WORD FOR MISSION
Missionary reflection  on Sunday Liturgy

1Kings  3,5.7-12
Psalm  118
Romans  8,28-30
Matthew  13,44-52


Reflections
There is always something exciting about the search for hidden treasure; and there is always something about a fine pearl that sets us dreaming... Hidden treasure, precious pearls (Gospel), come across by chance (gratis: by grace)  – they remind us of Jesus’s words: “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Mt 6,21). The thirteenth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel gathers seven of Jesus’s parables, and today we are invited to reflect on the last three of them: the hidden treasure (v. 44), the pearl of great value (v. 45-46) and the net (v. 47-48). The parables of the treasure and the pearl carry forward the movement of the earlier parables of the sower, the mustard seed and the leaven, while the story of the net reminds us of the parable of the weeds among the wheat. All seven images are ways Jesus chose to lead his disciples into a deeper understanding of the mysterious reality of God’s Reign, the Kingdom of heaven. All seven call for a choice: the disciple has to come down on one side or the other; and at the heart of this choice is Jesus himself, because he is the fullness of the Kingdom. He is the good seed, the Word the Father sows in the field of the world, which can transform that world from within, with all the hidden power of the mustard seed and the pinch of leaven. He is the hidden treasure and the precious pearl to be sought and preferred above all other things, making room for him and him only, so as to avoid the danger of being thrown away like weeds and bad fish (v. 48).

Of course, when Jesus speaks of treasure and pearls, he connects with the traditions of many peoples throughout the world, and with their legends about the passionate search for such riches. Even if we think only of the Gospel and the Christian tradition, we find that the Kingdom of heaven is a multi-layered reality: for Jesus the Kingdom is above all God himself, loved, enjoyed and proclaimed; the Kingdom is the beauty of divine grace, conforming us to the image of the Son (2nd reading); it is the Good News to be brought to the peoples who do not yet know Christ; it is loving faithfulness to family; it is vocation to the consecrated life; it is any plan to do some good; it is the wisdom of heart that Solomon begs and receives from God, a gift more important than long life, wealth or victory over enemies (1st reading)... For this highest of values the martyrs give their lives, missionaries leave their families and homes, Christians give up very many things. (*) And all this with joy and determination! (v. 44).

In a word, we can say that the treasure is Christ, gift totally free; the fullness of the Kingdom is Jesus Christ himself, known, loved and proclaimed. Pope Paul VI expressed this in burning words when he delivered his missionary homily before two million people at Manila’s Quezon Circle on November 29, 1970: “‘Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!’ (1Cor. 9,16)… Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God… He is the Teacher of mankind, and its Redeemer. He was born, he died and he rose again for us. He is the centre of history and of the world; he is the one who knows us and who loves us; he is the companion and the friend of our life. He is the man of sorrows and of hope… I could never finish speaking about him: he is the light and the truth; indeed, he is ‘the way, the truth and the life’ (Jn 14,6). He is the bread and the spring of living water to satisfy our hunger and our thirst. He is our shepherd, our guide, our model, our comfort, our brother… To everyone I proclaim him: Jesus Christ is the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega; he is the king of the new world; he is the secret of history; he is the key to our destiny. He is the mediator, the bridge, between heaven and earth. He is the Son of Man, because he is the Son of God, eternal and infinite. He is the son of Mary… Remember this: Jesus Christ is our constant preaching; it is his name that we proclaim to the ends of the earth and throughout all ages”. Today too, Jesus Christ is the first message of missionary proclamation, because the greater part of the human family does not yet know him. Many more are needed to be his witnesses and to proclaim his name!

The Pope speaks

(*)  “Christ offers more! Indeed he offers everything! Only he who is the Truth can be the Way and hence also the Life. Thus the way which the Apostles brought to the ends of the earth is life in Christ. This is the life of the Church. And the entrance to this life, to the Christian way, is Baptism… Dear friends, in your homes, schools and universities, in your places of work and recreation, remember that you are a new creation! As Christians you stand in this world knowing that God has a human face - Jesus Christ - the way who satisfies all human yearning, and the life to which we are called to bear witness, walking always in his light. The task of witness is not easy”.

Benedict XVI

Opening of World Youth Day, Sydney, July 17, 2008

In the missionaries’ footsteps

-27/7: St Clement of Ochrida (c. 840-916), evangelizer of Bulgaria. A further four holy bishops carried forward in Bulgaria the evangelising and cultural work of Sts. Cyril and Methodius.

-28/7: Blessed Alphonsa of the Immaculate C. (Anna) Muttathupadathu (1910-1946), born in Kerala (India), a nun of the Malabarese Poor Clares. She will be canonised on October 12, 2008, in Rome.

-29/7: St. Olaf (+1030), king of Norway, promoter of the Christian faith and organiser of the Church in his country; he died in battle.

-30/7: St Leopold Mandic (1866-1942), Croatian Capuchin, who worked for the unity of Christians and was an assiduous minister of the sacrament of reconciliation in Padua, Italy.

-31/7: St Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556), Spanish priest, founder of the Society of Jesus. His followers continue to work for the missions and in many different Church and cultural services throughout the world.

-31/7: St Justin De Jacobis (1800-1860), Vincentian, missionary and bishop in Ethiopia, he worked for ecumenical relations; Ethiopian Catholics consider him the “angel and father of the Church in Ethiopia”.

-31/7: Remembrance of Pope Paul VI’s journey to Uganda (1969) and the creation of SECAM (the Symposium of the Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar).

-31/7: Remembrance of Bartolomé de las Casas (1474-1566), Spanish Dominican, missionary in the New World and bishop in Mexico, defender of the rights of the Indians and their protector.

-1/8: St Alphonsus Maria de’ Liguori (1696-1787), lawyer and moral theologian, subsequently bishop, founder of the Redemptorists, promoter of popular missions. He is a doctor of the Church.

-1/8: Remembrance of Mgr. Pierre Claverie, Dominican, bishop of Oran (Algiers), killed by Islamist terrorists (+1966) together with his driver.

-2/8: St Eusebius of Vercelli (+371), committed evangeliser, defender of the faith against the Arians, persecuted and deported; great organiser of the Church south of the Alps.

-2/8: Blessed Zeferino Giménez Malla (1860-1936), Spanish layman of gypsy origins, promoter of good relations between his people and their neighbors, martyred during the Spanish persecution; the first Rom to be beatified.

-2/8: Remembrance of Fr Nicola Mazza (1790-1865), priest of Verona, where he founded an Institute to educate promising but poor boys and young men, among whom St Daniel Comboni, the apostle of Africa.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Compiled by Fr. Romeo Ballan, mcci - Comboni Missionaries (Verona)

Translated by Fr. David Glenday, mccj

Website:    www.euntes.net    “The Word for Mission”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++