today's readings are Exodus 34: 29-35 and Psalm 99
Jesus uses a short series of parables in chapter 13 of Matthew's gospel to ehighlight the nature of the Kingdom of heaven, and we hear 2 of them today.
A few things to note: 1) these parables are short and quite succint; 2) there is a sense of urgency in them, describing actions to be taken by the searcher; 3) the action requires selling all in order to obtain entrance into the kingdom. This of course implies a giving up of one's life for the kingdom, as hard as that may be.
Above are the points given - question is, are they taken?