In today’s Gospel (Matthew 13: 44-52), Jesus likens the household of God (the Church) to a treasure that someone finds in a field and then goes and sells everything to buy the field. He then adds: “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.”
Jesus asks the crowd if they have “understood all this?” They say: “Yes”. He concludes with: “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 old and new.”
Those who just read the Short Form of this Gospel (like the priest at our Mass) may miss the important aspects of what Our Lord is trying to have us understand — to be more united with Him. His Words of Life, and our vocation (path to holiness), are our treasure.
One of the ‘old’ things in our storeroom is a 1950 copy of The Holy Bible (The Catholic Press). It includes encyclicals on the Bible by Popes Leo XIII, Benedict XV, and Pius XII — each in their own way encouraging an intense love for, and reverent study of, the Holy Scriptures.
By understanding the Old we are better able to participate in the New Covenant.
“Thus as the centuries go by, the Church is always advancing towards the plenitude of divine truth, until eventually the words of God are fulfilled in her.” Dei Verbum 8