What Is This Treasure?

The parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price, found in the Gospel for this Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, teach us about the incomparable value of Wisdom. Both parables illustrate that finding the Kingdom of Heaven demands a wholehearted response. Neither individual haggled over the price when they found their treasure, nor did they complain about the cost of their purchases. Instead, the expenses and sacrifices they made were insignificant compared to what they stood to gain. To the world, such actions would have seemed foolish.

The first parable depicts a man who accidentally discovers a treasure in the field where he works. He hides it again, goes and sells everything he owns, and buys that plot of land. He sought to purchase not merely the treasure he had discovered, but the entire field. The man quickly grasped that immense wealth might lie hidden beneath the soil; unwilling to risk losing any part of it, he decided to buy the whole property.

The treasure Jesus speaks of is the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who accept the message of the Beatitudes will discover this hidden wealth. In Jesus’ parable, the treasure is found by chance; God offers it freely to people. If one hesitates, precious time is lost; we might overlook a great opportunity that may never come again. The decision must be made urgently; the choice cannot be delayed.

The merchant seeking precious pearls represents all those who seek the wisdom of the Gospel. Just as a pearl adds beauty to the one who wears it, the pearl of wisdom brings beauty to those who possess it. In the parable of the merchant, Jesus tells us that the only path to happiness is embracing that priceless pearl: the wisdom of the Gospel. Therefore, we must decide right now whether we want to be “beautiful” and happy.

The parable of the net cast into the sea, which gathers fish of every kind, represents the lives of all people, who possess both good and bad traits. Let us recall when Jesus began His public ministry and asked His apostles to become “fishers of men.” Yet, not everything about these fish is good—meaning, not everything about us is good. We all have a dead part of ourselves, a rotten part of our lives; that is why, at the beginning of every Mass, we acknowledge before God that we are sinners, that we are not perfect, and that we often give in to the impulses within us.

But thanks to God’s love and mercy, as pilgrims of hope, we know there is a beautiful side to life—one built when we listen to and follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit within us, the voice of God dwelling inside us. Today’s Gospel parables invite us to seek the treasure that makes us beautiful and holy, trusting that everything rotten and unclean will be consumed in the fire of God’s love.