Dear Brothers and Sisters,
This gospel today helps us to rest. It is a word of love from the Lord, a declaration of his love. Always the word tells us how much God loves us. We can never find a word that takes back something from us. We will never find a word that tells you that I am leaving you because you disgust me. I will leave you if you don’t change. He will never say I will not die for you; I do not forgive you, quite the opposite. The word is always wonderful. Christianity is stupendous. Brothers and sisters, Christianity is a person, it is Jesus Christ; that is why I am a Christian; I have this desire to be Jesus Christ. If you are a Christian, you are Christ, another Christ. There will be times when you have the same sentiments of Christ, when you can forgive like Christ, be as generous as Christ was, as Christ is.
Well, I love this word because as I said last week that in the parables Christ always speaks of himself. Remember the parable of the mustard seed? It is the smallest seed, the most ignored, most humiliated and despised by all. Today we see in the parables about the kingdom that the Lord talks about himself again. He said that the kingdom is like a treasure hidden in a field which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy he goes to sell everything he has to buy the field.
If I asked you who is Christ in this parable what would you say? Christ is the one who is going to sell everything he has and buy the field. He is going to give himself totally for you and for me. This is Christ. The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field; you and I are the field; the hidden treasure is what God has seen in each one of us. We have been created in the image and likeness of God. This image is in us, and it is very hidden. One cannot see it but there is one who does see it, and that is God.
How did God buy the field? With his son, you have been bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. He bought you. He gave all that he had, his Son, his only one, he gave him up to buy you! Do you realize how deep this is, how beautiful a declaration of love is, that is, God is saying, I love you, I love you; you are a treasure, a treasure to me. That is why he sent his son Jesus Christ to give his life, to buy you with his blood.
The kingdom of heaven also looks like a merchant searching for fine pearls and when he finds it, he sells all that he has to attain that that pearl of great value for the Lord. You, you, are that precious pearl, the best one he is able to find. He says he is going to sell everything he has and buy it, why? God is like that he sells all that he has because he is your Father. I hope you are very happy to know that he’s still looking for you.
And then Jesus says the kingdom is like a net and casts it into the sea and collects all kinds of fish, good and bad. He catches many different kinds of fish, some are fat, some are skinny, whatever kind, some Ecuadorians or Dominicans. I hope today that you will allow the Lord to catch you. In every Eucharist, the Lord wants to buy this precious pearl, the Lord comes to buy the field that has a hidden treasure, that is you!! The Lord comes to cast the nets to catch you, so let yourself be caught, allow him to buy you. The Eucharist has this power, it is true, that we do not fully live it sacramentally, but we share it, we hear the word. Let it come into your life and let the Lord help you. Let yourself be bought, what does that mean, let yourself be fished because He says that he takes the good ones and puts them in a basket and the bad ones he throws away. Who are the bad ones?
In Saint Paul letter to the Romans, he says we know that all things work for good for those who love God, everything works for the good, who have been called according to his purpose. The plan of love to which he has called us began from the beginning at creation and God thought of each one of us. He predestined, he called us, and he justified us to be a sign of his love, a sign in the middle of the world. You are called to be a sign for everyone that forgiveness exists, that you can be patient with the sins of the other, you can even die for the other. You can give life and turn the other cheek without denouncing the other, you can be open to life. The one who is stingy can be generous, the one that is lustful can be chaste. This design doesn’t come from us, it comes from God.
The ones who are bad fish are bad because they know the will of God and decide not to do it. They become a negative sign. I hope it doesn’t happen to us. I hope that faith may lead us little by little to meet the Lord and to be a good fish. Not ones who are perfect but ones who conform to the will of God.
Be careful that is why I love Jesus because he asks them when he finishes if they have understood what he said. It is related to the parable of the sower, if you remember, the good soil is the one who hears the word and understands it. It is not to go and read the Bible and see that it makes sense to you. To understand the word means to live it, in your life! To acquire it. To understand means that it is related to your life, and you have been enlightened and are now living it. This is not a theory. If it is a theory, then nothing happens. Because one day like the disciples, the Lord is going to give you the opportunity to live it and you will be able to say that you understood it now, you have lived this parable now in your life.
Lord, I know that you love me, that you have patience with me, that you are always with me, that you have always saved me. I hope the Lord gives us this grace to live and understand this parable. This is why we will be able to say that we are good ones who listen to the word and the Bible and understand it. The Lord wants us to be other Christs in the middle of this world that is so much in need of Him.