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Bible Dictionaries
Hidden Treasure, Parable of the
1910 New Catholic Dictionary
Parable in Saint Matthew's Gospel 13. One of the parables of the lakeside reproduced by Saint Matthew; in which different aspects of the Kingdom of Heaven are brought out by Our Lord. This parable is followed by that of the pearl of great price and that of the fishing net and forms with those a group of parables found only in the Gospel of Saint Matthew. The two parables of the hidden treasure and of the pearl of great price are closely related and teach the same lesson, namely the supreme value of the Kingdom of Heaven, for which all else must, be sacrificed without any hesitation. The lesson comes out so clearly that Our Lord does not give an explanation of these two parables to the disciples. In appreciating the lesson taught in the parable of the hidden treasure, we must keep before our mind, the special point which Our Lord intends to teach and not press every single detail of the story as if meant to convey a lesson. Thus in the case of the parable of the hidden treasure Christ does not mean to hold up to our imitation the manner in which the finder gets possession of the treasure. The sole point which Our Lord intends here is the eagerness of the man who is willing to sell everything he owns in order to get the treasure, the latter being supposed naturally to be of much greater value; the application to the spiritual religious life is that the Kingdom is something of such incomparable value that no sacrifice made to enter it will be too great.
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Entry for 'Hidden Treasure, Parable of the'. 1910 New Catholic Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/​dictionaries/​eng/​ncd/​h/hidden-treasure-parable-of-the.html. 1910.