Treasure and Pearl - inner forms. The Net, the Beautiful and the rotten
(Mt 13:44-52)
Jesus does not want to make us poor poor, but Allies.
His Presence completes and realizes us by Name; not in a negative sense, but in a full capacity.
The choice or "renunciation" He asks for, is not about summary options. He does not make what is not worth protrude. That is why He does not belittle us.
And the total Word is the real deal.
A hidden Treasure that must first be hidden again (v.44)!
We realize that we have only partially seen of it; there is still much more to discover.
It is not something verifiable immediately and completely.
Warning: we have to hide it again!
Here is the whole game, because such Splendor does not belong to the rituals of folklore, or to the contour duties, that would make us prisoners.
In fact, the spring to get out of the cliché, the protocol, the pack ways, becomes an opportunity to discover something new.
The authentic Kingdom will not be intrusive: it does not demand membership - under penalty of exclusions. It delivers other messages, transmutative from within.
We can grasp it in our roots, because it corresponds to the complete life project that inhabits us and mysteriously we intuit our own.
We understand: it makes us look forward, it makes us feel good. It makes us discover other worlds, and our own nucleus; beyond the problems that are gripping.
This is where the unexplainable, works.
The insecure becomes a determined person, the loser is transformed by grace into wise.
We understand that welcoming the springing Logos and corresponding to one’s personal Vocation will not be terrifying, but regenerating.
Who will shift his thoughts, will bet everything, and will bring out his essence.
In ancient times Pearls were the most precious and splendid things: in short, man is in search of Beauty as a meaning of life and of his own personality.
But who is the really charming man who lives completely, not epidermal?
Before Matthew allowed himself to be made an apostle, he assumed that his invaluable Diamond was the hoarding. And he has to change his mind.
Saul imagined that the boundless Gem - the authenticity of man - was the inappuntability of his practices and ideas.
God’s free Gift has urged both in the Quest for the Precious Pearl: what is delicious, fraternal, donative, lovable and not to be missed.
«Treasure» is the Gospel, the Word of God: a real bargain (v.44). «Pearl» Man is Jesus (vv.45-46).
«Kingdom» is the living assembly - people without merits, with an unexpected outcome; fruit of commitment to the search for the best.
The parable of the Net emphasizes the Result of the Kingdom of God, that is, the educational-operative Gift of the community, “area” in which God "reigns".
The Church dreamed of by Christ is like a Net that pulls us up to the light, to the breath, to existence in fullness.
Conviviality of differences that makes each and everyone reborn, but without holding back the rotten and putrefied [nasty, corrupt, spoiled, dead: v.48], ie the one that has no life, nor does it longer offer it.
This is not a trivial moralistic or forensic judgment, between good and bad!
It is the distinction between what remains full and «beautiful» (in the Eastern sense) and what - putrid, rotten - corrupts and degrades, leaving irreparable filth, ordure, scum.
In short: it is in fraternal realities that God has a foot on earth.
Here, the still-shadowed sides are allowed to express themselves, enhanced, letting flourish.
And here lies the Joy of discovering hidden Treasures.
[17th Sunday in O.T. (year A) July 26, 2026]
