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The parables of the treasure and the pearl
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| Mathew, 13, 44-47 |
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| The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys the field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. |
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Comments about these parables often insist on a necessary renunciation to choose the kingdom of heaven. We have to sell, to give up our assets to be able to reach the kingdom.Assets are even represented as an obstacle to the coming of the kingdom.
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| It is only one aspect of the parable and may repel a new reader. On the contrary, we could underline the joy and haste shown by these two persons to acquire what they think has a greater value than what they sold without regret. In fact, they made the balance and if they get rid of their assets, it is because their new acquisition largely reimburses them. Their own interest is guiding them. We are far from a selfless renunciation. |
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To achieve such a result, we need to know the value of things. Both of these men were searching and they discovered. The kingdom of heaven is not given without searching, without a desire to enrich, without a passion. There is an aspiration already present in us although unclear. After all, if the treasure in the field has been “discovered”, it was already there since probably a long time but it was not known.
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| The same for the pearl. It is an invitation to find out this fine pearl in our own life. Where I am living, there is a treasure and I don’t know it. However, when it is recognized like a treasure or like a valuable pearl, nothing else counts beside it. |
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| No sacrifice is necessary to come to it, but only the desire that it caused. No need for renunciation but an immense joy that transforms every thing. That kingdom that Jesus makes us come close to only in parables, as if it was something difficult to define and get around it, is perceived by us as profoundly desirable. |
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| Beside its great interest, there is, in the choice of the means to appropriate the discovered treasure, a little bit of folly, the folly of a collector, the fever of a treasure hunter. One has to see the haste of these two men to sell the necessary assets to acquire what they want. It is, maybe the goal of their whole life directed toward the best and the most wanted, that is happening at last. |
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It is not through mortification, neither through ascesis that the kingdom of heaven is given, but through jubilation and fullness, just now and not later. We have to stop to make Christianity a religion of sadness and sacrifice, to which happiness would be at the end. It is in a passionate search and in the discovery of the only true good that the kingdom is given, now and above all expectations. |
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