17th Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Fr. Victor Feltes
Jesus said to his disciples: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds [one] pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.”
Jesus tells two parables today about the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God. These stories are symbolic, about him and us.
Jesus speaks of a man who finds a treasure. The treasure has been buried in a field and overlooked. But this man sees it, recognizes its value, and chooses to give up everything he has to gain that treasure. Imagine selling everything you own. It would not only be logistically challenging to do, it would also take courage. But this man joyfully gives up everything he has, eager to gain its reward. This man refuses to just take the treasure, since that would be unjust. Instead, he pays the price for the entire field along with the treasure. As I said, this is a parable story about Jesus Christ and us.
Jesus can be thought of as that man who found us buried in this world. Humanity was buried in sin and death by following the demons in their rebellion against God. From Adam and Eve’s sin, Satan acquired a certain domination over man. We were in “captivity under the power of him who thenceforth had the power of death, that is, the devil.” The whole world was in the power of the evil one. But while we were still sinners, Jesus saw and loved us. Though divine, he emptied himself, willingly giving up everything to die for us as man. So we adore Christ and we praise him, because by his Holy Cross he has redeemed us with the world. Christians living today will (most likely) still experience death, with our bodies being buried in the earth. But like the treasure in the parable, Jesus will raise us up again rejoicing upon his return.
In light of who Jesus is and his love for us, how should we respond to him? He illustrates this for us through another parable. Jesus says, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds [one] pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.” You and I may be imagined as that merchant.
In life, we search for the good of human fulfillment, understanding that some things are more valuable than others. And Jesus Christ presents himself as the most worthy object of our love and sacrifice. He teaches, “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; [and] anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. … And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life.” But if everyone in life is looking for the greatest good of human fulfillment, why doesn’t everyone find Christ? Like a successful pearl merchant, a person needs training and/or experience to appraise value correctly. So where is Jesus Christ, our Pearl of Great Price, to be found?
At the conversion of St. Paul, while he was still persecuting Christians, Jesus knocked him down on the road to Damascus and called out to him from a blinding light: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Saul (also known as Paul) replied, “Who are you, sir?” And the reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” Realize that this happened after Jesus had bodily ascended into heaven, when Jesus no longer walked the face of the earth. But Jesus had taught his disciples, “Whoever receives you, receives me,” and ‘Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you do it to me.’ And the Holy Spirit would inspire St. Paul to go on to explain that Christians are made mystical members of Christ’s Body through baptism, with Christ himself as our head. Coupled with the Eucharist and the other sacraments, we remain in Christ, and he in us. The Body of Christ is Christ’s Church, and Christ’s Church is his Body. As St. Joan of Arc said: “About Jesus Christ and the Church, I simply know they are just one thing and we shouldn’t complicate the matter.”
Jesus founded upon Peter and the apostles one Church which the Bible calls “the pillar and foundation of truth.” But where is Christ’s one Church to be found today when various Christian groups teach contradictory things? Well, what are the qualities of the best pearls? The criteria for evaluating pearls are size, roundness, surface, shine, and nacre. Different Christian groups may share these pearly qualities to varying degrees, but Christ’s Church should have them in the fullest measure.
The best pearl would have a very large size and fully round shape. I think most people do not realize that 50% of all Christians around the world identify as Catholic. Even if you consolidate each of the different types of Anglicans, Baptists, Evangelicals, Lutherans, Pentecostals, and Eastern Orthodox Christians into their various denominations and none of them come close to the Catholic Church in their numbers or presence throughout the globe. Now, being the largest doesn’t necessarily make something the best. Russia is the largest country on earth by area and (until recently) the largest country by population was China, but we would not call China or Russia the best countries in the world. However, Jesus describes his Kingdom as a mustard seed. It begins as “the smallest of all the seeds, yet it grows into the largest of the garden plants,” offering a dwelling place for birds from north, south, east, and west. So we should not be surprised that Christ’s Church would be the largest Christian communion both in membership and extent across the globe.
The best pearl would also have an unblemished surface and a lustrous shine. The surface of a great pearl is flawless, bright, and mirror-like. Great Catholic saints reflect the goodness of Christ and his Church. And vindicatory miracles (like at Fatima, Lourdes, Guadalupe, Lanciano, and elsewhere) reflect that the Catholic Church is Christ’s.
Finally, the best pearl would also have thick nacre. The thickness of the nacre (the mother-of-pearl) enables durability. Remember how a pearl grows after being an irritant within a clam? So the world commonly attacks Christ’s Church as an irritant. The endurance of the Catholic Church through two thousand years, despite fierce opposition in every century, manifests that the Lord is working within her as he promised.
In the Book of Revelation, St. John is shown a vision of the New Jerusalem, the Bride of Christ, a gleaming city coming down from heaven. The wall of the city has twelve courses of precious stones as its foundation, inscribed with the names of the twelve apostles, for the Church is built upon them. And the city has twelve gates, three facing east, three facing north, three facing south, and three facing west, inscribed with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, for people of every land are called to enter to become God’s people. And those twelve gates are twelve pearls, with each of the gates made from a single pearl. Jesus himself is the Pearl of Great Price, and Jesus says, “I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved,” and the Body of Christ is his Church. So let us respond to him who has loved us so much, by sacrificing anything else to dwell with Christ in his Body, his Bride, his Church.
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