Matthew 13; 44-52. Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. July 30th, 2017

We have for the past few Sundays heard parables from Jesus. And today we continue with more; The Kingdom of heaven; the Buried Treasure; the Pearl of great price; the Net thrown into the Sea. These parables have a common theme…“our relationship with Jesus Christ is the most valuable thing we own—Jesus, and His Catholic Church, by which He comes to us in and through Her Sacraments and Her Teachings and Law, must be our most valuable possession.”

Jesus concludes His teaching today with a short discussion with His disciples, asking them if they had understood; and they reply they do. Then He adds one more parable, the Kingdom of Heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old.” The whole of Jesus’ teaching is very much like this, bringing the Old with a new perspective. He doesn’t change the Teachings or the Law found in the Old Testament, but He does fulfill them and bring them more fuller into the light, bringing a deeper understanding, and so a deeper call to conversion.

This new prospect certainly invoked many emotions not only in the disciples, but in all of those who heard Jesus words. Some mistakingly thought He was completely changing what came before, while others thought He was not changing things enough. A few, however, those who had allowed God to prepare the soil of their soul, realized that Jesus was the message, that He was the fulness of the Revelation of God to men. And so, all of what had come before, all of the teachings found in the Old Testament actually pointed to Jesus. Jesus was truly the Word of God become flesh—God become man.

Certainly in our own times, our Church has gone through this process of presenting old with a new perspective. In fact, this is exactly why Vatican Council II, was called. Vatican II was that the great gathering in Rome, of all the bishops of the world, during 1963 -1965. The Fathers of the Council desired to present the Old with a new perspective. In other words, they asked and tried to answer, “How do we present the unchanging Gospel anew to a ever changing, and in our times a rapidly changing, world.”

Before the Council the Catholic Church knew who She was and what She believed, there was no such thing as an identity crisis. Because of the surety of faith the Church was experiencing, the Fathers wanted to boldly take the truths of our faith and all of its beauty out into confident dialogue with the modern world. Instead of hiding from an ever increasing secularize and materialistic world, the Church wanted to take its great patrimony of faith and its 2,000 years of human experience and understanding and use it to confront the great challenges facing the modern world, all in order to heal it and, more importantly in order to save it from Itself—literally (especialy with the advent of nuclear weapons which could destroy the world)!!!

Over the last 50 years since the Council, the Church has struggled and continues to struggle much to try to understand this noble aspiration of Vatican II—that is, of presenting the old with a new perspective. However, in the last years since the Council there has unfortunately arisen a mistaken notion of a “post-Vatican II Church” that is opposed to “the Pre—Vatican II Church,” as if the Church before Vatican II was somehow different after than before, and since then She has changed, along with Her perennial teachings. Vatican II of course changed nothing, this is very clear to those who have read and studied the documents—the truth is the truth and as such is unchangeable.

Yes, the Church is the same Church, with the same teachings as before. Even Her Sacred Liturgy, although it may be offered in a different manner than before the changes that occurred after the council, it is still the same Holy Mass—it is still heaven on earth. And whats more, the old way of offering it, in Latin and with the priest and the people facing in the same direction, is still just as valid and true, just as correct and effective as before. Pope Emeritus Benedict explain all of this very clearly by his Hermeneutic of Continuity…

Hermeneutic of Continuity is just a technical way of saying that what was right and true, and beautiful and good for centuries and centuries cannot now all of sudden somehow be wrong, false and bad. (you don’t need a PHD to understand this). This goes for the Church and all of her teachings. It also by the way goes for how the Sacraments and the Holy Mass was offered as well…the old way is still valid and true and good along with the new. For Beauty, Goodness and Truth are ever ancient ever new because their source—God is ever ancient ever true.

In other words, because the Truth comes from God, who doesn’t change, truth therefore does not change and cannot change or be changed. And even more, Ultimately the Truth which comes from God is not just a list of things to be believed with our intellect and lived with our will, but Truth is actually a Person, a divine Person, Jesus Himself,

Jesus is Himself the Truth….And so as such Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever; and so too, His Holy Church and Her teachings and rituals…they are true and so like Jesus they can not change.—they are like Jesus, ever ancient ever new. It was after all, Jesus who came to establish on earth the Kingdom of Heaven, which is also known as the Kingdom of God…He compares It today to a treasure buried in a field and the head of a household who presents the old with the new.

To establish this Kingdom, Jesus personally and intentionally founded one Church, whose mission is “to proclaim and establish among all peoples the Kingdom of God, which is also the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, the King of all kings. This Church, according to the teachings of Vatican II, constituted and organized as a society in the present world, subsists in [subsistit in] the Catholic Church, governed by the Successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him”. (Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 8.)

The Church on earth is Herself, according to Vatican II, the Church on earth is Herself then mysteriously, the seed and the beginning of that Heavenly Kingdom already present” (Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 5” Why? Because She, and She alone, mysteriously contains the Kingdom of God in Person—

The Church is then this very treasure that Jesus speaks about, it is the treasure buried in the field of this present world because it alone contains the Treasure of all treasures, Jesus Christ the King of the Kingdom who is truly present in the Holy Eucharist....the Holy Eucharist is then the pearl of great price which is attainable by all of those who believe, adore, hope and love Him there; and, who love the Church which brings Him to us through the Holy Spirit working through Her Sacred Priesthood.

In our Holy Mass today, we ask this grace of Jesus- the grace to have Him alone as our only Treasure, for “where you treasure is, there is your heart too.” (Matt. 6.21). May we abandon ourselves completely to Him and allow His grace and mercy to fill and change our hearts in order to be united to His Sacred Heart. O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! Late have I loved Your body the Holy Church and the truth of her teachings which are your teachings, late have I loved You in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.

Our Lady Seat of Wisdom, obtain for us from your Divine Spouse an increase of Holy Wisdom so that we may understand and in understanding be more deeply aware of the Mystery of the Holy Mass. Help us at this Holy Mass and every Holy Mass we attend, to adore the Blessed Trinity in Spirit and in Truth. In other words, to adore the Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit, united to Jesus who is the truth, offering ourselves totally in union with the Sacrifice of Jesus being truly made present on this Sacred Altar becoming more and more conformed to the same Christ Our Lord. Amen