The most famous example of King Solomon’s wisdom is the solution he gave to the case of the two women who claimed to be the mother of the same baby. To know the two women heart’s intentions, he ordered the baby cut in half with each woman to get one half. We may call this a fifty-fifty solution. The real mother said that the other woman should keep the baby. King Solomon then gave the baby to this woman who relinquished her right in order to save the baby. 

My older brother Antonio’s oldest son is David. He died sadly three years ago at age 21 from health complications. When David was six years old, I gave him some chocolates one day. I also had some chocolate candy for me. I saved mine to eat sparingly. David finished his chocolate candy up in a couple days. One day I was going to eat a piece of my chocolate in his presence. I took my time to unwrap it to see how his reaction would be. Wanting to have a piece, David said to me, “Uncle, let us do fifty-fifty”. That was a wise suggestion that I could not ignore.

After teaching his disciples more parables about the kingdom of heaven, the Lord in today’s gospel asks them, “Do you understand all these things?” The Church pairs this gospel account with the excerpt from the first book of Kings in which God grants King Solomon wisdom beyond compare. This pairing of readings implies that wisdom is required to understand the workings of the kingdom of heaven.

The Lord compares the kingdom of heaven to a hidden treasure and to a pearl of great price that needs to be found. The kingdom of heaven is a person; it is the Lord himself. The most precious possession a disciple may have should be the Lord’s knowledge and love. The person digging and looking for the treasure as well as the merchant searching for fine pearls both represent all of us.

The question for us is whether we have found the treasure and pearl of great price that is the Lord, and at what level. We may find the Lord at two different levels: at an intellectual level and at a practical level. We may intellectually understand the importance of having the Lord at the center of our life. Though important, this intellectual level is not enough, yet many people remain at this level.

We need to go beyond to a deeper level; we need to know the Lord at the practical level. We know we are arriving at that level when we start to “sell” all our “possessions” to “purchase” the field of the treasure and the pearl of great price. Our possessions are not only material but also immaterial, the things we keep attached to our souls. Selling or getting rid of these spiritual “attachments” is a painful and long process. We find it difficult to leave behind our disordered affections and our vices (understood as the opposite of virtues). 

To the young man who asked the Lord for the way to gain eternal life, the Lord said, “Go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, and follow me” (Matthew 19, 21). The Lord’s question about our understanding of the workings of the kingdom of heaven turns into a much more difficult question to answer.

Let us humbly ask the Lord to grant us a wise and understanding heart to find him and to sell everything necessary in order to be considered worthy of owning the knowledge and love of him.