The Pearl of Great Price (17th Sunday Ordinary A)

“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” (Mt 13:44-46).

There seems to be two ways of finding a treasure.  First is by accident or what poets call serendipity. It is very much like a farmer ploughing the field not his own and discovers in a great surprise a buried treasure which he has not been looking for in the first place.  We have our own word for this: Swerte.  In this manner, the treasure seems to reveal itself to us as a surprise in the midst of our daily concerns and increasingly boring preoccupations.

In the parable, the treasure refers to God, his reign of love. God has a way of revealing his love to us right in the middle of our mundane preoccupations in life.  Many a times we are too preoccupied to notice God.  He is the treasure sitting right under our nose but we don’t recognize it. So we keep on ploughing the field of our useless anxieties without any idea what we have been missing. But there are times, some kairos moments, when we finally encounter God. And henceforth, our lives take a different turn because such a religious experience calls us to “sell everything we have” or to let go of everything we are clinging to in order to be free to hold on to God, our only real treasure.

The other way of finding a treasure is by a careful search. It is like the merchant searching for the finest pearl day after day until he finds the pearl of great price.  Most of us experience life as a search for meaning.  We are in constant search for what is good and what brings meaning to life.  Oftentimes we have the feeling that the search is endless.  Our hearts are never satisfied by what we find.  One day we feel like we’re happy with what we have; only to find out another day that we’re losing interest in it and we’re eyeing another object of our excitement.

But there is one discovery though that liberates us from this pointless meandering search. It is the discovery of the pearl of God’s love. When we experience in our life the love of God, we gain a new perspective. Everything else that we deemed valuable and even essential takes a relative significance. A person who has in his or her heart the love of God no longer clings to whatever possession for he or she knows now what is truly essential. A person who discovers the pearl of God’s love sells all that he or she has in order to possess the one thing that the human heart truly longs. In the words of St. Therese of Avila: Quien a Dios tiene, nada le falta. Solo Dios basta (He who has God does not lack anything. God is enough).

The twin parables seem to instruct us that we first find God by discovering him serendipitously.  In the heart of the daily grind of life God surprisingly touches us with his loving presence.   And it is when we have been graciously touched by his love that we begin to seek Him even more, leading us to let go of everything in our possession that hinder us from embracing God’s love fully.

Interestingly, in the The Only Necessary Thing, spiritual writer Henri Nouwen has this to say:

“You can be truly happy that you have found the treasure. But you should not be so naive as to think that you already own it.... Having found the treasure puts you on a new quest for it. The spiritual life is a long and often arduous search for what you have already found. You can seek God only when you have already found God. The desire for God’s unconditional love is the fruit of having been touched by that love.”

“Because finding the treasure is only the beginning of the search, you have to be careful. If you expose the treasure to others without fully owning it, you might harm yourself and even lose the treasure. A newfound love needs to be nurtured in a quiet, intimate space. Overexposure kills it.... Finding the treasure without being ready yet to fully own it will make you restless. This is the restlessness of the search for God. “

Our hearts do not stop at the surprise discovery of the treasure of God’s love.  On the contrary, finding God is only the beginning of a true and deeper search for Him and for his unconditional love.  We may all have experienced the surprising touch of God’s love, our invitation is clear: Just like the farmer and the merchant in the parable, we have to go, sell everything we have, and buy the precious find. We are invited to make the courageous decision to make God and his reign of love the central concern of our lives. Everything else that we have must only be at the service of our loving relationship with God.   

Hospitality (13th Sunday Ordinary A)

I had this memorable experience of hospitality afforded to me by the community where I was assigned to several years ago. I was there to established a new parochial community. Several families pledged to provide for my daily meals. On the second Sunday of my stay, I thanked them at mass for bringing food each day but advised them not to bring too much since I couldn’t finish all they were giving me and I didn’t have any storage appliance for the extra. Two days later, a refrigerator was delivered at my door!

But what evoked a prayer of blessing in my heart was another amazing hospitality of a mother: It was raining heavily the whole morning. So by lunchtime I prepared a can of sardines as I did not expect someone to bring me food. As I sat at table, a woman drenched by the rain came knocking at the door. She brought food for me mindless of the heavy rain. I was simply dumbfounded as she even apologized for being a bit late. I invited her to eat with me so as to wait for the rain to subside. She told me she had to go because her kids were waiting for her. And she braved the heavy rain once again to go home. As she left, my heart spontaneously uttered a prayer: “Lord, behold that woman. Bless her and her family a hundredfold!”

Hospitality is a religious act. Receiving and providing for the needs of even a stranger is an act of welcoming God himself. Hence, it deserves God’s gracious reward. In the first reading (2 Kgs 4:8-11, 14-16a), Elisha, God’s prophet, was received well by a rich woman in Shunem. She would invite him to her house to eat and even made a small upper room for him where he could stay and rest. She did this because she was aware that Elisha was a holy man of God. This woman happened to be without a child and her husband was already old. Elisha, recognizing the woman’s hospitality, called for her and pronounced the blessing: “By this time next year, you will hold a son in your arms.” God rewarded this woman’s hospitality with a son, the greatest blessing a woman could ever wish for!

God’s heart can be moved by the simplest act of hospitality and can let his grace overflow abundantly on anyone who manifests kindness, generosity and warm welcome to God’s representatives.

To welcome the messenger is to receive the one who sent him/her. This is made clear by Jesus in today’s gospel reading (Mt 10:37-42): “Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me, welcomes him who sent me.” Jesus assures his disciples, after laying out the hard demands of discipleship, that following him merits respect and charity after all. Discipleship deserves hospitality which in turn is rewarded generously by God.

Hospitality, as a religious act, may be expressed towards three categories of disciples—1) towards the one sent by God as his messenger (prophet), 2) towards a righteous man, 3) towards the little ones. “Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose his reward” (v. 41-42).

Hence, we may do well practicing our virtue of hospitality in three forms:

As support for those working for the Lord’s mission. The apostles and the prophets were sent by the Lord for God’s purposes—basically that of proclaiming the Gospel. The Church continues to do the mission of the Lord until now. Whatever assistance extended to those who have given their lives for the work of evangelization is hospitality that deserves the reward promised by the Lord to his prophets.

As assistance to any righteous man. Any saintly member of the Christian community who promotes in his work and life the values of justice, harmony and peace, dignity and rights of people deserves hospitality which, in turn, is rewarded by the Lord.

As gesture of concern for the poor. The insignificant members of the community—the least, the last and the lost—are the “little ones” of the Lord. The Lord has always identified himself with the poor. Thus, even the simplest act of hospitality afforded the poor is acknowledged by the Lord and “will not go unrewarded.”

As a priest, I have always been a recipient of the hospitality of people from all walks of life, from the rich and poor alike, precisely because I am a priest—someone consecrated for God’s work. I have had many amazing experiences of warm welcome, heartfelt concern, and generous provision of my needs. I am deeply grateful for every act of hospitality afforded me. And always, aware of the promise of our Lord to reward any welcoming gesture shown to his disciples, I pray this prayer as often as there is a hospitable act: “Lord, behold this kindness. Bless this person and his/her family a hundredfold. Amen.”