DO YOU HAVE A PEARL of great price in your life? John Steinbeck’s allegorical novella, “The Pearl,” infuses the “pearl of great price” parable from Matthew into a story of a flawless pearl harvested by a poor Mexican pearl diver. He hopes to sell the pearl to pay for medication for his seriously ill child. Plotting pearl merchants conspire to swindle him, forcing him to seek a greater price in Mexico City, all the while pursued by the merchants, who tragically shoot and kill his child.
The pearl diver then returns home even more impoverished. The story ends with the pearl diver throwing the pearl back into the sea, cementing the consequences of misplaced value on this “pearl of great price,” whose price was the life of his child.
What is of ultimate value in our lives?
Our Scripture readings from this 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time teach that the greatest treasure is not gold or silver, but right relationship with God. In the first reading (1 Kgs. 3:5,7-12), Solomon foregoes materialism and earthly power for wisdom and right judgment, an “understanding heart,” to shepherd the people. He understood what commentator Peter Kreeft described: wisdom cannot be separated from goodness, reason from holiness, nor the intellect from the moral. The Responsorial Psalm (Ps. 119:57, 72, 76-77, 127-130) echoes this truth, proclaiming that God’s law is more precious than gold because it gives “understanding to the simple.” From Romans (Rom. 8:28-30), St. Paul assures us that “all things work for good for those who love God,” reminding us that God’s greatest gifts are received by those who trust him, even in suffering, like the Resurrection after the Cross.
Jesus develops this teaching through three related parables (Mt. 13:44-53). The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, a pearl of great price, a net gathering fish of every kind. In these parables, a treasure is purposefully found by a prospector, a merchant and a fisherman — not by chance but in that “place” where preparation and opportunity meet. The prospector discovers the treasure while diligently exploring the field. The merchant spends his life searching for fine pearls until he finds one of incomparable value. The fisherman labors, casting his net again and again. None stumbles into the Kingdom by accident. Each is prepared by perseverance and attentiveness to recognize the treasure when they encounter it. And when found, their response is immediate and wholehearted. They willingly give up everything to possess what is infinitely greater. What they surrender seems enormous, yet compared with the Kingdom, it is little. God asks for our whole hearts and, in return, offers eternal happiness.
These parables invite us to examine our priorities. What do we treasure most? Success? Possessions? Status? Or do we seek first the Kingdom of God (Mt. 6:33)? What is our response to the gift of the Kingdom? Do we claim it for ourselves or extend it to others as faithful stewards of the gift? This is the same dilemma Solomonfaced. Solomon prays to be a servant-king helping the people discern good from bad; for an “understanding heart,” as the philosopher Blaise Pascal observed: “The heart has its reasons that the reason does not know.”
Jesus himself is the pearl of great price. He is the treasure discovered in the field. Yet this presents a beautiful irony: only Christ could pay the price for this treasure, and He did so on the cross. What we could never purchase, He gives as a gift. Our hearts are the field in which this treasure is found. The question is not whether the treasure exists, but whether we are willing to seek it and surrender whatever keeps us from possessing it. So let us pray for the wisdom of Solomon: we cannot receive unless we ask, find unless we seek, or open unless we knock (Mt. 7:7-8). What are we looking for, and what are we willing to do once we find it, even if it means throwing the other pearls into the sea?