🕊️ Saint Clare, a native of Assisi, was a central figure in Franciscan spirituality. Together with Saint Francis, she established the second Franciscan Order, known as the Order of Poor Clares. This order was dedicated to women who wished to live a life of poverty and prayer, following rules analogous to those of the Friars Minor, profoundly shaping female contemplative life in the Church.
📖 Introit (Ps 44:8 | ibid., 2)Dilexísti justítiam, et odísti iniquitátem... Thou hast loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. Ps. My heart hath uttered a good word: I speak my works to the King. ℣. Glory be to the Father…
📜 Epistle (II Cor 10:17-18; 11:1-2)
A reading from the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians. Brethren: He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. For not he who commendeth himself is approved, but he whom God commendeth. Would to God you could bear with some little of my folly: but do bear with me. For I am jealous of you with the jealousy of God. For I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
✝️ Gospel (Mt 25:1-13)
At that time, Jesus spoke this parable to his disciples: The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hidden in a field. Which a man having found, hid it, and for joy thereof goeth, and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. Again the kingdom of heaven is like to a merchant seeking good pearls. Who when he had found one pearl of great price, went his way, and sold all that he had, and bought it. Again the kingdom of heaven is like to a net cast into the sea, and gathering together of all kind of fishes. Which, when it was filled, they drew out, and sitting by the shore, they chose out the good into vessels, but the bad they cast forth. So shall it be at the end of the world. The angels shall go out, and shall separate the wicked from among the just. And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Have ye understood all these things? They say to him: Yes. He said unto them: Therefore every scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like to a man that is a householder, who bringeth forth out of his treasure new things and old.
🤔 Reflections
🧔♂️ The hidden treasure and the pearl of great price are the desire for heaven; whoever finds them sells all to buy them. For he who has understood the happiness of the celestial life willingly forsakes all that he loved on earth (St. Gregory the Great, Homilies on the Gospels, 11). He who glories, let him glory in the Lord, not in his own justice or power, for every good gift comes from above. If you glory in yourself, you remain in yourself to your ruin; but if you glory in the Lord, you are raised up to Him for your salvation (St. Augustine, Sermon 137). The Church, as a chaste virgin, is espoused to one husband, Christ; and this divine jealousy demands that she remain whole in faith and morals, not allowing herself to be corrupted by deceitful philosophies or worldly pleasures, as she awaits the coming of the Bridegroom (St. Jerome, Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians, 3, 5).
📚 The parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price are unique to the Gospel of Matthew, emphasizing the radical decision and the joy that accompany the discovery of the Kingdom. While the other synoptic gospels share parables about the Kingdom's growth (like the mustard seed, present in Mark and Luke), Matthew's emphasis here is on the incomparable value of the Kingdom that leads a person to renounce everything else. The parable of the net, which illustrates the final judgment with the separation of the good and the evil, echoes the parable of the wheat and the tares, also prominent in Matthew (Mt 13:24-30), reinforcing the theme of the coexistence of good and evil in the present age, followed by an eschatological separation.
✉️ St. Paul's exhortation to "glory in the Lord" (II Cor 10:17) directly complements the Gospel's message. To sell all one has to acquire the treasure or the pearl is the supreme act of acknowledging that all value resides in God and His Kingdom, not in one's own possessions or merits. Paul expresses this same idea in Philippians, where he states he considers "all things but loss for the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ," for whom he has "suffered the loss of all things" that he "may gain Christ" (Phil 3:8). Paul's zeal to present the community as a "chaste virgin to Christ" (II Cor 11:2) aligns with the search for the pearl of great price, which is union with God, free from attachments that would disfigure it.
🏛️ Church documents deeply reflect these themes. The Catechism of the Council of Trent (Roman Catechism), in explaining the article of the Creed on the Catholic Church, teaches that the Church Militant on earth is a mixed body, containing both the just and sinners, like the net that gathers "fish of every kind." This doctrine affirms that the final separation belongs solely to God at the end of time. Furthermore, the theology of religious life, codified in documents such as the 1917 Code of Canon Law, is an institutionalization of the evangelical principle of "selling all." The vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience are understood as the practical means by which a soul renounces earthly goods (the field), disordered affections (other pearls), and one's own will in order to "buy" the treasure of the Kingdom of Heaven.