Gospel & Reflection
Gospel & Reflection for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.
Matthew 13:44‐52
Jesus said to the crowds, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which someone has found; he hides it again, goes off happy, sells everything he owns and buys the field.
‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls; when he finds one of great value he goes and sells everything he owns and buys it.
‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea that brings in a haul of all kinds. When it is full, the fishermen haul it ashore; then, sitting down, they collect the good ones in a basket and throw away those that are no use. This is how it will be at the end of time: the angels will appear and separate the wicked from the just to throw them into the blazing furnace where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.
‘Have you understood all this?’ They said, ‘Yes.’ And he said to them, ‘Well then, every scribe who becomes a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out from his storeroom things both new and old.’
Reflection
Friends, as you know and maybe you have even experienced their tremendous pastoral care, the wonderful Chaplains of University Hospital Waterford are members of the Order of St. Camillus. This religious order was founded to solely provide pastoral care, spiritual support, and ministry to the sick and dying, continuing a 400-year-old healthcare tradition begun by their founder St. Camillus de Lellis.
Camillus de Lellis was an Italian, born in the middle of the sixteenth century. He was an imposing figure, standing six foot six tall, but he was also extremely bad tempered and aggressive. Following in his father’s footsteps, he became a mercenary soldier, fighting in many wars and battles, dreaming of military glory and wealth. But like many soldiers of those times, he fell into common vices such as drinking and gambling, literally losing the shirt of his back, along with his amour at many games of cards and having to walk away half stripped.
In one particular fight, he suffered a serve leg wound and because of poor medical treatment he became partially crippled, remaining so for the rest of his life. He was a giant brought low.
But at the age of twenty-five, he experienced a Pauline-like conversion. While riding his donkey between two towns, he suddenly was overwhelmed by the sins he had committed, and the chaotic life he led. Falling from his mount, he vowed from that moment to live his life only for God, saying ‘No more the world for me.’ In no small part because of his own bad experience of medical care, he felt called to help the sick and dying properly and he did so in Rome, comforting victims of plague. He soon realised that expressing the mercy of God to those in need was something that he could not do alone. He called others to follow his example, embracing not only the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience but a fourth vow: to care for the sick even with danger to one’s own life.
His Order was recognised in 1591, described by then Pope Sixtus V as a ‘new school of charity’. Camillus would urge his fellow Camellians on by saying ‘more love in those hands’ and having exhausted himself in the service of the Sick and the dying, he died on July 14, 1614, aged sixty-four.
The life of St. Camillus was changed when he caught a glimpse of the mercy and love of Christ in his life. Sensing this “pearl of great price”, everything else immediately paled in comparison, shown up for it was, compared to God’s love and mercy. He realised that his life was devoid of so much of what was profoundly important and lifegiving. He became a new person. The man who once lived only for himself spent the rest of his days joyfully pouring out his life for others.
But such is the power and effect of the love of God.
When recognised, when felt, when embraced in any way, it makes sense of everything else and encourages us to be the best that we can be. It helps us to distinguish between what is life giving compared to what is not.
In the short parables of our Gospel today, the parables of the hidden treasure, the pearl of great price, and the dragnet, Jesus is therefore not describing some calculated business deal. He is describing an encounter with and an awareness of God that is so beautiful, that it overwhelms us to the point where we immediately reorder our lives and our very self. It makes us want to be new people, pouring out our lives for others, being the best that we can be.
We pray therefore, that like Solomon in our First Reading, St. Paul in the Second, and as seen in the life of St. Camillus, that we will all have wise and discerning minds and hearts. That we will be open to co-operating with God, recognising that which may be holding us back from embracing Him and His ways completely; and may we give our all to choose what really matters: Loving God and serving Him in each other.
Fr. Richard
