The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant

30 JULY (Mt 13,44-46)

A passage from the Book of Sirach on man, certainly will help us understand the two parables told by Jesus today. But do we really know who a man is?

The Lord from the earth created man, and in his own image he made him. Limited days of life he gives him and makes him return to earth again. He endows man with a strength of his own, and with power over all things else on earth. He puts the fear of him in all flesh, and gives him rule over beasts and birds. He forms men’s tongues and eyes and ears, and imparts to them an understanding heart. With wisdom and knowledge he fills them; good and evil he shows them. He looks with favor upon their hearts, and shows them his glorious works,

That they may describe the wonders of his deeds and praise his holy name. He has set before them knowledge, a law of life as their inheritance; An everlasting covenant he has made with them, his commandments he has revealed to them. His majestic glory their eyes beheld, his glorious voice their ears heard. He says to them, “Avoid all evil”; each of them he gives precepts about his fellow men.

Their ways are ever known to him, they cannot be hidden from his eyes. Over every nation he places a ruler, but the Lord’s own portion is Israel. All their actions are clear as the sun to him, his eyes are ever upon their ways. Their wickedness cannot be hidden from him; all of their sins are before the Lord. A man’s goodness God cherishes like a signet ring, a man’s virtue, like the apple of his eye. Later he will rise up and repay them, and requite each one of them as they deserve. But to the penitent he provides a way back, he encourages those who are losing hope!

Return to the Lord and give up sin, pray to him and make your offenses few. Turn again to the Most High and away from sin, hate intensely what he loathes; Who in the nether world can glorify the Most High in place of the living who offer their praise? No more can the dead give praise than those who have never lived; they glorify the Lord who are alive and well. How great the mercy of the Lord, his forgiveness of those who return to him! The like cannot be found in men, for not immortal is any son of man. Is anything brighter than the sun? Yet it can be eclipsed. How obscure then the thoughts of flesh and blood! God watches over the hosts of highest heaven, while all men are dust and ashes (Sir 17,1-32).

Man is God’s masterpiece, he is in his image and in his own likeness. He is capable of discernment. He knows how to distinguish the good, the better, the best, what is worth and what is not worth, what is vile and what is precious. If he knows how to distinguish the things of the earth, of time, he must also know how to distinguish the things of the spirit, of the soul and of eternity.

“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. 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.

Since a man is capable of discernment, he must also distinguish pure from impure religion, true from false religion, human from divine religion and imperfect from perfect religion. He is obliged to discernment by his nature. If he does not discern he pleads himself not true by nature and as a consequence he professes himself a non true man, a half man, a man unable to get to the truth of his own being. Of course, he must tend toward more perfect, more holy, more beautiful, more real and more divine religion. He owes it to himself and to his natural truth. Man is the merchant of the parable. He is also the worker of the earth that finds the treasure.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints give us in the true religion.