Homily for Wednesday, Week 17 of Ordinary Time

Homily for Wednesday
Week 17 of Ordinary Time

July 30, 2025
Matt 13: 44-46
Ex 34: 29-35
Salesian Missions, New Rochelle, N.Y.

Treasure in a Field, Goodly Pearl
(Window, Scots Church, Melbourne)

Jesus tells 2 brief parables today.  Both make the same point:  the supreme value of possessing the kingdom of heaven.  We could turn that around to mean being possessed by the kingdom of heaven.  Being possessed by Christ, belonging to Christ, is like finding buried treasure or a pearl beyond price.

You’ve all seen Jesus, our Blessed Mother, and other saints portrayed in art.  They almost always have haloes about their heads, like in our windows [pointing].  The aura of God’s holiness surrounds them.  They radiate the presence of God.  That was the case with Moses in the 1st reading:  “the skin of his face became radiant while he conversed with the Lord” (Ex 34:29).  He was so close to God thru prayer (conversation with the Lord) and thru his efforts to do God’s work that the divine light shone all thru him.  God possessed him and worked thru him.

Annunciation Window
(St. Catharine's Church, Spring Lake, N.J.)

That’s our purpose in life as followers of Jesus.  St. Paul compares Christians to Moses when he writes to the Corinthians, “All of us, gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory” (2 Cor 3:18); i.e., the glory of the Lord is transferred to us and transforms us both inwardly and outwardly.  The saints radiate the glory of God in their words and actions.  When Christ takes possession of us, we have the greatest treasure you can imagine.