Daily Gospel Reflection
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July 27, 2022
Jesus said to his disciples:
“The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field,
which a person finds and hides again,
and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Again, the Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant
searching for fine pearls.
When he finds a pearl of great price,
he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.”
In today’s Gospel from Matthew, Jesus offers us two analogies of heaven. Both direct us towards the understanding that heaven is of ultimate value and worthy of the complete sacrifice of any other worldly possessions.
Saint Paul described heaven in 1 Corinthians 2:9 as beyond our imagination: “Eyes have not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” Likewise, St. Thomas Aquinas, after a beatific vision of heaven, put down his pen and said, “Everything I have written seems like straw to me.”
Perhaps Jesus gave us a tiny, real-world hint of heaven in the famous Shroud of Turin. This shroud purports to have the image of Jesus emblazoned on the microfibrils of the fibers caused by a burst of laser-like energy, which lasted 40 billionths of a second.
Rivaling scientists have yet to prove or debunk the shroud conclusively, but all agree that something unexplainable, even miraculous, occurred. How can this be? How can we make sense of any of this?
In Frank McCourt’s book, Angela’s Ashes, Angela, Frank’s mother, would often describe heaven to her children as “ Beyond the beyond.” Truly, heaven is beyond our imagination, beyond our understanding, but not beyond our ability to attain. If only, like the man who bought the whole field or the merchant who sold all, we make heaven our highest priority.
Prayer
Lord God, we desire to be wholehearted in following you, but find that we are often too hesitant. And at times our striving for the Kingdom can feel more like a burden than a treasure. When those times come, we ask that you give us the eyes to see that faith is one of your most precious gifts, and that it is worth giving up everything to find. We ask this through Jesus, your Son and our Lord. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Sts. Aurelius and Natalia, a Christian married couple in Islamic-controlled Spain, were martyred when they decided to refrain from hiding their faith any longer.
Aurelius was the son of a Spanish woman who had married a Muslim; they were a family of distinction in Cordoba. Both of his parents died when he was a boy, and Aurelius was left in the care of an aunt, who raised him as a Christian.
As he grew and matured, he was Christian in secret and Muslim to all appearances. He married a woman who was also from a half-Muslim family, and after their wedding, she converted to Christianity, taking the name Natalia at her baptism.
One day, Aurelius saw a man from Cordoba beaten and humiliated for standing up for his Christian faith; he was led through the city on a donkey to be gawked at. The sight moved Aurelius, and he was ashamed that he had protected his safety instead of publicly proclaiming his faith.
By this time, Aurelius and Natalia had two young children, and they worried that if they were public with their faith, they would be martyred and would leave their children destitute. They consulted a holy man in the Christian community, St. Eulogius, who advised them to make arrangements for their children to be cared for and raised as Christians if anything happened to them.
Aurelius and Natalia’s discernment inspired a relative to return to the faith. Felix was Aurelius’ cousin and was raised a Christian, but had turned away to practice Islam. Felix’s wife, Liliosa, remained faithful, and when he returned to the faith, they joined Aurelius and Natalia in reaching out to support imprisoned Christians. They even came to know that man whom Aurelius had seen paraded through the streets.
Aurelius welcomed to his home a traveling monk, George, who came from a monastery in Jerusalem and was traveling to beg for alms to support his community. The two became close friends.
Natalia and Liliosa decided to openly visit the Christian churches in Cordoba with their faces open and unveiled. They were spotted and watched. When the two couples were gathered at Aurelius’ house to celebrate the Mass, they were all arrested, along with the visiting monk, George.
They were all charged with turning away from Islam and condemned to death. As a foreigner, George was given leniency and permitted to leave, but he chose to stay with the faithful couples and to be martyred with them.
Relics of St. Aurelius rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica.
Sts. Aurelius and Natalia, the Christians who inspired their relatives to boldly proclaim the faith in the face of martyrdom, pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Natalia is used with permission from Catholic Online. Last accessed March 20, 2025.