Read­ing Time: 3 minutes

The parable of the hidden treasure

By defin­i­tion, a treas­ure should be any­thing and/or any per­son you so much value and that is very dear and spe­cial to you. The Greek term for treas­ure (thē­saur­os) means what is depos­ited, store, treas­ure, place of stor­age, ware­house. In the ancient times, it was com­mon to hide treas­ure (money, jew­els and oth­er mater­i­al valu­ables) in the ground since there were no banks.  In the Jew­ish tra­di­tion, good works are regarded as treas­ure laid up with God. And etern­ity is a treas­ure house to which the right­eous go. It is along this line of mean­ings that we should under­stand the liken­ing of God’s king­dom to a treas­ure. And any­one who finds or who at a point dis­cov­ers this treas­ure (the king­dom of God), should sell everything he/she has to acquire it. Now, selling everything means get­ting rid of unjust, dis­hon­est and every form of liv­ing that is not in accord­ance with the will and ways of God. In oth­er words, selling everything means any sac­ri­fice a per­son could make to gain the king­dom of God. Do you think you have dis­covered this treas­ure? Hid­ing it again means not allow­ing any­thing or any­body deceive you or make you leave the way of justice, right­eous­ness and right liv­ing. How com­mit­ted and uncom­prom­ising are you in your decision and determ­in­a­tion to live accord­ing to God’s will? 

An understanding heart

At the con­clu­sion of the par­able of the Sower, Jesus added “any­one who has ears, should listen” (Matt 13:9). Again, after explain­ing the par­able of the dar­nel to his dis­ciples, he repeated “any­one who has ears, should listen” (Matt 13:43). Listen­ing goes with under­stand­ing and under­stand­ing is dir­ectly linked to listen­ing. Any­one who can­not listen, can­not under­stand. Any­one who can­not under­stand can­not dis­cern. In oth­er words, listen­ing, under­stand­ing and dis­cern­ing are signs of wis­dom. This takes us to the First Read­ing of this Sunday (1Kgs 3:5.7–12). After the death of his fath­er Dav­id, Solomon became the next king of Israel. Because a dwell­ing place has not been built for the Lord in Jer­u­s­alem, Solomon trav­elled to Gibeon to offer sac­ri­fice to the Lord.

Conclusion

Dear read­er, nev­er imit­ate evil because in your opin­ion, evil and god­less people are mak­ing pro­gress. Appar­ent pro­gress is not pro­gress. Learn to be con­ten­ted with what you have. Stop com­par­ing your­self with oth­ers. Learn to be you and remain you. As far as you do not lack daily bread and oth­er neces­sit­ies of life, you are rich and should thank God. Even when you lack daily bread and those things neces­sary for your up keep, do not give in to evil. Do not give in to tempta­tion. It is nev­er the solu­tion. Instead, see wheth­er your efforts have been on the right dir­ec­tion and espe­cially, with the right people. Some­times, there are those who find them­selves in cer­tain cir­cum­stances that lead them to repent­ance (the par­able of the hid­den treas­ure). At oth­er times, a per­son can decide to change his/her way of life and begin to look for ways to do that, and once he/she finds the oppor­tun­ity, he/she makes con­crete use of it (the par­able of the pearl). Jesus and his teach­ings can as well be the hid­den treas­ure and the pearl. Who­ever finds both Jesus and the teach­ings of the Gos­pel, aban­dons everything and begins a dif­fer­ent life.

FOR DETAILS, GET YOUR OWN COPIES OF THE BOOK “THE WORD OF LIFE:
SUNDAY REFLECTIONS” (vols. I‑II-III)!! The reflec­tion for the 17^th Sunday of the year (A) is found in The Word of Life, vol. I, pages 386–393. Happy reading!

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