As we continue in this season of Ordinary Time we hear a number of the Lord’s parables. In fact,
they make up the sizeable majority of the Sunday Gospels until we approach Advent. Many of
the Lord’s parables can strike us as odd or unrelated to our way of life. In truth, this is because so
many of them are related to the land. Just as Ordinary Time is a season speaking on the growth
of the Church, especially in the stretch of Ordinary Time after Pentecost, it also comes at a
moment when the earth itself is growing, fruiting, and coming to life.
We are long past our winter slumber, as it were, and in the full throes of summer. For the people
of Jesus’ time, this transition would have been just as notable. They were a people whose lives
were intimately connected with the world around them. The Hebrew calendar was lunar, their
feasts and fasts were connected in many ways with the changing of the seasons, and their lives
built around the agricultural realities around them.
The Church, in many ways, retains this way of life. But for those of us in contemporary, affluent
society it can seem distant and difficult to connect with. One of today’s parables, however, takes
on the character of personal treasure – something which, no matter what technology or progress
we experience, will remain very much the same. The Lord explains that the kingdom of heaven
is like finding something of great value. Perhaps none of us have found a pearl, but maybe we
have a collecting hobby or a keen eye for valuables. I imagine we all know the feeling, at least,
of getting a great deal on something at the store.
Imagine the kingdom of heaven, then, as the ideal object of your collection, the hobby item
which you would give anything to come upon in the wild, or the greatest sale in the history of
sales at your favorite store. All these examples, parables though they are, fall so short. If you are
able to understand the feeling from these small things, the Lord implies, then how much greater
is the kingdom of heaven – eternal, imperishable, and inviting all of us in.
Grace transforms us over time, making us more and more Christlike. Indeed, the Eucharist is our
medicine for this journey and does such a work of bringing us closer to Him whom we receive.
Perhaps we, as the Lord notes, may do the will of God begrudgingly at first – because of the
persistence of the one asking. However, by following His will more and more we will instead do
so out of the theological virtue of love – love of God and love of our neighbor.
May God richly bless you in this celebration of the Eucharist.