Gospel Lectio Divina for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - July 30, 2023

By David Kilby

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth.

O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations, Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.

READ

Mt 13:44-52

Jesus said to his disciples: "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind. When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away. Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.

"Do you understand all these things?" They answered, "Yes." And he replied, "Then every scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old."

The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field.

It’s interesting that Jesus says “treasure buried in a field” because I often feel like the kingdom of heaven is loudly proclaimed all around us. It’s proclaimed through nature’s seeds, through the rising of the sun, through life, death, and new life. But if this perspective on reality is hidden from other people, perhaps it is our job as Christians to dig up this treasure and put it on display for all to see. Jesus also said, last week, that the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. In fact, he uses the analogy of seeds quite often to describe the Kingdom. I think the most beautiful aspect of this analogy is the fact that the Kingdom is first hidden within us, and it must be nurtured properly in order to flourish. Through prayer, reading Scripture, and serving others out of love, that seed—that buried treasure—grows abundantly.

Out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

It is a good practice to live out the Sunday Gospel passage in a tangible way each week. I’m not saying I’m thinking about selling everything I have and buying a field, but this Gospel does cause me to reflect on the burdens in my life that I don’t need. It causes me to consider what is most important, and what I can leave behind as I continue my pilgrimage to heaven. We each have a purpose for which God created us, and anything other than that purpose is just going to drain us of the time and energy we need to fulfill it. This is what Christ means when he says “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Those who follow him know their purpose, and it is the only burden they have to carry. They can lay down all the others.

The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. 

Fire and brimstone sermons and homilies can be justified by this verse and those like it. Now, I don’t like being compelled to follow the gospel out of fear any more than the next person. I’d prefer to be moved by love. But this parable of Jesus emphasizes an important and often-overlooked truth: We’re not at the top of the hierarchy of being. Humans are not the highest, most intelligent, most powerful, or best beings that exist in any respect, contrary to what many secular humanists may believe. God is above us. He is acting with love and humility whenever he has any regard for us. “What is a man, that is mankind, that thou art mindful of him?” (Psalm 8:4), the psalmist prays to God. 

God created us to fulfill his purpose. If we do not, we are like the seaweed gathered by the nets or the weeds growing among the wheat. The hopeful part is that we have until the end of our lives to let God straighten us out because no living person is too far from God’s grace no matter what kind of past they’ve had. God’s ability to redeem us no matter how far we have fallen is a testimony to his great power and love. 

“Then every scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old."

The Faith is neither new nor old because it is eternal, but certain teachings of Christ were new to the scribes because they hadn’t heard the teachings before. The truths Jesus taught were there before he taught them. He wasn’t introducing new things. He came at a turning point in history when humanity was prepared for the next lesson: The Gospel message, which focuses strongly on the Kingdom of Heaven and what it is like. In the centuries before Christ, there was no Church of Christ and therefore no foundation from which to teach the eternal life offered through Christ’s salvation. Thus, it is Christ himself who offers the most thorough teachings on the afterlife in the Bible.  These teachings may have sounded “new” to many people in Jesus’ day, even though they were connected to the same truth established from the foundations of the world.

PRAY

Lord God,

You are a powerful and loving God and you want us all to live in freedom. The greatest freedom is in knowing and living out the purpose for which I was made. Please help me to discover that pearl of great price and value it for the rest of my life by living to fulfill my purpose. You are the gardener who plants the seed. Stay near me so I may receive the proper nourishment. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

LISTEN

Discovering our purpose is a daily task that requires daily prayer and daily listening for God’s voice. I try to find quiet time in the morning to ask God what he wants me to do that day, and quiet time in the evening to reflect upon how I did in fulfilling the tasks I believe he gave me. If we pray often enough, we truly can have this kind of conversational relationship with God. That kind of relationship is what God intends. It is how we find our pearl of great price. 

Kilby is a freelance writer from New Jersey and managing editor of Catholic World Report.  He received his undergrad degree in humanities and Catholic culture from the Franciscan University of Steubenville. In addition to working with the Knights of the Holy Eucharist (knights.org), he has served as a journalist for Princeton Packet Publications, and the Trenton Monitor, the magazine for the Diocese of Trenton. Some of his published work can also be found in St. Anthony Messenger, Catholic Herald (UK), and Catholic World Report. For the latter he is managing editor. Find more of his writing at ramblingspirit.com