Sunday, July 26, is the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Mass readings: 1 Kings 3:5, 7-12; Psalm 119:57, 72, 76-77, 127-128, 129-130; Romans 8:28-30; Matthew 13:44-52 or Matthew 13:44-46.

The Sunday Gospel asks a fundamental question: “What is it that you value most?” 

The Gospel uses the image of buried treasure and a pearl to illustrate the gift of the Kingdom of heaven.

The image of treasure that Jesus uses in the Gospel is a symbol for the heart and for our deepest desires. 

The buried, hidden treasure of the Kingdom of God is a new heart to love holiness, justice, chastity, goodness, righteousness and truth more. We begin to better love our spouse, family, the poor, and even our enemies the way God loves them. 

A pearl in the Scriptures is an image for wisdom, which confers a new mind to think with God and have the mind of Christ to reject worldly thinking, priorities and agendas and live well in God’s truth and to grasp more deeply its beauty and sensibility. 

Notice: The men in the Gospel were eager to go and sell, to forsake everything else, not because they had to, but because they wanted to. They paid the price with eagerness because they were so enamored of the glory they had found. May we ask the Lord for a willing and eager heart for the Kingdom of God.

The Lord also speaks of a net that captures everything (referring to our summons to judgment). Those who want the Kingdom and have accepted its value and price (forgiveness, mercy, justice, chastity, love of the poor, love of one’s enemies, and the celebration of what is good, true and beautiful) will be gathered in; those who do not want the Kingdom of God and do not accept its value will be cast aside.

The Kingdom has God at its center, and we ought to purposefully cultivate a heart centered on the Lord that eagerly desires the Kingdom and appreciates its worth above all people and all things.

This post has been adapted from a past guide.