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Chapter 12VitC.1.12

Vita Caroli

The Pearl of the Kingdom

Christ's parable of the merchant and the precious pearl is presented as the foundation for the chapter's meditation.

The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; when he found one precious pearl, he went and sold everything he had and bought it.✦

The Pearl as God's Law

The pearl is interpreted mystically as the law of the Lord, containing all pure and virtuous works, which the restless seeker must pursue and find.

Regarding this parable, the first thing to note is that a pearl is a most pure gem, bright in color and without any blemish, and so in this parable it ought to be read with a mystical understanding, in which many good, pure, bright, and immaculate works are contained — and not without reason can such works be likened to it.1 Now this merchant, the one the evangelist is talking about, in its proper meaning stands for a person caught up in the restless way of this present age, someone occupied with various labors, constant hardships, and worldly affairs, and, as we read in Job, never staying in the same condition.2 And so a merchant is properly spoken of, and is compared to a person who ought always to walk by seeking and seek by walking, so that they may find that precious pearl — that is, the law of the Lord — which they will surely find by seeking and pursuing it, just as Luke says in his gospel: 'Seek, and you will find.'✦ But when a person, seeking in this way, finds the law of the Lord — in which, as was said above, there are many good, pure, bright, immaculate, and virtuous works — that person can rightly liken it to the precious pearl that the man found, went off and sold everything he had, and bought. That law is rightly called precious, because nothing is more precious or greater in this age than carefully observing God's commandments, which are contained in this law, as God commands us in the gospel of John when it is said: 'If you love me, keep my commandments.' Through keeping those commandments a person will be counted as serving God, and as a result will reign with him.✦3

To Serve God Is to Reign

Keeping God's commandments is equated with serving God, and through such service one reigns with Him.

And so Augustine's words can be understood: 'To serve God is to reign.' And likewise: whoever keeps the law and commandments of God that are contained in God's law serves God, and will reign together with him.

Selling All to Buy the Pearl

The parable's call to sell everything is applied to the Christian life: one must renounce sin and earthly desires through abstinence and good works to obtain the law of God, for blessed are those who walk in that law.

But what was said above in the parable — that the man went off and sold everything he had and bought that pearl — now points to this passing life in which we are currently engaged and active.✦4 In this life, then, a person passes from day to day and draws closer to his own death, and so in life itself he must sell everything he has — sins and all earthly desires, carnal lusts — restraining himself through abstinence and other good works, and in their place he must buy the law of God, which is that precious pearl; and if he has kept it well, walking thus on the straight path, he will surely be blessed.56 It is said, then, in the psalm: 'Blessed are the blameless in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.'✦7

Entering the Gates of Pearl

The blameless who walk in God's law enter the kingdom of heaven, where the gates of the New Jerusalem are themselves made of pearls, as John testifies in Revelation.

And so one who is blessed, unblemished, and clean will enter the gate of the kingdom of heaven. That gate indeed, which is one of the precious pearls, will immediately be opened to the one who, by the power of that very pearl — that is, the law of the Lord — enters through it into that holy city; and then he will see the power of the pearl itself, which concerns the gates of the holy city of Jerusalem, of which and of its gates John, speaking in the Apocalypse, says: 'The twelve gates of the city are twelve pearls; through each individually, and each individual gate was from individual pearls.'✦89

Read the original Latin

"Simile est regnum celorum homini negociatori querenti bonas margaritas, inventa una preciosa margarita abiit et vendidit omnia, que habuit, et emit eam." Circa quam parabolam primo notandum est, quod margarita gemma est mundissima, clari coloris et sine ulla macula, et ideo in hac parabola mistico intellectu legi debet, in qua multa bona, munda et clara ac immaculata opera continentur, non immerito potest similari. Iste vero homo negociator, de quo refert evangelista, in propria significacione pro homine, videlicet in via presentis seculi fluctuante retinetur, qui variis laboribus et multis continue miseriis et negociis secularibus occupatur, et ut in Iob legitur, nunquam in eodem statu permanet. Et ideo proprie negociator dicitur ac homini negociatori similatur, qui semper debet querendo ambulare et ambulando querere, ut illam preciosam margaritam inveniat, videlicet legem domini, quam sic querendo ac perambulando utique inveniet, ut dicit Lucas in evangelio suo: "Querite, et invenietis." Cum autem homo sic querendo in hoc seculo invenit legem domini, in qua, ut supra dictum est, sunt multa bona, munda, clara et immaculata opera atque virtuosa; eam merito assimilare potest illi preciose margarite, quam homo ille invenit et abiit et vendidit universa, que habuit, et emit eam, que juste preciosa dicitur, quia nihil preciosius ac maius in hoc seculo, quam ut iuxta preceptum dei mandata ipsius, que in huiusmodi lege continentur, diligenter observare, quod deo iubente nobis in evangelio Johannis precipitur, cum dicitur: Si diligitis me, mandata mea servate; per quorum observacionem mandatorum deo servire censebitur et per consequens corregnabit. Et sic posset intelligi, quod dicit Augustinus: Deo servire est regnare. Et idem: Servans legem et mandata dei, que in lege dei continentur, deo servit, et sibi corregnabit.

Quod autem dicitur superius in parabola, quod homo ille abiit et vendidit universa, que habuit et emit margaritam illam, significat iam vitam transitoriam, in qua nunc negociamur et sumus. In qua quidem homo de die in diem transit et abit, et plus morti sue cottidie accedendo, unde in ipsa vita universa, que habet, vendere debet peccata et cuncta terrena desideria carnales concupiscencias, se per abstinenciam et alia bona opera cohibendo, et pro eis debet emere legem dei, que est illa preciosa margarita, quam si bene custodierit, transeundo sic in via recta, profecto beatus erit. Dicitur anim in psalmo: "Beati immaculati in via, qui ambulant in lege domini." Et sic beatificatus, immaculatus et mundus portam regni celorum subintrabit. Illam quippe portam, que est una de preciosis margaritis, que in virtute eiusdem margarite, videlicet legis domini, confestim aperietur [ei], et tunc videbit virtutem margarite ipsius, que est de portis sancte civitatis Iherusalem, cum per illam eandem sanctam civitatem subintrabit, de qua et eius portis Johannes in Apocalypsi inquiens ait: "Duodecim porte civitatis, duodecim margarite sunt per singulas, et singule porte erant ex singulis margaritis."

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Matt.13.45-Matt.13.46 — Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. Matt.13.46 — who, having found one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
  2. ↩Luke.11.9 — And I tell you: ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.
  3. ↩John.14.15 — If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
  4. ↩Matt.13.45-Matt.13.46 — Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. Matt.13.46 — who, having found one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
  5. ↩Ps.118.1 — Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever.
  6. ↩Rev.21.21 — And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made from a single pearl; and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩mistico intellectu rendered 'with a mystical understanding' for the allegorical reading intended.
  2. 2 ↩in via presentis seculi fluctuante retinetur rendered 'caught up in the restless way of this present age' to capture the image of instability.
  3. 3 ↩corregnabit rendered 'will reign with him' as a medieval compound expressing co-reigning with God.
  4. 4 ↩The Latin 'negociamur' (deponent) is rendered 'we are engaged and active' to capture the sense of being occupied with worldly affairs; the exact nuance is uncertain.
  5. 5 ↩'unde' here functions inferentially ('and so'), not as a relative 'whence'.
  6. 6 ↩'vendere debet peccata' — the metaphor of 'selling' sins means letting them go, renouncing them.
  7. 7 ↩The Latin 'anim' appears to be a scribal truncation or error for 'anima' or 'animo'; the sense is 'in the soul/mind' or simply an introductory 'it is said'. The Vulgate (Psalm 118:1) reads 'Beati immaculati in via, qui ambulant in lege Domini'.
  8. 8 ↩The Latin 'margarite' (genitive/ablative singular) is rendered contextually; the form is ambiguous between gen. sg. and abl. sg.
  9. 9 ↩Quotation from Revelation 21:21 (Vulgate).

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