by Fr. Tommy Lane
As Jesus told the parable about finding the treasure buried in the field and finding the pearl of great price (Matt 13:44-46), some of his audience could certainly identify with these parables. The apostles had left careers to follow Jesus. Peter, Andrew, James, and John, with Zebedee the father of James and John, had a fishing cooperative that gave good incomes at that time. In conversation with Jesus later in this Gospel, Peter said, “we have left everything and followed you.” (Matt 19:27) Another of the apostles Matthew, also called Levi, had been a tax collector, and tax collectors were known for their wealth. The apostles left everything because they knew Jesus was the treasure, the pearl of great value. Not everyone was able to make the necessary sacrifices to accept Jesus as the treasure. There is the unfortunate account of the rich young man later in Matthew’s Gospel. Jesus said if he wanted to follow him, he should first give up everything but instead the young man went away sad. (Matt 19:16-22; Mark 10:17-22; Luke 18:18-23)
All down through the centuries people have discovered that Jesus is their treasure. Most are unknown but some are famous and well-known even if their conversion was never well-known. One is Maria von Trapp, in the musical The Sound of Music. She was baptized a Catholic, and her mother died when Maria was two years old, and she was then raised by her uncle and his wife. Her father died when she was nine and her uncle became her legal guardian and would burst into abusive language at any talk of religion. Maria became an atheist. When she was in college some girls went to Mass every day and she ridiculed them calling them “the holy water girls.” She tried to prove life could be lived without God. Music filled the void in her life without God. On Palm Sunday 1924, as she passed a church, she thought there was going to be a musical performance and she went in. Instead, it was a Lenten talk by a priest. Despite everything she had heard from her uncle in the past, she was swept off her feet by the talk. Afterwards she asked the priest if he believed all he said. He asked her to return on Tuesday to continue the conversation. On Tuesday, for two hours and ten minutes she threw at him all the accusations against faith that she heard growing up.
When I was finally finished throwing things at him, he looked at me with such true compassion and genuine love. He made me understand how our Lord Jesus Christ had lived, died, and was crucified for me…. He said it so simply and so convincingly that I was completely disarmed. And then he finally said, ‘Are you sorry now for what has happened?’ I could truthfully say, with tears streaming down my face, ‘Yes, Father.’ (Lorene Hanely Duquin, A Century of Catholic Converts, p 68)
This encounter changed her life. Later she asked God what she could give him. She would give God her life. She got the train to Salzburg and asked for directions to a convent. She joined the Benedictine Abbey of Nonnberg in Salzburg. You know some of the rest of her story from the musical. After two years in the convent, she was sent as tutor to one of the daughters of Georg von Trapp who was seriously ill, and later married von Trapp. When Austria was annexed by Germany before the Second World War, and von Trap was recalled to naval duty, they went to Italy, then to England and later to Vermont in the US. After Georg died, she and some of her children became missionaries for some years in New Guinea before she returned to die in the US. She is just one of many, many people who found that Jesus is the treasure and pearl of great price.
We are all here today because Jesus is our treasure, Mass is our treasure. The Eucharist is the greatest gift we have. It is Jesus present with us. During the consecration at Mass, the bread changes into the body of Jesus but still looks and tastes the same, and the wine changes into the blood of Jesus but looks and tastes the same. After the consecration, it is no longer bread, but the Body of Jesus. It is not blessed bread; no, it is no longer bread—it is the Body of Jesus. After the consecration, the wine is no longer wine but the Blood of Jesus. Remembering during a Jewish liturgy was not just remembering or reenacting. It is much more. It is being present again at the original event and benefitting spiritually from it. When Jesus said, “Do this in memory of me,” he meant that when we celebrate Mass, we are spiritually present at Calvary as he offered his body and blood in sacrifice for us just like the women and the apostle John were beside Jesus’ cross on Calvary. We are here because we have found the treasure and pearl of great price.
There is another treasure and pearl of great price: Our Lady, our heavenly Mother. When St. Juan Diego did not go the usual place to meet Our Lady because he had to take care of his uncle who was ill, he was embarrassed but Our Lady appeared to him where he was and said, “Am I not here, I who am your mother?” She says the same to each of us also, “Am I not here, I who am your mother?”
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2023
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More Homilies for the Seventeenth Sunday of Year A
God turns everything to good for those who love him 2011
Second Reading Related: Homilies on turning everything to good