one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it (Matt. 13:46).

The parables of the treasure hidden in the field and of the pearls have a great resemblance to each other; both speak of the acquisition of the truth and the way to the Kingdom of Heaven (that is, of Christ, since He is the truth and the way), with the only difference that the first parable speaks of the sudden, unexpected finding of a treasure, and the second of the finding of a pearl of great price after a long search for generally good pearls. An example of those who suddenly find a treasure that was hidden from them can be the pagans, who for the first time heard the preaching of the Apostles about Jesus Christ and came to know through this that the fulfillment of the will of God proclaimed by Him is the only means for entering the Kingdom of Heaven prepared for the righteous. Enlightened by the preaching of the Apostles, many of them abandoned everything that had previously bound them to earthly life, and at such a price acquired for themselves the greatest treasure in Christ. Jesus likened such listeners of the word of God to a man who, while cultivating someone else's land, accidentally found a treasure buried in it; in order to possess this treasure, it was necessary to buy the field of that; And so, he sells everything he had and buys it, and with it the treasure he found (in those days when people could not consider themselves completely safe, many rich people buried some of their treasures in the ground). An example of those who sought the truth and found it only in the teaching of Christ is St. Justin the Philosopher: in his work "Conversation with Tryphon the Jew" he says that, while still a pagan, he studied all the philosophical systems of that time and was especially fond of the teaching of Plato, but all his knowledge did not give him an answer to the questions that interested him about God, about the soul, its immortality, and so on. until an elder (according to tradition, St. Polycarp) told him about Jesus Christ and the prophets who foretold his coming; having studied the prophecies and the Gospel in consequence of this, he found only in them the only true and useful philosophy. The same seeker of good pearls was Tatian, a disciple of Justin the Philosopher, who found a pearl of great price in the Gospel, and many others.

The fourth parable Jesus spoke to His disciples is the parable of the net that was cast into the sea and caught fish of all kinds. It speaks of the time when the preaching of the Gospel will spread throughout the world, when the Church founded by Christ will contain (seize) all the peoples of the earth; then they will pull the net ashore, collect the good in vessels, and throw the bad away. Then

Angels will come forth, and separate the wicked from among the righteous, and cast them into the fiery furnace: there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Explanation of the meaning of the words: fiery furnace, fiery Gehenna, outer darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth

Presenting to His listeners the future of sinners, Jesus Christ said that the sinners condemned by Him at the end of the world would be cast down

into the fiery furnace, where