Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Also Read: Mass Readings for 30 July 2023 Mass Reading Reflection for 30 July 2023
Gospel: Matthew 13: 44-52
As per the parables told by Jesus today, there are two possibilities for finding the Kingdom of Heaven.
1. The first is a chance encounter. The man in question casually encountered a treasure in a field owned by someone else. He quietly goes home and sells everything he has and returns to purchase that property. Thus, he became the rightful owner of the treasure.
2. The second man, a merchant in search of precious stones, finds the dream of his life, at the end of a long search. The owner of this fine pearl is not ready to sell it easily; the merchant had to sell everything to buy it.
Both of them had to sell everything so that they can possess the newfound treasure. It sounds strange, each treasure was worth the total possession of the finder. If they wanted to hold on to some of their old possessions, they could not have bought the treasure.
The Kingdom of Heaven is expensive but affordable for everyone. It is an all-or-nothing business. One has to let go of everything to own it. It does not limit to money and assets. We have to let go of everything to enter into the Kingdom of God.
The kingdom of God is worth more than your car, house, deposits, and other assets: all combined. The Kingdom of God is worth more than your parents, spouse, children, siblings, friends, and colleagues: all combined. The Kingdom of God is worth more than your reputation, degrees, social status, and power: all combined.
The kingdom of God is worth more than your worries, anxieties, frustrations, and expectations; give them up! The Kingdom of God is worth more than your sins, anger, jealousy, avarice, gluttony, greed, lust, and hatred; dump them.
It doesn’t matter how you encountered the Kingdom of God a chance encounter, or the result of a long struggle. You have to give up everything to possess it.
The Kingdom of God itself is choosy. It does not accept everyone who knocks. The third parable explains it well.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind. When it is full, they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away.”
You need to belong to a certain class to be let into the Kingdom of God. It is an all-or-nothing game as mentioned earlier. Halfhearted sacrifices would end up good neither for the basket nor for the waters. They will end up like dead fish in the sea.
It is not enough to pretend to belong to Jesus. Make the Kingdom of God the first priority in life; get hold of it no matter what you have to pay. Everything else can wait.
Amen.
