St. Matthew structures his gospel around five great sermons, the most familiar of which is the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 to 7.) Matthew 13 is known as the Sermon in Parables since the evangelist includes many of the parables of Jesus in the chapter (sower and seed, weeds and wheat, mustard seed, yeast in flour, pearl of great price, treasure in a field, net cast in the sea.) Matthew concludes the sermon observing: “every scribe who has been instructed in the Kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old.” This is Matthew’s self-description. He knows the old, the traditions of Israel and the word of God in the Bible. He knows the new, the message of Jesus and the call to the kingdom of God. His genius is to bring those two strands together in a coherent whole. We become wise scribes likewise by bringing the inherited faith we have as Catholics and marry it to the new vision of Church given us at Vatican II.
