Homily: 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 26, 2026
My dear brothers and sisters, in the gospel reading just read to our hearing, we heard three of Jesus’ parables, with these three parables, we conclude the series of Jesus’ parables in Mt 23 that we started reading since two Sundays ago. These three parables of today invite us to deep meditation on this gift of divine wisdom. Jesus began each of these parables with the phrase ‘the kingdom of God.’ So, Jesus Himself continually shows us that there is the kingdom of heaven distinct from the earthly kingdom. There is the spiritual, invisible kingdom and the material, visible kingdom. It often seems the one and only dimension of our existence is the earthly, the material, the visible kingdom of the flesh. Many would like to cancel the other invisible, spiritual and immaterial kingdom of heaven. Many would like to obliterate it, to deny it, to forget it, to destroy it if possible but the truth, brothers and sisters, is that this heavenly kingdom forever remains a reality and living our lives considering the reality of this heavenly kingdom is the supreme wisdom.
The analogy drawn in these parables can be quite edifying. Two of these parables gives us a description of a man with an inborn conviction that there is something worth the labor, there is a treasure which he can wholly, freely and eternally give himself up for. He refuses to be satisfied with the moderate, often disappointing joys of the world. Imagine seeing your neighbor selling everything, his pots, plates, clothes, winter jackets, lawnmower, everything indeed, if your neighbor is not moving, you may begin to ask whether he or she is mad. This analogy a little bit describes Christianity. Call it madness, call it anything, those who have not sincerely encountered Christ may sometimes think that Christians are mad. Christ remains the true and eternal Treasure. Colossians 1:19 tells us that in Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. St Paul in Phil. 3:8 ‘I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Having found Christ, are we ready to give up anything for a deep relationship with Him. When people who do not have any value for God see us, do they see in us people who are “mad” for Jesus or do they see us as people who are even more carnally, worldly, and earthly oriented than they are?
An author narrated a story of this merchant who saw some children playing with dirty stones that looked like crude diamonds, he came close and examined those stones and saw that they were real diamonds worth thousands of dollars. He quietly left those kids, went and packed some very shiny, elegant, ordinary stones and gave them to the kids and collected all the dirty looking diamonds from them. The kids were so happy to receive the shiny bag of stones from the merchant and gave away their true diamond and treasure to him. The merchant made so much money from the diamonds but the kids, the actual owners of the treasure, gained nothing. Brothers and sisters, we need to beware that the devil does not offer us useless, shiny stones and defraud us our priceless and eternal treasure and diamond.
In the first reading of today, Solomon had a vision where God asked him to make a request from God. Many in the position of Solomon would ask God to make them the world number one president of the world, the strongest, richest and most influential king and conqueror in the world. However, Solomon asked for divine wisdom and understanding. The word of God tells us that God was so pleased with Solomon that He made him the wisest king on earth and endowed him with riches too. So, the readings of today invite us to really long for and work for this wisdom from above and to stop believing our existence has only the material dimension. A breastfeeding baby thinks the only world in existence is the mum’s milk, a toddler believes the only good thing in the world is candies and cookies, a grade twelve high school student fantasizes how a relationship with my boyfriend or girlfriend is a reality that makes a whole world of meaning. A young struggling parent hears only the language of more money to pay off my mortgage and bills while an aging senior may even plead that you can come and take my money but give me good health. That is the reality of life, whether breast milk, cookies and candies, boyfriends and girlfriends, money, even health and wellbeing, none last forever. We must possess the wisdom of heart to know that it is only the possession of Christ that endures forever.
