30/07/2023
17TH Sunday of the Year
Readings: 1 Kings 3:5, 7-12; Romans 8: 28-30; Matthew 13: 44-52
Knowing Right from Wrong
What will you consider to be the most important thing to you? Our answers will differ because we have our different priorities or sense of value. What makes it important is the value we place on that thing. This value will work against any other in a parallel competition. But it stands to be justified in the long run.
The choice Solomon made in asking for wisdom can be argued from the office bestowed on him. That office afforded him a wide range of opportunities and power and authority. Yet, he approached it with a sense of humility that prompted him to ask for wisdom. Thus, he is commended highly by the Lord. It looks as if Solomon chose what could help him apply the abundance of opportunities that come his way to avoid the pride that can slip into power and authority. In that prayer, Solomon was more interested in the people he would serve. To serve them well. So, he prayed, “Give your servant… an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong.” Right from wrong is a moral compass. It speaks of wisdom. Solomon was rewarded for his prayer. Solomon has taught us what to ask. He also taught us about the sense of value.
In the three parables from the gospel, the first two express the inestimable value of the kingdom of heaven. A treasure is buried in the field. Someone stumbles upon it. He sells everything to make that field his own. There is joy in his heart for stumbling upon this treasure. There is a sacrifice of everything he had possessed in order to have this one single field. All of these show the joy the kingdom of heaven brings and that it is worth any sacrifice.
A treasure hunter finds a priceless pearl. The treasure hunter has an idea of what he was looking for. He is motivated when he found one. He sacrifices “all that he has” to own it. It is possible others have seen this pearl and bypassed it because it did not make any value worth sacrificing for. It is different for this man. He has the eyes for something valuable and he goes for it.
The parable takes a reverse from what one perceives as treasure and priceless – our relation to the kingdom – to the end-time scene of the kingdom. In the former, is an ideal of the human approach to the kingdom while the latter is the Lord’s end-time approach of the kingdom. The net captures the “fish of every kind”, and it is hauled. However, there will be a moment of individual selection of the fish. The good and the bad will now be determined by the fisherman. That the net captures them does not justify any of them. What justifies each of them is determined by the fisherman. Our sense of good or value will eventually be measured according to God’s terms. That determines our value before God. We can go on to treat ourselves to the different parameters of the good and acceptable, but it will be God who will judge our actions and determine their worth for the kingdom. Strikingly, the kingdom will not be for all, but for some who pass God’s judgment.
Being susceptible to new things does not completely obsolete the old. We must learn to apply a good sense of judgment so that the good old could be interpreted in the light of new insights. Jesus speaks of a right sense of continuity. And we are unable to do this without knowing right from wrong. In the hidden treasure, in the search for the pearl, in the selection of the good fish, one thing runs across all of these: the power of distinction. The power of distinction is at the foundation of knowing right from wrong.
We cannot live as if everything and anything counts. Or, that nothing matters. An attitude that is suggestive of this impinges on our sense of right and wrong and our ability to stand for what is right. Therefore, we must seek for the good, wherever we find them; sacrifice for the right, and walk in the course of God’s yardstick. In the end, our justification comes from God. In that justification is our glory.
Let us Pray: Help us Lord to seek the good and the right. We live in a confused time. Grant us wisdom to follow you and practice what you have taught us through your Son, our Savior and Lord. Amen!
Excerpts from “Visible Pathways” by Rev Fr Dr Martin Edward Ohajunwa
