give your servant an understanding heart

The last several weeks we’ve been listening to Matthew 13, Jesus giving various parables to try to describe what the Kingdom of God is like.  Of all of Jesus’ teachings, the most important was the Kingdom of God.  There are almost 150 references to God’s Kingdom in the New Testament, and 52 of them are in Matthew’s Gospel.  
 
With each reference there is something new we learn about God’s Kingdom. There is the image of a shepherd and the lost sheep, the prodigal son, the seed that falls on good soil.  Today, Jesus gives us even more images about the Kingdom of God – the net that catches fish, both good and bad, which is like the image from last week of the wheat and the weeds.  And then we have the image of a hidden treasure and a precious pearl. A person discovers a hidden treasure in a field.  He buries that treasure again in the field, goes and sells everything he has and buys that field.  Same thing with the precious pearl.  A merchant is trying to buy precious pearls, and when he finally finds one, he sells everything he has in order to get that pearl.
 
One bit of explanation with the hidden treasure parable because it seems strange that the person who discovers the treasure would re-bury it and buy the entire field.  During Jesus’ time, because there weren’t banks like we use them, people would actually bury their valuables in the ground for safekeeping.  And so for this person to discover this treasure he couldn’t just walk away with it because it didn’t belong to him.  He had to buy that plot of land in order to have possession of the treasure.  
 
It seems a little manipulative for him to do that, but if the previous owner of that land had no idea he had that treasure on his property what fault did this guy commit?  In fact, there is a significant message we can learn from this situation, as well as from the parable about the precious pearl.  The two obvious characters in these parables are the individuals who discover the treasure and the pearl, but there are also two other characters that need to be considered: the previous owner of that plot of land who had no idea he had this treasure on his property, and the person who sold to the merchant that precious pearl not knowing at all of the value.  They had no idea what they had and they just easily gave it away.   
 
Of course, for Jesus to give us these two parables, it’s his desire that we’re like the two main characters who discover the joy and value of God’s Kingdom, but there’s also a caution that he gives in these two parables, which we see from those two other characters – don’t give up your faith so easily.  For some, because they don’t see what’s so valuable about their faith, it’s easy to give it away, in other words, becoming complacent in their life of faith and easily compromising it – deciding not to go to Mass on Sunday, not really having a prayer life, becoming that cafeteria Catholic – choosing what to believe and ignoring the rest.  
 
​Wanting to be like the two main characters in the parables, how do I grow in that desire for God’s Kingdom?  It’s hard to desire something we really don’t know much about.  What is God’s Kingdom?  What does it mean to be part of God’s Kingdom, and how can I start realizing it now?  
 
One characteristic that stands out with the parable of finding the hidden treasure or the pearl of great price is the careful searching for it.  There is a real care and diligence in finding that treasure. It’s searching hard for it and persevering in that search.  It’s that desire like Solomon in our first reading.  When God asks him what he needs, he doesn’t ask for a long and comfortable life that’s free from all trouble and stress. What Solomon asks for is to have an understanding heart, an understanding heart in order to know what is right and wrong.  That needs to be a request that we make to God as well, to have an understanding heart to know what takes me away from God and what helps me to discover the beauty and the richness of God’s word.  
 
Going back to the parable that Jesus gave us a few weeks ago of the seed that is sown in the different soils, Jesus gave an explanation of that parable and he said that the seed sown on rich soil “is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.”  Simply hearing the Word of God is very different from understanding the Word of God.  Understanding the Word of God touches us to the core of our being and challenges us to make a choice either for or against God.  It’s only by understanding the Word of God that we know what is so valuable about our faith.
 
So, hearing again these parables, and knowing that Jesus really wants us to have that care and diligence in finding that treasure of God’s kingdom, ask God that we can have that understanding heart so that we can truly discover the joy and the value of our faith.