Meditation of His Beatitude Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa for the XVII Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A
Below you can find the Meditation of His Beatitude Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, for the XVII Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A, Sunday 30July 2023.
Matt. 13: 44-52
With today's passage (Mt 13:44-52), we conclude our listening to the thirteenth chapter of Matthew's Gospel, counting seven parables told by Jesus, in which He refers to the mystery of the Kingdom of God.
Today we listen to the last three: that of the treasure, the pearl and the net, to finally arrive at the passage where Jesus describes the Kingdom disciple (Mt 13:52), a kind of conclusion to the parabolic discourse, to tell what happens to those who have accepted, to those who have "understood" (Mt 13:51) the parables.
The Kingdom of Heaven is compared today to a great fortune that happens unexpectedly to some people: a man who is tilling a field, a merchant who is looking for precious pearls.
And this is the first fact to dwell on, which we are often not too convinced of: the encounter with the Lord Jesus, the faith we are given to have in Him, is not simply something beautiful that can happen in life, one gift among many. An encounter with the risen Lord is the most precious experience that can happen, what can radically change a person's life. Not something extra to add to a life that, already in itself, could be considered good enough; but a different quality of living, a treasure, precisely, that is worth more than everything else: there is no comparison.
Only with this awareness, then one will be able to come into possession of the treasure: it is interesting to note that in order to acquire the treasure and the pearl, the two protagonists in the parables do the same thing, the only thing to do, which is to sell everything they have, in order to acquire them. It is not said that the treasure or the pearl have a certain value, even a very high value: their value is "everything" (Mt 13:44, 46) all that one has, all that one is. The treasure worths more than life because it is precisely this treasure that will give value to life, to all that a person lives.
To sell everything, in fact, does not mean to be left with nothing, on the contrary: it means that everything we have and are, is put to the best use, is "invested" so that it can bear fruit, so that nothing is lost.
Losing everything in order to gain everything.
The parables tell us about another characteristic of the treasure and the pearl, namely that they are hidden (Mt 13:44): the treasure is hidden underground, the precious stone is hidden among other stones that are worth less.
To find them, one must be able to look beyond appearances, one must be able to see beneath the surface of things.
The treasure is not in plain sight, it is not within reach: it is near, but one must know how to discover it.
That is why the last parable is that of the net: the Kingdom is like a net, where all kinds of fish can be found. Those who have listened and learned the secrets of the Kingdom, making room within themselves for the seed of the Word, then know how to discern: they know how to distinguish what is worthwhile, and they are not fooled by appearances, they do not remain on the surface of life.
This parable - like the explanation of the parable of the weeds (Mt 13:37-43) - has eschatological overtones: judgment on good and evil belongs to God alone, and will only be possible at the end, when history will reveal the fruit of every action. But the whole chapter seems to tell us that this power is given as of now to those who make themselves disciples of the Kingdom: the eyes of the one who finds the treasure are illuminated by a new light, capable of distinguishing what is valuable from what is worthless, what is eternal from what does not remain forever…
This Meditation was originally published on the website of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Please click here to read the full text.