THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE

Matthew 13:44-52

I would like to share with you a poem entitled Finding God. The poem runs this way:

Many times I attempted to find God in the midst of the busy world HE KEPT SILENT

Many times I attempted to find readymade answers to my problems HE HIDE HIMSELF

Many time I asked Him to grant my wishes HE DID NOT LISTEN

It is only them when I kept silent and stop looking for Him when I found Him SITTING NEXT TO ME, SHOWING ME THE MANY SPLENDORED THINGS THAT CREATED FOR ME.

I don’t know if you experience this too, but it is true that every time we are worried where to get all these things, they do not come. Instead, every time we leave everything to God, they just come without our knowledge and expectations.

We are given three parables in our gospel today and I will focus on the first two. These parables are about the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price. There is a man who stumbles on a treasure buried in a field. He then carefully hides it again in the same field and sells all he has in order to buy that field and retrieve the treasure in his own time. The parallel parable speaks about a merchant who searches and trades pearls. When he finally finds the pearl of his dreams, he sells all that he has and buys that greatest of all pearls.

In both examples, there is a hint of great satisfaction. One has found a treasure that will sustain his whole life, the other has found the greatest pearl that crowns his career as a pearl merchant. These parables give us two important words that describe the joy of discovering God’s Kingdom. The first word is hard work.  If we are going to live our Christian faith it is like digging for the lost treasure. To discover God’s Kingdom requires of us hard work. Jesus says: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit,” (John 12:24). Our journey into the Kingdom of God has its share of pain, blood, sweat and tears. We must work hard in our spiritual lives in order to uncover and dig up the great treasure.

 The second word is high price. Our hearts should not be searching for cheap entertainments. The Kingdom of God will cost us plenty. As in the parables, they all went, sold all their belongings in order to get the great treasure, the pearl of great price, we too should be ready for sacrifice if we want to be part of the Kingdom. Blessed Mother Teresa said: “Give until it hurts,” “Give until it helps somebody.” We must detach ourselves from the things and attitudes of this world and commit ourselves to get the treasure, the pearl. The world is full of false needs and empty promises. Are we willing to detach ourselves from these things in order to possess “the pearl of great price”?

Solomon in the first reading is a good illustration for us. As a young king, he needed wealth, military might, fame, security, prosperity, long life and happiness. But when God asked what he wanted, he asked for wisdom from above. He knew that with the wisdom of God, every other thing is in order. If God came in your dream tonight and asked you to ask for one thing and one thing only, what would you ask for? Would you have the wisdom of Solomon to ask for the reign of God in your personal and business life?