17 th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Transcription

1 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 (Mt 13:44). 17 th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A July 24 th, 2011

2 First Reading: 1 Kings 3:5, At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, Ask what I should give you. 6 And Solomon said, You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart towards you; and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love, and have given him a son to sit on his throne today. 7 And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. 8 And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted. 9 Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people? 10 It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. 11 God said to him, Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, 12 I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you. Responsive Psalm: 119:57, 72, 76-77, , The Lord is my portion; I promise to keep your words. 72 The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces. 76 Let your steadfast love become my comfort according to your promise to your servant. 77 Let your mercy come to me, that I may live; for your law is my delight. 127 Truly I love your commandments more than gold, more than fine gold. 128 Truly I direct my steps by all your precepts; I hate every false way. 129 Your decrees are wonderful; therefore my soul keeps them. 130 The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple. Second Reading: Romans 8: We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.

3 Gospel Reading: Matthew 13:44-52 [long] or 13:44-46 [short] 44 The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. 45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; 46 on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. 47 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; 48 when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. 49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous 50 and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 51 Have you understood all this? They answered, Yes. 52 And he said to them, Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old. Homily So where are these three readings taking us? How do they fit together or do they form a progression of some kind? There may be different aspects that one may pick up, but in the First Reading, we learn about the highest form of wisdom, which is to know to what we should aspire. In the ancient Greek tradition, wisdom was more about philosophical speculation. In the OT, it was more of a practical nuts-and-bolts, do-whatworks, and to recognize what is good and what is evil by their practical outcomes. But in the reading today, Solomon says wisdom was acquired in a dream during which he asked to receive a discerning mind in order to rightly govern his people. He did not focus on himself, and that was the core value that brought true wisdom, to seek that one may rightly impart the good for others. 1 In our Psalm response, we again see the theme of aspiring for righteousness above gold. In our Second Reading, we learn that our future hope is going to build on the life we already have. One does not go to heaven as a place where we somehow are totally different than we are in this present life. Rather, whatever there is beyond the grave can only be an extension of what we ve already started here and now. We will be justified and glorified here and now as well as in some future ways that God foresaw for us but which are beyond our present conceptualization. The treasure hidden in a field is found and then hidden away, and then the man goes and sells everything he had in order to buy the field. The ancients got something more out of this than we do today. In our day, while a few may hide their proverbial treasure under the mattress or in a flower pot, most people put it in the bank. Biblical scholars tell us that the treasure and the land in which it was buried are inextricable. Finding is considered the first act. If the treasure belongs to the finder, then buying the land is 1 Reginald H. Fuller & Daniel Westberg, Scripture in depth, 7/24/11, St. Louis University website

4 not necessary. And if the treasure does not belong to the finder, then buying the land is not a just requirement. John Pilch 2 says that burying valuable objects and retrieving them at a later time was very common in antiquity. One might have found a treasure that you yourself or your relatives had not buried, because perhaps others died without telling their own heirs. The rabbinic literature discussed how to determine if a finder had a right to the property or not, and the circumstances in this parable suggest perhaps the finder did not have a right, because he buried it again. But we come to possible underlying meanings of this parable in Jesus time and for us. A parable always suggests another level, something more than the obvious. And here, there is great joy upon finding the hidden treasure, suggesting that it is God -- God s joy and grace -- that is the treasure. But the found treasure is also a two-edged sword because it brings him to seeming disaster in that he impoverishes himself by selling all that he has to obtain the field, and now he has nothing left. He is now vulnerable and at risk, and now owning a field but, for what? He does not dare to dig up the treasure again, because the character of the finder and buyer of the field can be called into question. In this ancient time, it was believed that all wealth is finite and already distributed and possessed, so if you suddenly have an increase in goods, you have explaining to do as to how you came by it. So, perhaps one interpretation is that the treasure of heaven although rewarding has its own potential for corruption; one corruption would be to keep it for one s self. Perhaps the holding of a secret treasure also suggests a lesson to learn for those of us who regard ourselves as something of proprietors of the faith, guardians of orthodoxy, judges of the choices and behaviors of others. To rightfully possess the treasure requires our giving up of everything, all entitlements that we claim for ourselves. So we again hear of the precious pearl, where again, all is sold to acquire it? What will he live on? There is no ambiguous or questionable behavior on the part of the finder here, as in the treasure story. But again there is the idea that we will single-mindedly seek God, and then be prepared to give up everything in order to attain the pearl or the treasure that comes from him. Finally, the heavenly net catches everything, but in the end the bad fish which are unclean or inedible grow along with the good fish. This parable is similar to the wheat and tares story that we considered last week. The final discrimination of what is good and edible and what is not is made by agents of God or angels, perhaps meaning those who are spiritually discerning and have a broad understanding and perspective. Jesus brings all these lessons into greater clarity with parables of the treasure and then the pearl and the net. The Gospel writer was able to integrate the old tradition and use it to creatively resolve new problems. And so this is how the Church has used these stories, to bring us to deeper understanding. Ultimately we learn that there is a supreme value, where the Kingdom is the highest treasure we can seek. 2 John Pilch (1995). The Cultural World of Jesus: Sunday by Sunday, Cycle A. Collegeville, Minnesota

5 In faithfully understanding what there is here for us today, we don t simply repeat the parable and the interpretation of a generation ago, or five generations ago. No, we must reproduce the learning for today. This is what is understood by the statement attributed to Jesus about a scribe s role. Remember, in his day, few people could read and write, and they were dependent on how the scribe translated. Translation is always an interpretive act, and the Gospel writer fully understood this. Each translation of the Bible is an interpretive act. Each application made of it by each new generation is an interpretive process. No, we are not being orthodox by simply and mindlessly accepting dogma that others have developed in the generations before us. Rather, our training for the kingdom of God is to bring out what is old and what is new and to synthesize them into an understanding for our own time. And across all these parables is an important idea that the treasure can be rewarding as well as potentially corrupting, and its potentially corrupting power comes from the desire to possess for one s self or to hoard it. Our little cliques we call denominations or the One True Church by whatever name we give them can be forces for good or for ill, if they heal or divide the Kingdom. And even in our seeming losses, missteps, dead-ends, failures, the Epistle reading tells us, all things will work together for good for those who love God, who are motivated toward the high calling of Christ. May we prayerfully seek the treasure and the pearl for our time and our generation. Fond Father, in everything we try to do, in every way we turn: up, down, all around, Everything works together for us when we love you. There is no place where there is no grace. Deo Gratias. Prayer reprinted by permission Copyright 2011, The Center for Liturgy at Saint Louis University. All rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to reproduce for personal or parish use.