THREE DISCOVERIES & DIFFERENCES

Reflections for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: 1 Kings 3:5, 7-12, Romans 8:28-30, Matthew 13:44-52

This Sunday’s Gospel narrates three magnificent discoveries to help us perfect our understanding of the Kingdom of Heaven: a treasure, a pearl of great value and a net full of fish. The discovery results in a radical and effective change in each of these cases. The treasure alters the life of the farmer; the pearl fulfils the quest of the merchant, and the bountiful catch of fish must have thrilled the fisherman. Though these three parables are apparently similar in their structure, meaning, and significance, there are three nuanced differences that merit our careful reflection.

1. The Kingdom Reality: The parable of the treasure compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a treasure buried in the field, while the third parable relates it to a net. In the second parable, however, there is a difference. We read, “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls”. Here, the Kingdom is likened not to the pearl but to the merchant. The Kingdom is simultaneously an object (treasure that is found), a person (the merchant who is on a quest), and an instrument (a fisherman’s livelihood depends on his fishing net). The Gospel reveals here that the Kingdom of God is not exclusively an object to be possessed or a means that is to be merely used and forgotten. It is also personal.

Don’t we often fall into the risk of taking an exclusively materialistic and utilitarian approach to spiritual life? Don’t we fall into the error of treating God as a “possession” risking making an idol out of our discovery? Don’t we use him like we would a “tool” for our personal agendas and conveniences? When Jesus declared to his contemporaries that the Kingdom of God is “here (or) is at hand”, he referred to his presence, his ministry, and the tangible changes his words and actions brought about in their lives. The word he used to refer to the Kingdom is Malchut shemayim. Malchut comes from melekh meaning ‘king’ and is associated with the royal actions and authority of the king. Shemayim is Hebrew for ‘heavens’. So the Kingdom of God that Jesus proclaimed in his person included ‘God’s reign’, ‘how God reigns’ and ‘those God reigns over’. The Kingdom is not an object to be possessed or a tool to be instrumentalised, it is a relational reality that is “already here” and “not yet”.

2. To Each His Way: Secondly, upon careful reading, we realise that each of the three discoveries was made in characteristically unique ways. The farmer stumbled upon the treasure. He was not even looking for it. The discovery in the first parable is thus accidental. The merchant, on the other hand, was actively looking for the fine pearl. His discovery was the fruit of an ardent quest. The fisherman was on his daily routine, out in the sea for his usual job. The discovery happened when he was busy earning a livelihood both for himself and his family. Each of the three discoveries happens in three distinct ways: an accident, the result of an ardent quest, and during a daily routine.

What do these nuanced differences mean to our spiritual journey? The path to God is unique to each of us. Some of us stumble on the treasure of God’s Kingdom when we least expect it. Some of us have to venture on a quest sometimes long and difficult. Some of us have discovered God in the ordinariness of our daily lives and our schedules. God reveals Himself to us in unique and mysterious ways. None of these ways is absolute and ‘my way is certainly not the only way’. The Kingdom reveals itself in many and various ways, situations and experiences. While our individual experiences and paths have their own value, they are not absolutes and therefore not the only way. It takes wisdom to realise that there are seeds of truth in the experiences of those who do not necessarily share my convictions or identities.

3. Free? Yes! Cheap? No! Thirdly, the first two parables end similarly. The farmer goes out joyfully, sells all that he has and buys that field. The merchant goes and sells all that he has and buys the pearl. Total self-offering produces joy, victory, and the guarantee of a continued relationship. The parable of the net, however, does not end with the same enthusiasm or jubilation. In stark contrast, it ends up evoking a terrifying image of the final judgment. Just as the fisherman sits down to put what is good into buckets and throw away what is bad, “the angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth”.

The offer of the Kingdom of Heaven is free but it is in no way cheap. It costs us something because the free offer also involves the challenge of discipleship. Grace like mercy is always free, but, once accepted, it affects both the giver and the receiver. So, if grace has a cost both to the giver and the receiver, how is it free? It is free because it does not depend on our worthiness or unworthiness. Grace results in conversion but the resulting conversion is a consequence of grace and not a pre-requisite. Our consistent self-offering to our divine experience has to manifest in our daily conversion. We need to bridge the gap between our worship and our way of life. The joy of discipleship, while it is free, is extremely valuable. It is neither a one-time “give and take” nor a “win-win”. It is to be found in a committed relationship that involves achieving a radical break between a past made up of false idols and the new life that is offered to us in our daily discovery of the Kingdom of God. Let us prepare for our own unique and daily discovery of the reality of the Kingdom of God in our personal encounter with Christ who challenges us to radical discipleship.