17th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A - The Kingdom of Heaven & “O Sanctissima”

In this weekend’s Gospel (Mt 13:44-52), Jesus continues to teach the crowds and offers three more short parables about the kingdom of heaven.

In the first parable, Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven is like a buried treasure that is worth possessing even if it means giving up everything else. In the second parable, Jesus proposes that the kingdom of heaven is like a pearl of great worth for which one will sell everything else to possess. These parables teach us that we are to place everything we value in the service of the pursuit of the Kingdom of God. In the third parable, the kingdom of heaven is compared to fishing with a wide net. After the fish have been collected, the good fish are kept and the bad fish are thrown away; so too, in the final judgment, will the wicked and the righteous be separated.

The Gospel concludes with a curious statement about the scribe who understands the kingdom of heaven. It is possible that Jesus is instructing the early Christian community on how to proceed in the interpretation of Jewish law with respect to Jesus’ “new” teaching; that it does not replace the Jewish tradition but interprets it in a different light. Let us ask God to grant us the gifts of wisdom to put Him in the highest priority, and to realize that to be with God is our most important goal in this life.

We would like to share our latest video, "O Sanctissima", a Catholic Marian hymn sung in Latin (with English translations provided), seeking the prayers of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and often sung on her feast days.

Video can be watched by clicking here or on the picture below: