[In one of Jesus’ parables,] a man finds a treasure buried in a field and sells everything to purchase the field. So far, so good, we think, until we realize that the man apparently never told the rightful owner of the field about the treasure!
Jesus is not inviting us to do immoral things—that is, to be sneaky with someone else’s money or buy something under false pretenses. Rather, he is recommending a particular aspect of this (fictional) character as an important attitude for the disciple: single-mindedness. The finder of the treasure is single-minded in their pursuit.
A second parable offered today is about a merchant searching for fine pearls. Once he discovers the “pearl of great price” (in another translation, a “specially valuable pearl”) he sells all that he has to purchase it.
So Jesus’s point is not only about single-mindedness, or single-heartedness, but also about the inestimable value of what has been discovered. (In one case, the person finds it unexpectedly; in another, he is searching for it.) Of course, both of these parables and the third one offered today—the fishing net that brings in fish of various sorts, both good and bad, which are sorted out—are about the central theme of Jesus’s preaching: the reign of God.
Jesus’s immoral heroes are vaguely disreputable, but they are also shrewd—that is, smart. And the wisdom that Jesus asks us to accept is the wisdom of saying "yes" to the reign of God, which is both our treasure and the pearl of great price.
--Fr. James Martin,
July 30, 2023
July 30, 2023
Image source: Fish! https://biblefilms.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-chosen-2019-s1e04.html
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