Hidden and revealed
There is a treasure hidden in the field. The field is a metaphor of the world we live in. The treasure is You. You are the pearl – the most precious one. The merchant who finds the Pearl and who thinks it´s worth everything he owns and has, that is God. And the mud in which we are hidden, that obscures us, is all those things that separate us from God. What we call sin. To God you are so valuable that he is willing to sacrifice everything for you. It is manifested in Jesus sacrificial death on the cross. But didn’t Jesus say that the treasure in the field is an image for the Kingdom of heaven? Yes he did. And He also said that the Kingdom of heaven is within us. As if it was a part of us. An inner light. The parable of the treasure in the field addresses the very definition of man.
The early pope Benedictus XVI said that the uniqum of Christianity, its contribution to civilization is how it defines man. That is; in terms of unmeasurable value. Humans are not only equal in value, our value is also unmeasurable. The value of one is not less than the value of many. In some sense, we humans share the essence of God since only God is unmeasurable. Humans are created as an image of God. God reflect himself in us and we reflect ourselves in God. Therefore, violating human dignity is to violate God.
That´s why God consider us being treasures in the soil. All of us. Each and every one. That’s why the church reacts – sometimes even in political settings – when the value and dignity of people is measured differently in terms of – for example – gender, deeds, social position and ethnic origin and so on. God´s love is unconditional. The church is obligated to repeat this unconditional love continuously through history. The divine origin of man means that her value is without limit and her dignity is unbreakable. This definition of us has been profound in modern civilization. The declarations of the human rights from 1948 describe the dignity of man in terms that has its root in Christian doctrines, it condemns slavery, it supports democracy and equality between men and women and so on.
It is often said that the church should place Jesus in the center. In one sense that is true, but we must also ask: Who did God really place in the center? Was it not man? Maybe the difference is not so big after all. Gods doing – it all comes down to the love of man and the unification with her. When Jesus died and resurrected he brought all humanity with him. We are not only witnesses; we participate in the great act of salvation. God did this out of love for us. God is continuously searching in the soil, he is longing, loving and does everything through, with and in love for humanity in which God delights. God cannot be understood or recognized in any other way: God is love. Our value is embedded within this divine love.
Per Gyllenör