Gospel reading: Matthew 13.44-46
[Jesus said] ‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.’
Reflections
It’s easy to get used to reading a passage a certain way. I have always seen the parables of the pearl of great price and the treasure in the field in terms of myself as agent; I am called to be the person buying the field or the pearl, giving up all that I have for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.
But reading and absorbing passages using Lectio Divina has a way of turning them up-side-down.
I was instead drawn towards the thought that I am God’s treasure. I myself am the treasure or pearl in the story, and therefore God would be the agent. God has been seeking me, and is overjoyed to find me. God hides me safely and will give everything for my sake. Indeed, God has given everything for my sake: God’s very self on the Cross, ‘in joy’. I am reminded of the writings of Julian of Norwich, that Christ was pleased to suffer everything for me, and would do more if he could.
THEN said our good Lord Jesus Christ: Art thou well pleased that I suffered for thee? I said: Yea, good Lord, I thank Thee; Yea, good Lord, blessed mayst Thou be. Then said Jesus, our kind Lord: If thou art pleased, I am pleased: it is a joy, a bliss, an endless satisfying to me that ever suffered I Passion for thee; and if I might suffer more, I would suffer more. …
[The Father] is full pleased with all the deeds that Jesus hath done about our salvation. Wherefore we be not only His by His buying, but also by the courteous gift of His Father we be His bliss, we be His meed, we be His worship, we be His crown. (And this was a singular marvel and a full delectable beholding, that we be His crown!) This that I say is so great bliss to Jesus that He setteth at nought all His travail, and His hard Passion, and His cruel and shameful death.
Revelations of Divine Love, Chapter 22
I, you, every human being is God’s treasure. The kingdom of heaven is like me and like each one of us as we accept this grace of God and live into our true and precious selves.
-oOo-
Since April 2020, I have been jointly hosting a shared Lectio Divina group on Tuesday or Wednesday evenings. These are my reflections only, during the prayer session and as I wrote them up. Please see my separate commentary and leaflet for more information about shared Lectio.
