Continuing in Matthew 13, at the thirty-first verse, Jesus is like the sower in the last post. He is casting a lot of teaching. His Message, as expected, is heard by all, heeded by some, lived out by few. That was elsewhere Jesus' prediction as to people's reception of the message of the Kingdom.
Today he continues the mashal, or parable, method, giving us six parables teaching various things about the called-for Reign of God.
In the first two parables of the pericope, Jesus speaks of the mustard seed, a tiny seed which yields a tremendous plant at maturity, and he speaks of yeast, a small amount of which yields a great loaf. By these two parables, he teaches that small efforts can have huge, unexpected, unimaginable yields. Where the divine project is undertaken in seriousness, the possibilities are endless!
In the next two parables, Jesus speaks of an incredible treasure which, when discovered in a field, leads the finder to sell everything he has to buy the field. He then speaks of a merchant who finds one incomparable pearl and sells his existing inventory to acquire it. By these teachings, Jesus reminds us that the Kingdom is worth everything we have or will ever have. But it cannot be bought with any amount of money or goods; it can be purchased only with our lives. The price is high, it is worth it, but few will pay it. It means placing God's work ahead of every other value in life -- wealth, power, politics, prestige, success, and yes, even life itself. Any lesser surrender and we have not entered the Kingdom. Nevertheless, among our contemporary Christianities, there are more than a few opportunities to acquire bargain-basement religion in which one can pursue those false gods and still claim to be all for Jesus. But that kind of commitment cannot satisfy. Actually putting God's agenda in first place is a struggle, but brings us delight even in the midst of poverty and deprivation, serenity in the middle of strife and discord. It give us what Saint Paul calls "the peace which passes all understanding." And that is priceless.
In the fifth parable, which is thematically similar to the wheat-and-darnel story, the Master analogizes our faith life to a dragnet which catches every sort of sea creature, and then at the end of the age, angels cull out the unworthy ones and discard them. By this tale, Jesus sends us a clear message that how we live our lives matters, that there will be an accounting at the end, but in the meantime the faith community must be open to all sorts, and it is not our place to judge others. It would seem that my judicial licence and yours expired on the cross. We must be open and affirming, loving and forgiving, inclusive as our Saviour was.
The final parable is the story of a householder who shows that he is a Kingdom person by not only employing what is old but also what is new. This analogizes well our understanding that, even as faith is rooted in our ancient Tradition, it is also refreshed by our openness to new truth and new insights, as human knowledge increases now at an explosive rate. There is nothing in science or factual evidence that should ever be a threat to the faith. We continue to be faithful to the essence of what we have received from God's Word (Jesus), what we have from the Church's patrimony of two millenia -- including Scripture, the insights of the seven true Ecumenical Councils and the Fathers and Mothers. We are also open to the promptings of the Spirit as revealed in reason and lived experience of the Faithful. Our storehouse truly honours the old and the new, in the tension of holy discernment.
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