The Hidden Treasure and the Wisdom of Solomon: 1 Kgs 3, Rom 8, and Mt 13

By Prof. Dr. Daniel C. Afonso · Updated 20 October 2026

Omnia cooperantur in bonum iis qui diligunt Deum.
Rom 8:28

“The hidden treasure” (Mt 13:44): the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A, brings together three texts around the treasure that is worth more than everything and the wisdom that knows how to recognize it. 1 Kgs 3:5, 7-12 narrates Solomon’s dream: God offers him whatever he wishes, and he asks neither for riches nor for victory but for an understanding heart to govern. Rom 8:28-30 assures us that all things work together for good for those who love God, whom He predestined, called, justified, and glorified.

Mt 13:44-52 tells the parables of the hidden treasure and the precious pearl: whoever discovers them sells everything to obtain them. The three texts converge on the same insight: there is a good that surpasses all goods, and wisdom consists in recognizing it and choosing it without reservation, leaving behind what seemed valuable.

I. The First Reading: 1 Kgs 3:5, 7-12

The Lord appears to Solomon in a dream at Gibeon and says: “Ask what you wish me to give you” (1 Kgs 3:5). Solomon acknowledges his limitation: “I am still very young and do not know how to conduct myself” (v. 7). And he asks not for what the logic of power would suggest: “Give your servant a docile heart to govern your people and to discern between good and evil, for who would be able to govern this numerous people of yours”? (v. 9).

God praises the choice: Solomon did not ask for long life, nor riches, nor the death of his enemies, but for discernment to do justice. And because he asked for this, he will also receive what he did not ask for: “I give you a wise and understanding heart, such as no one before you has had and no one after you will have” (v. 12). Solomon’s wisdom is the parable of the pearl: whoever recognizes the supreme value of discernment finds everything he needs.

II. The Second Reading: Rom 8:28-30

Paul states one of the densest principles of his theology: “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose” (Rom 8:28). “All things” includes suffering, weakness, uncertainty, the weeds mixed with the wheat: nothing lies outside the reach of God’s purpose for those who love Him.

And the foundation of this certainty is the chain of predestination: “Those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called; those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified” (vv. 29-30). The glorification is stated in the past tense, “he glorified,” because Paul speaks of what God has already decided: history has not yet ended, but God’s decision precedes history and is irrevocable.

III. The Gospel: Mt 13:44-52

Jesus tells three short parables. The first: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. The man who finds it hides it again and, full of joy, goes and sells all that he has and buys that field” (Mt 13:44). The second: “The Kingdom of Heaven is also like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great value, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it” (vv. 45-46). The two parables have the same structure: discovery, joy, selling everything, buying. What changes is the kind of discovery: in the first, the man finds it by chance (he stumbles upon the treasure).

In the second, the merchant actively searches. In both cases, the reaction is identical: “he sells everything.” The Kingdom is not an addition to one’s existing life: it is the replacement of everything else by the only thing of real worth. The third parable describes the net that gathers fish of every kind: on the shore, the good are separated from the bad. It is the same logic as the weeds and the wheat: the separation comes, but not now. Jesus compares the scribe who has become a disciple of the Kingdom to the householder who “brings out of his treasure things new and old” (v. 52): the newness of the Gospel does not cancel the richness of Scripture, but fulfills it.

IV. Mary and the Precious Pearl

Rom 8:29 speaks of predestination to be conformed to the image of the Son. The Mariological tradition has recognized in Mary the most predestined creature: the one who was chosen before all ages to be the Mother of the Son, the one who was preserved from original sin precisely so that the image of the Son might shine in her without obstacle. Solomon asked for wisdom and received everything. Mary received everything because she was chosen for the supreme mission, and in that election she received the fullness of grace. The parables of Mt 13 illuminate Mary’s response at the Annunciation: when the angel brought his message, Mary found the hidden treasure.

The response “let it be done to me according to your word” is the “sells everything” of the parable: Mary did not bargain, did not ask for guarantees, did not demand conditions. She sold all her autonomy to buy the field where the Son of God would come to dwell. The liturgical tradition called her “Sedes Sapientiae,” Seat of Wisdom: not only because she gave birth to incarnate Wisdom, but because in her person was fulfilled the choice that Solomon made in a dream, now in full wakefulness and full freedom.

To read the readings: 1 Kings 3, Romans 8, and Matthew 13, in the Ave-Maria Bible.