"Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous" - Matthew 13:49

We are presented with three parables in our Gospel today. First, the Parable of the Hidden Treasure. Second, the Parable of the Pearls. Lastly, the Parable of the Net.

I remember in high school when my Christian Living teacher said that the reason why Jesus teach through parables is because it illustrates profound divine truth which imagery is not easily forgotten. I guess because these parables are timeless which the generation today can still easily connect to.

In the first parable, 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.” What’s your treasure? Is it money, clothes or your reputation? The parable obviously give us the idea that one’s we know God, all else becomes secondary. In serving God, there will always be a special kind of feeling; and that is joy and contentment. We might not have every pleasure that material things could offer, but serving the Lord and serving others is worth living for - which is a gain, not a loss to do in our everyday life.

“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.” What can this “pearl of great price” be? In our economy today, we might be searching for the false pearl. Yes, we need money to live and constant material things that could make us happy, but we know that all these things are temporary. In the first reading, King Solomon was told by God “Ask something of me and I will give it to you.” Solomon answered: “Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong. For who is able to govern this vast people of yours?” In other words, Solomon asked for wisdom and discernment. This wisdom is greater than having a college degree or being a CPA, this wisdom show us what is truly important in life and what really matters. When we have wisdom we are able to cope up in every difficulty and painful situations. Thus, this is the pearl of great price; to be able to have wisdom which the merchant sells everything he has just to have it.

We all know that the Church consists of different kind of people. There are saints and sinners. Primarily, we say that it consists majority of sinners. We connect this on the third parable. We all heard about the “Judgment Day” as what others pertain it to be on movies or even songs. They said that this day will come when the wicked will be separated from the righteous. Yes, this sounds creepy but is such thing true? Only God knows what is true. In God’s will and time, our own judgment day will come.

However, judgment is for later. What is important is the present. We are given today to go search for the hidden treasure even though we are not really looking at the pearl of great price. It might not be today but we must know that searching is never easy, but the experience and the people we helped along the way will ever be worth it as our reward.

-Karyll Ba-aco