Matthew 13:44-52 Parables

Sunday, 24 July 2011

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew13:44-52.

The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls.
When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it. 

Homily by Fr. Raymond.

The primacy of the Kingdom of God in our lives

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Raymond . . .
Sent: Sun, 24 July, 2011
Subject:

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SUNDAY 17  2011

• Today’s Gospel opens with the quick-fire repetition of the same lesson:  The   teaching that the Kingdom of Heaven is so precious that it is worth sacrificing   all we have in order to gain it.  The fact that this teaching is repeated in two   different examples at the same time gives it an added weight for us. It’s rather   unusual for the written Gospels to be repetitious and long winded.  The Gospels   are normally very terse and sparing in the way they recount the things that   Jesus said and did.  They don’t give much room for repetition.  So what they do   repeat is all the more important for us.
• Did Jesus often repeat himself when he spoke to the crowds that followed him?    We may wonder.  He had such a short time on earth and he had to leave a teaching   that was to cover the peoples of the whole earth for all time to come.  Were his   parables each a “one off”?  or did he repeat the same ones time and time again.  
• Was the parable of the Prodigal Son told only once for instance?  Did he recount   the Parable of the Sower on only one occasion?  Or did he have his favourite   parables that he told time and time again?   This was before the days of the   mass media, of course, and his words and his deeds could only be heard and   witnessed by a limited number of people at a time.  It is true that, as St John   tells us, “If all the words and deeds of Jesus were to be written down the whole   world would not be big enough to contain all the books that would have to be   written.”  On the whole then we may be able to assume that Jesus had so much to   say to us; so many things to teach us; so much and such great revelations to   pass on to us that he could hardly afford to be repeating himself too often.
• Nevertheless, repetition is one of the main tools of the teacher’s art and so we   can be sure that when something was sufficiently important, then indeed he would   use some of his very precious and limited time among us to repeat some of the   more salient points of his teachings.  There was the doctrine on the eucharist   for instance.  He repeated the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and   fishes, and he even reminded his disciples of these two miracles on a later   occasion.
• Such a salient point then, something that was worth repeating is this teaching   he gives us today: the teaching that nothing can be compared to the value of the   Kingdom of Heaven for us.
•  So, we all have our various priorities in life: matters of family; matters of   work or of business or career; matters of finance or health; matters of   provision for a rainy day and so on.  And all these things have their place and   their importance for us of course. But we must never forget the primacy of the   Kingdom of God in our lives.  We must always remember those other powerful   sayings of Jesus on this same topic:  “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his   justice and all these other things will be added to you” and “What does it   profit a man if he gains the whole world and suffers the loss of his own soul.

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