Today’s parable concerned a man who found a treasure buried in
a field. He sold all he had to buy this field. This, said Jesus, is what the
Kingdom of God is like.
Right.
He then covered the parable up with a few others – the pearl
of great price, for one – to make sure the point got taken and the unlikely
bits forgotten.
OK.
We take the point, we think: the Kingdom is a treasure worth
all we possess. But what is it? What is it like?
Benedict XVI, in his admirable Jesus of Nazareth, suggests that the Kingdom, which is variousy
described as being ‘at hand’ or even ‘here among us’ is in fact Christ Himself;
and that the communion with him, the closeness to him, is the treasure worth
all we possess and more.
Today, however, our overworked but indefatigable local
priest, Fr Jean-Kamel (he calls himself that, his first name, as no one can
remember his Algerian family name) made a startling and to me overwhelming
suggestion. While basically agreeing with the above, he also said that each of us is the field with the
treasure, and that it is God who wants it and has given all He possessed, all
His treasure – His only, beloved, Son – to purchase it.
I
found that a stunning thought, and still do. It is buzzing around in my head. I
had never thought of that explanation for the parable. But it makes
astonishing, and humbling, sense. O.M.G.
No comments:
Post a Comment