The Parable of the Pearl of Great Price (Matthew 13:45–46)

The texts below are quoted verbatim from public-domain English translations; nothing is paraphrased.

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St. John Chrysostom (c. 347–407)

Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew, Homily 47 (on Matthew 13:44–52) Source: trans. in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 10. Public domain. Full text: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/200147.htm

Chrysostom expounds the pearl together with the hidden treasure (his fuller framing of the two is given in the treasure document). On the pearl in particular, that the merchant sought, and that the one pearl is the one undivided truth:

For He saith, One seeking goodly pearls, who when he had found one of great price, sold all and bought it. For the truth is one, and not in many divisions.

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St. Jerome (c. 347–420)

Commentary on Matthew (on Matthew 13:45–46) Source: as preserved in the Catena Aurea of Thomas Aquinas, trans. J. H. Newman, 1841. Public domain.

On the goodly pearls as the Law and the Prophets, and the one pearl as the knowledge of Christ, for which Paul counted all else as loss:

By the goodly pearls may be understood the Law and the Prophets. Hear then Marcion and Manichaeus; the good pearls are the Law and the Prophets. One pearl, the most precious of all, is the knowledge of the Saviour and the sacrament of His passion and resurrection, which when the merchantman has found, like Paul the Apostle, he straightway despises all the mysteries of the Law and the Prophets and the old observances in which he had lived blameless, counting them as dung that he may win Christ. Not that the finding of a new pearl is the condemnation of the old pearls, but that in comparison of that, all other pearls are worthless.

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St. Gregory the Great (c. 540–604)

Homilies on the Gospels, Homily 11, as preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain.

On the pearl as the sweetness of the heavenly kingdom, for which a man gladly leaves all earthly things:

Or by ... the pearl of price is to be understood the sweetness of the heavenly kingdom, which, he that hath found it, selleth all and buyeth. For he that, as far as is permitted, has had perfect knowledge of the sweetness of the heavenly life, readily leaves all things that he has loved on earth; all that once pleased him among earthly possessions now appears to have lost its beauty, for the splendour of that precious pearl is alone seen in his mind.

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Blessed Augustine of Hippo (354–430)

Questions on the Gospel of Matthew, q. 13, as preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain.

On the one pearl as Christ Himself, as love of neighbour, and as the Word in whom all things are contained:

A man seeking goodly pearls has found one pearl of great price; that is, he who is seeking good men with whom he may live profitably, finds one alone, Christ Jesus, without sin; or, seeking precepts of life, by aid of which he may dwell righteously among men, finds love of his neighbour, in which one rule, the Apostle says ... are comprehended all things; or, seeking good thoughts, he finds that Word in which all things are contained.

On the preciousness of the pearl as the possession of ourselves, which we receive when we give up all else:

Its preciousness is the possession of ourselves, who are not free to possess it unless we despise all things that can be possessed in this world. For having sold our possessions, we receive no other return greater than ourselves, (for while we were involved in such things we were not our own,) that we may again give ourselves for that pearl, not because we are of equal value to that, but because we cannot give any thing more.