SUNDAY 17 (A) (Mt 13,44-52)
The treasure and the pearl are two symbols that carry the same message. If we discover it, we will appreciate everything else in its proper measure. This is not a rational discovery, but a deep and living experience. We remain determined to discover the false God that we have created and which exists only in our minds, and that is impossible.
The message is identical, but it has different nuances in each one. In one case, the encounter is fortuitous. And in the other, it is the consequence of a search. Another nuance is that in the first, the Kingdom is identified with the treasure, but in the second, it is identified with the merchant who searches. The message must be sought in the whole narrative.
Both options are made with a degree of uncertainty. Both risk getting rid of everything else, despite not having absolute certainty. The parable does not judge the morality of the narrated actions; it simply proposes facts so that we may move to another realm where I do not need certainties.
Both the farmer and the merchant act fraudulently and therefore unjustly. Both take advantage of privileged knowledge to deceive. They do not act out of detachment but out of selfishness. They “renounce” possessions in order to obtain greater goods. Their goal is to achieve a better material life.
The turning point in both parables is the same: “sell all that you have and buy.” It would simply be madness. If he sells everything he has to buy the pearl, what will he eat the next day? Where will he live? This radical impossibility in the material order is what makes us jump to another order, where it is possible.
We will achieve nothing if we do not first discover who we are. Our main task will be to become aware of that Reality. If we discover it, practically everything is done. The parable in reverse does not work. Selling everything you have before discovering the treasure (which is what they have proposed) is no guarantee of success.
The treasure is not Jesus. Jesus discovered divinity within himself. This is the main Christian dogma. “I and the Father are one.” It is also not the treasure. Scripture is the map that can lead to the treasure. We cannot present the Church as the treasure. In any case, it would be the field where we have to dig to find it.
The treasure is the same God. It is the true Reality that I am, and that all others are. As soon as religions forget this, they become enslaving ideologies. The treasure, the pearl do not represent great values, but a reality that is beyond all valuation. To see God as contrary to other values is to make an idol of Him.
We live in a society that functions on traps. If we were capable of naming things for what they are, this society would collapse. If we all convinced ourselves that neither money nor health nor power nor sex nor religion are the supreme values, our society would immediately be purified.
It is not about despising anything, but about clearly knowing what is truly valuable. The treasure will never be incompatible with all the other values that make us more human. It is a temptation to have to choose between good and evil. This stance is radically wrong. We must be clear where the supreme value lies and which values are relative or false.
The great problem of these two parables is that choosing implies knowing. It is not enough for them to tell us that this or that is best. If I do not discover the absolute value of what I have found, I will never decide to overcome attachment to everything else. If I have to use violence against myself to make a spiritual decision, it means I have understood nothing.