August 01, 2018
Wednesday, 17th Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading:
Jr 15:10. 16-21
Gospel: Mt 13:44–46
Jesus said to the crowds, “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. The one who finds it buries it again; and so happy is he, that he goes and sells everything he has, in order to buy that field.“Again the kingdom of heaven is like a trader who is looking for fine pearls. Once he has found a pearl of exceptional quality, he goes away, sells everything he has and buys it.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
True joy comes from the pearl of great price hidden underneath. This message comes to us in two Gospel parables, namely, the parable of the person who unearthed a treasure and the parable of a merchant who found a pearl of great price. Two parables, one message: a person who understands how great the value of the kingdom is can give up anything for it. The parable about the man who unearthed a treasure tells us: “And so happy is he, that he goes and sells everything he has, in order to buy that field.” The parable about the man who found the pearl tells us: “Once he has found a pearl of exceptional quality, he goes away, sells everything he has and buys it.”
We are those men described in the parables, willing to give up anything for something of superior capacity to satisfy. We too are in constant search for a reliable source of joy. Most of the time, however, our search leads us to happiness, not to joy. The two are not the same. Happiness lies in external happenings while joy lies deep down in our heart. Happiness merely intensifies our cravings. We haven’t really found the pearl of great price, nor have we chanced upon the field where real treasure is buried. The reason perhaps is that we haven’t gone deep in our search but have remained at the surface. Joy is not skin-deep. To get to it, one must dig beneath the superficial.
If we confine our search to the surface, the treasures we find are those, the glitter of which distorts our vision. The kind of distortion is unique in that it blurs our vision of others but sharpens our vision of ourselves. Because everything else is blurred except one’s self, the center of one’s preoccupation is the self. The mirror illustrates our point. When we look through a pair of glasses we see others and the world around us. When we see through a mirror we only see ourselves because of the silver behind the mirror. We are happy for a while but not for long; the happiness merely intensifies the craving.
The pearl of great price is where joy is, and it lies deep down beneath and beyond the realm of happiness. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.
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