptive action on behalf of the believers has been in process before the beginning of the world. Those whom God chooses are those he foreknew (Rom 8:29) or elected. Those who are called (Rom 8:30) are predestined or predetermined. These expressions do not mean that God is arbitrary. Rather, Paul uses them to emphasize the thought and care that God has taken for the Christian’s salvation.3
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus teaches three parables on treasures and the role of New and Old.
* [13:44–50] The first two of the last three parables of the discourse have the same point. The person who finds a buried treasure and the merchant who finds a pearl of great price sell all that they have to acquire these finds; similarly, the one who understands the supreme value of the kingdom gives up whatever he must to obtain it. The joy with which this is done is made explicit in the first parable, but it may be presumed in the second also. The concluding parable of the fishnet resembles the explanation of the parable of the weeds with its stress upon the final exclusion of evil persons from the kingdom.4
Mary Lee Brock shares that praying for an understanding heart to serve the kingdom is a prayer she never needs to be careful to wish for.
That pattern of nostalgia for the pre-pandemic days has become very present for me and for several people I encounter. Phrases like: “when things get back to normal” or “hopefully we can all get together in the spring” are common and leave me feeling a bit heartbroken. Today’s readings help me make sense of my heartbreak in some surprising ways.5
Don Schwager quotes “The surpassing gift of love,” by John Chrysostom (347-407 AD).
"Again, the kingdom of heaven is said to be like a merchant who is seeking fine pearls. He finds one really precious pearl, and, having found it, he sells everything he has in order to buy it. In the same way, he who has a clear knowledge of the sweetness of heavenly life gladly leaves behind all the things he loved on earth. Compared with that pearl, everything else fades in value. He forsakes those things that he has and scatters those things that he has gathered. His heart yearns for heavenly things, and nothing on earth pleases him. The allure of earthly things has now dissipated, for only the brilliance of that precious pearl dazzles his mind. Solomon justly says of such love, 'Love is strong as death' (Song of Solomon 8:6 ), because just as death destroys the body, so ardent desire for eternal life cuts off the love for material things. For love makes insensitive to extraneous earthly desires the person whom it has swept off his feet." (excerpt from FORTY GOSPEL HOMILIES 11.2.1)6
Suzanne Guthrie shares thoughts of Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, and L. Frank Baum (Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion) on finding the treasure of great value.
Help me to find my treasure hidden in the field of my life! Help me to put away all these distractions and find the pearl of great price you conceal in the heart of my heart.7
The Word Among Us Meditation on Matthew 13:44-52 notes that Jesus says this merchant shows us what the kingdom of heaven is like.
It is made up of people like us, searching for happiness. In some ways, the things we seek can make us happy. But finding Jesus and being part of his kingdom far surpasses the happiness that anything else can give. In him we find the answer to our deepest longings for love and reconciliation. For security and fulfillment. For purpose and meaning.
Make no mistake: things we long for can often be good things. But remember the merchant. There was nothing wrong with the pearls he was trading in. Yet he sold all of them for that one pearl of great price.
“Lord, help me to see you as a priceless pearl worth everything in my life.”8
Friar Jude Winkler unpacks the practice of waiting for God to speak to us in dreams as Solomon does. The parables on treasure call us to give everything we have to turn our hearts completely to the Lord. Paul reminds Friar Jude that God’s ways are not our ways so we trust and depend on Providence.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that generations of Christians seem to have forgotten Jesus’ teachings on nonviolence.… The nonviolence of Gandhi, like that of the civil rights activists, affirmed a unity of peaceful ends and means. Thomas Merton, reflecting on Gandhi’s nonviolence, wrote:
Non-violence was not simply a political tactic which was supremely useful and efficacious in liberating his people from foreign rule . . . the spirit of non-violence sprang from an inner realization of spiritual unity in himself. The whole Gandhian concept of non-violent action . . . is incomprehensible if it is thought to be a means of achieving unity rather than as the fruit of inner unity already achieved. [1]9
Fr Richard concludes that training in nonviolence helps us admit that our secret inner attitudes are often cruel, attacking, judgmental, and harsh. The ego seems to find its energy precisely by having something to oppose, fix, or change. When the mind can judge something to be inferior, we feel superior. We must recognize our constant tendency toward negating reality, resisting it, opposing it, and attacking it on the level of our mind. This is the universal addiction. The treasure of immense value is a relationship with God that is already within our being awaiting our discovery.
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