17th Sunday year A
Lord, Give Me Wisdom
✠ A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew 13:44-52
Jesus said to the crowds, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which someone has found; he hides it again, goes off happy, sells everything he owns and buys the field.
‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls; when he finds one of great value he goes and sells everything he owns and buys it.
‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea that brings in a haul of all kinds. When it is full, the fishermen haul it ashore; then, sitting down, they collect the good ones in a basket and throw away those that are no use. This is how it will be at the end of time: the angels will appear and separate the wicked from the just to throw them into the blazing furnace where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.
‘Have you understood all this?’ They said, ‘Yes.’ And he said to them, ‘Well then, every scribe who becomes a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out from his storeroom things both new and old.’
1. Today’s readings focus on the necessity of wisdom for a good life. In the first reading, Solomon, through his generous sacrifice to God, attracted his attention. God asked him to request anything that he needed and it would be given to him. Contrary to expectation, the young man asked God for wisdom to be able to govern with justice and be able to distinguish good from evil. Simply put, he asked for the grace to please God and the people. His request pleased God who even appeared to have expected him to ask for riches, power and dominion over his foes. Because he asked for wisdom, God decided to give him what he asked for and added what people would have expected him to ask. In doing this, God showed that wisdom is the mother of all virtues. In the company of wisdom wealth and life are ever present.
2. The gospel developed the same theme using three parables to illustrate that the basic requirement for eternal life is wisdom. The first speaks of a man who discovered a hidden treasure in a land. At the time of Jesus it was common for people to bury their treasures to secure them from thieves. It can happen that the owner of the treasure dies without informing his family of it. A lucky person could stumble on the treasure and secretly exploit it. In today’s gospel, Jesus speaks rather of a righteous person who prefers to acquire the treasure in a legitimate manner. This good man after discovering the treasure, hid it again, then joyfully went and sold all that he has and then acquired the land to be able to legitimately exploit the treasure. This man did five things that could only come from wisdom: he discovered, hid, went away joyfully, sold all his belonging and bought the land. He did this because he knew that the treasure was worth more than all that he previously had. The same experience is repeated in the second parable of merchant searching for a fine pearl. He too sold all that he had to acquire the precious metal. These two parables are parables of the kingdom where the kingdom of God is presented as something that is open only to those who value it.
3. The third parable speaks of the reward of the wise and the punishment of the foolish. It compared the kingdom of God to a fishing net that takes in fishes and useless things. Just as at the end of every fishing activity the net is taken into the boat to select the fish and throw away the useless things that got into the net, so will God reject those who refused to be wise in relation to the kingdom.
4. These three parables pass a single message, namely that no one will enter heaven by accident. One must consciously give up something to get that highest gift. This has two implications for our Christian life today:
a. Heaven is not for fools:
Sometimes people talk of the good thief who stole heaven by befriending Jesus on the cross. They see heaven as something that one can gain at the last minute of a bad foolish life. No, wrong choices will end with wrong result. It is clear that the good thief called Diximus was wise. He may had been a thief but he knew how to distinguish good from evil. He condemned himself, declared Jesus innocent and pleaded to have part in his kingdom. His partner was foolish and he missed the opportunity (Lk23:39-43). No foolish person will make heaven because he will not recognize the opportunity when it is offered to him/ her.
b. Wickedness must be punished and righteousness must be rewarded:
The parable ended with evocation of the gloomy eternity that awaits those who spend their lives making bad choices. This is Jesus’ way of encouraging those who courageously chose good even at great prices like selling all that they possess for the infinite advantage of gaining heaven. With the parable he shows that a day of reckoning will come when the only useful property will be the actions that were motivated by wisdom. In this way, he sends a clear warning to those who believe that God has no interest in punishing sin, inviting them to repentance and wisdom.
5. Jesus ended the parables with the question: Do you understand these things?(Mt13:51). He did this to show the importance of the virtue of understanding in your journey to eternity. Without wisdom it is difficult to understand the things that happen in our life, difficult to understand that even problems of life could be God’s way of leading us to life as we read in today’s second reading (Rom8:28). You therefore need the gift of wisdom to navigate well in life. Like Solomon, learn to ask God, in you daily prayer, to give you wisdom to be able to understand the things that really matter in your life.
©Vitalis Anaehobi, 24/07/26.
