SUNDAY 17. CYCLE A
In the previous two Sundays, the discourse in parables has responded to three questions posed by the ancient Christian community and which we continue to ask ourselves:
1) Why does not everyone accept Jesus’ message? (the parable of the sower).
2) What to do with those who do not accept it? (the wheat and the weeds).
3) Does this small community have a future? (the mustard seed and the leaven)
There are still two other questions left to pose and answer.
Is it worth it?
The question that may continue to run through the minds of Jesus’ followers is whether all this is worthwhile. Two very brief parables respond to this question, apparently identical in development and with great similarity in imagery. That is why they are known as the parables of the treasure and the pearl. What happens in both cases is the following:
a) The protagonist discovers something of enormous value.
b) In order to obtain it, he sells everything he has.
c) He buys the desired object.
However, there are curious differences between the two parables, starting with the protagonists.
The lucky and the conscientious(the treasure and the pearl)
The protagonist of the first is a man of luck. While walking through the field, he finds a treasure. His first reaction is not to take it to the lost and found office (which does not exist then) nor to place an advertisement in the newspaper (which also does not exist). Above all, he hides it. Overcome by surprise, he fills with joy and decides to appropriate the treasure, but legally. The only solution is to buy the field. It is large and expensive. It does not matter. He sells everything he has and buys it.
The protagonist of the second parable is very different. He does not waste time walking through the field. He is a conscientious merchant looking for pearls of great value. Unfortunately, the liturgical translation ignores this aspect: instead of “The Kingdom of heaven is also like a merchant in fine pearls,” it should say “like a merchant in search of fine pearls.” He does not find it by chance; he pursues it assiduously. Like a good merchant—calculating and cool—he does not jump for joy when he finds it, just like the protagonist of the first parable. But he does the same thing: he sells everything he has to buy it.
The pearl and the merchant. Another curious difference is that the first parable compares the Kingdom of Heaven with a treasure, but the second does not compare it with a precious pearl, but with a merchant. This detail offers a clue for interpreting the two parables.
Neither junk bonds nor penny dreadfuls. Let us not forget that these parables are addressed to a community suffering a deep crisis and asking whether being Christian is worthwhile. In modern terms: have they sold me junk bonds or given me a penny dreadful? The answer intends to revive the primitive experience, when each person decided to follow Jesus. Some came into contact with the community purely by chance and discovered in it a treasure worth giving up everything for. Others discovered the community after years of religious restlessness and intense searching, as happened to numerous pagans previously in contact with Judaism; these too must have renounced and sold to acquire.
The parables, besides instilling hope, also encourage self-examination. Is faith in Jesus and the Christian community still a priceless treasure for me, or has it become a useless and dusty object that I keep only out of routine?
At the same time, they teach us something very important: it is the Christian, with his attitude, who reveals to others the supreme value of the Kingdom. If he does not rejoice in discovering it, if he does not renounce everything to obtain it, he will not make its value perceptible. These parables seem to say: “When you are asked if being a Christian is worth it, do not give a speech; demonstrate with your attitude that it is worth it.”
What will happen to those who accept the Kingdom but do not live according to its ideals?
The parable of the net cast into the sea answers this last question. It is not clear whether it refers to all humanity, where there are good and bad people, or to the Christian community, where the same thing can happen. Since the theme of universal judgment has been treated in relation to the wheat and the weeds, it seems more likely that it refers to the internal problem of the Christian community. Interpreted in this way, it would fit very well with the two previous ones. There are people within the community who do not live according to the values of the gospel, who do not maintain that experience of having discovered a treasure or a pearl. What will happen to them? The answer is very harsh (“the wicked will be thrown into the burning oven”), but it is appropriate to complete it with the last parable of the Gospel of Matthew, that of the Final Judgment (Mt 25,31-46), where it is clear which fish are good and which are bad. The good ones are those who, knowing it or not, feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, host those without a roof… Those who help the needy, even if they do not even intuit that Jesus himself is within them.
Conclusion
Matthew ends the seven parables by comparing the preacher of the gospel to a family head. It seems like a new enigma, this time without explanation. In an immediate sense, the scribe who understands the kingdom of God is Jesus. To expose his message, he has used new and old things. From the chest of his memories, he has taken ancient things: some allusion to the Old Testament, the parabolic technique, and the imaginative language of the prophets. But most of it consists of new things, fruit of his experience and his capacity for observation: the life of the peasant, of the housewife, of the fisherman, of the merchant, of the people around him, they serve him to present his message with interest. Therefore, the final comparison is also an invitation to the disciples and to the preachers of the gospel to be creative, to renew their language, not merely repeating what has been learned.
The first reading
The first reading invites us to ask God for this wisdom, just as Solomon asked for it to govern his people.
Final reflection
The discourse in parables has occupied us for three Sundays. Its problem is so current and interesting that it has been worthwhile. Given the current situation of the church, perhaps its greatest message is one of hope and enthusiasm. Following Jesus is worth it and has a future, provided we renounce being the cedar of Lebanon and are content to be the mustard seed tree. Although small, like yeast, the Christian community will always be able to do good for the birds of heaven, even if they do not stay to nest in its branches.