'On finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.' Sunday Reflections, 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Johannes Vermeer [Web Gallery of Art]

On finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it [Matthew 13:46].

In his Introduction to the Devout Life (1608), which was published in a Dutch translation in 1616, the mystic St Francis De Sales (1567-1622) wrote, 'Both now and in the past it has been customary for women to hang pearls from their ears; as Pliny observed, they gain pleasure from the sensation of the swinging pearls touching them. But I know that God's friend, Isaac, sent earrings to chaste Rebecca as a first token of his love. This leads me to think that this jewel has a spiritual meaning, namely that the first part of the body that a man wants, and which a woman must loyally protect, is the ear; no word or sound should enter it other than the sweet sound of chaste words, which are the oriental pearls of the gospel.' [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel Matthew 13:44-52 or 13:44-46 (New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition)

Jesus said to his disciples:

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.’

[‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

‘Have you understood all this?’ They answered, ‘Yes.’ And he said to them, ‘Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.’]

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

The Institution of the Eucharist

Federico Fiori Barocci [Web Gallery of Art]

A couple of Sundays ago I took part in Mass, as a concelebrating priest, outside of where I live for the first time since Covid-19 restrictions were introduced in Ireland in early March. It was in the monastery of the Poor Clares in Dublin. The Mass was for a friend and former parishioner of mine in Tangub City, Misamis Occidental, Philippines, Mrs Sophronia Gelera, who died in June at the age of 86. Nang Ponying, as she was known, had lost her husband Fortunato, whom I never knew, in an accident when Gina, the youngest of their six children, was less than a year old. (Nang is an honorific used by Visayan-speakers when speaking or referring to a woman or girl older than themselves, including sisters). 

Jimmy, the second in the family and the eldest of three brothers, was killed in a motorcycle accident on 26 January 1980, a Saturday, a few weeks after his 24th birthday. Just a few hours after giving him Holy Communion at Mass that morning I was called to the hospital to give him the Last Rites. That was when I became really close to the Gelera family. Jimmy's funeral Mass was the most difficult I have ever celebrated. But I remember at the very end of the funeral in the cemetery Nang Ponying said a prayer in which she handed back her eldest son to God.

Gina's graduation from college, October 1983

Immaculate Conception College, Ozamiz City.

With her sister Grace, her mother and me.

None of Nang Ponying's children were in the Philippines when she died, though they were able to 'meet' her before she died through Zoom family gatherings. And because of quarantine restrictions none of the five were able to travel home for the funeral.

Gina works with the Poor Clares and at the end of the Mass she gave a beautiful testimony to her mother's faith. It wasn't the shallow 'canonisation' that has become all too common at funeral Masses, but something that showed me the depth of Nang Ponying's faith.

Gina told of how on one day not long after Jimmy's death her mother had run out of cash and the only food in the house was a bunch of bananas (probably of the kind you cook - something Westerners are not familiar with). At the time only two of the family were still living with their mother, Gina and Grace, both in their teens. Nang Ponying decided that they would have half the bananas for breakfast and the other half for lunch. As it drew near six in the evening Gina asked her mother what they would do, since they had no food, Nang Ponying said, 'We will pray the Rosary as we always do at this time'. 

As they finished the Rosary there was a knock on the door. It was a neighbour who knew nothing of their situation bringing them newly-harvested rice as a gift.

After Mass on Nang Ponying's 80th Birthday

11 March 2014, with family and priests

Gina mentioned a number of times her mother's great trust in God's providence. Her words reminded me of a wonderful book called Self Abandonment to God's Providence by Fr Jean-Pierre de Caussade SJ, which I am re-reading at the moment for the fifth or sixth time. It was edited and put together more than a century after Fr de Caussade's death in 1751.

Nang Ponying had developed a form of dementia in recent years but still got up each morning at 5 to attend the parish Mass at 6. And Gina wrote on Facebook that her mother had once said to her, I will not stop going to Holy Mass everyday even if my feet and slippers are worn out.

Gina spoke of her mother's great trust in the presence of Jesus the Risen Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. She went to the parish church and poured out her heart to the Lord  in the Blessed Sacrament whenever she felt burdened. She truly believed the words of Jesus: Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30).

Nang  Ponying was not a Scripture scholar or a theologian. But she knew that God had given her two precious 'pearls' as gifts. One was the gift of her Christian faith through baptism. The other was the gift of Jesus the Risen Lord in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and in the Blessed Sacrament. And by her example she continues to share these 'pearls' from God with her family and with many others, including myself. Solas na bhFlaithease uirthi - The Light of Heaven upon her.

The last photo of Gina with her mother

An Old Irish Prayer for the Dead

Abraimís cúig Phaidir do na mairbh, le hanam ár n-aithreacha, agus ár máithreacha, ár ndeartháireacha agus ár ndeirfiúracha, ár gcomhluadar agus ár ngaolta agus ár ndaoine muinteartha go léir a d’fhág an saol seo. Gach 

n-aon nach bhfuil duine aige, guímid leis: go dtuga Dia cuidiú na guí seo dó agus dea-bhás dúinn féin an lá déanach. Amen.

Let us say the Lord’s Prayer five times for the dead, for the souls of our father and our mothers, our brothers and sisters, our family and our relations and all the members of our community who have left this life. For those who have no one, we pray: may God help them with this prayer and give us a good death on the last day.

From Paidreachana Gaeilge, Prayers in Irish, edited by Donla uí Bhraonáin.

Adoro te devote

Produced by Canto Católico

Across the Pacific from the Philippines is Chile where this video is from and where Columban missionaries have been working for nearly 70 years. The video intersperses footage of La Fiesta de Cuasimodo, held on the Second Sunday of Easter, now also known as 'Divine Mercy Sunday', with the singing of a Eucharistic hymn in Latin composed by St Thomas Aquinas, Adoro te devote. An English translation is on the video. Below is the Latin text. The priest, carrying the Blessed Sacrament, is taken in a horse-drawn carriage to bring Holy Communion to the sick and the elderly who were unable to attend the ceremonies of the Sacred Paschal Triduum (the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday to the Easter Vigil).

This celebration takes place especially in communities near Santiago, the capital of Chile, some of which have now become part of the growing city. Again, it shows how the precious 'pearls' of the Christian faith and of the Blessed Sacrament are shared with the sick and the elderly while being passed from one generation to the next. The name Cuasimodo comes from the opening words in Latin of the Introit (Entrance Antiphon) on the Sunday after Easter: Quasi modo geniti infantes, alleluia - Like newborn infants, alleluia.

Adoro te devote, latens deitas,

Quæ sub his figuris vere latitas;

Tibi se cor meum totum subjicit,

Quia te contemplans totum deficit.

Visus, tactus, gustus in te fallitur,

Sed auditu solo tuto creditur.

Credo quidquid dixit Dei Filius;

Nil hoc verbo Veritátis verius.

In Cruce latebat sola Deitas,

At hic latet simul et Humanitas,

Ambo tamen credens atque confitens,

Peto quod petivit latro pœnitens.

Plagas, sicut Thomas, non intueor:

Deum tamen meum te confiteor.

Fac me tibi semper magis credere,

In te spem habere, te diligere.

O memoriale mortis Domini,

Panis vivus, vitam præstans homini,

Præsta meæ menti de te vívere,

Et te illi semper dulce sapere.

Pie Pelicane, Jesu Domine,

Me immundum munda tuo Sanguine:

Cujus una stilla salvum facere

Totum mundum quit ab omni scelere.

Jesu, quem velatum nunc aspicio,

Oro, fiat illud quod tam sitio:

Ut te revelata cernens facie,

Visu sim beátus tuæ gloriæ. Amen.

Salve Regina - Hail, Holy Queen

Produced by Canto Católico with 450 singers from 33 countries in April during the Covid-19 quarantine.