Homily for July 27th, 2016: Matthew
13: 44-46.
The day labor
who unexpectedly finds in his employer’s field a buried treasure that can change
his life is living at the subsistence level. The merchant searching for fine
pearls is rich. Despite this great difference between them, the two are in
other respects alike. Both are surprised
by their unexpected discovery and filled
with joy.
The two are
alike in another respect as well. Obtaining the treasure each has found will
cost each one all that he has. The closing sentence of the parable says this
explicitly when it tells us that the merchant “goes and sells all that he has,”
in order to possess the treasure he has discovered.
“God’s kingdom
is like that,” Jesus is saying. Neither of these two men thinks for a minute of
the sacrifice he is making. Both think only of the joy of their new possession.
Both know that the great treasure they have discovered is worth many times over
what they are paying to possess it.
Must we pay a
price to be faithful disciples of Jesus Christ? Of course. And yes, sometimes that price is high. But
when we think only of the cost of discipleship, we make our religion grim and
forbidding. In these two linked parables Jesus is emphasizing not the cost, but
joy at the infinitely greater reward that the Lord gives to all who are willing
to sacrifice all for him.
Jesus came to
bring us that joy. “All this I tell you,” he says in John’s gospel, “that my
joy may be yours, and that your joy may be complete.” (Jn. 15:11).
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