THE TREASURE BURIED IN THE FIELD, THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE
26th July 2026
By our very nature, my brothers and sisters in Christ, our hearts are full of longing for something that gives our lives a true and lasting meaning, something that will satisfy our hearts in a way that it can never be taken away from us. After all, we have been made in the very image and likeness of God so that a divine destiny alone is what will give our lives their true and lasting meaning.
Jesus is telling us, especially by the first two parables of our gospel, what will give our lives a satisfaction that will never be taken away. The treasure buried in a field, the pearl of great price is worth selling all we have in order to buy them. As I reflected on St Paul’s words to the Romans we just heard, I think he is telling us what this treasured field, this priceless pearl are all about. He tells us that those whom “God foreknew he also predestined to conform to the Image of his Son.” To be conformed to Christ, to become one with him is a treasure, a pearl beyond any human reconning.
For in Christ, we have become the very children of God, we become living members of his Body the Church. This comes about in various ways. As one commentator tells us: “Most of us don’t stumble upon treasure by accident. We find it through faithful searching, through prayer, and through listening to the quiet voice of the Spirit within. Sometimes the treasure looks ordinary, until we learn to see with the eyes of the heart.”
Listening to the quiet voice of the Holy Spirit seems to be what happened to Solomon in his dream when he was invited to ask something of God that he might be given. Responding with humility and awareness of his inadequacy in being made leader of his people, he asks for an understanding heart, able to distinguish right from wrong. For us today this is all about being conformed to Christ in the unique circumstances of each of our lives. Day after day we are being given countless opportunities to radiate the goodness and compassion of our God to all those around us.
This is all the more important in our own time when billions are being spent on weapons of destruction, when our own government seems to be more and more divided, when it is so easy to get into negative thinking. Discernment is more important than ever, but it is a discernment that will only come out of a careful and open listening to one another.
Each of our own lives is like that of the fisherman who drags in a net full of fish of every kind but then is being asked to distinguish the good from the bad so as to save what is life giving, throwing away what is harmful to ourselves and others. This demands honest and humble hearts if we are going to discern what is life-giving from what is self-seeking and destructive. We will only know this by listening to the quiet voice of the Spirit within.
When we do, our lives become fully alive, we begin to see clearly what choices we must make and are enabled to make them. The Holy Spirit seeks to become fully alive in each of our hearts for it is then that God empowers us “to be conformed to the image of His Son” Jesus.
Our celebration of this Eucharist is fashioned to bring about just this inner transformation. Offering the bread and wine, we are offering our own lives with that of Christ who is “the first born among many brothers and sisters.” I think nothing gives our Lord Jesus more joy than our becoming living members of his own Body, persons in our world today filled with his love, joy and peace. Amen
1 Kings3:5, 7-12; Rom 8:28-30; Matt 13:44-52