SIXTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME--2/13/11
by Msgr. Eric R. Barr, STL
READINGS: SIRACH 15: 15-20; I COR 2: 6-10; MATTHEW
I. King Solomon
A. King Solomon had a thousand wives. And all of you wives and all of you husbands are probably thinking--a thousand spouses? And they call him the wisest person in the Old Testament? Well, thereby, hangs a story.
B. King Solomon was known for his wisdom. When he was just a young king, God told him he could have anything he wanted and Solomon chose wisdom, and God was pleased. And Solomon used his wisdom well. He crafted a huge empire that was the most powerful of its time; he built the magnificent Temple to God that was the wonder of the world--its golden doors and golden roof gleamed from the top of Mt. Zion and could be seen for many miles; he surrounded himself with other wise men and scholars. Why the Queen of Sheba, herself no insignificant monarch, came to see him and said, "Solomon, you are the wisest man in the world." And he had 1000 wives. He didn't marry them out of lust. He didn't marry them out of love. He married them out of politics. Unfortunately, in those times, treaties weren't signed--daughters were exchanged. Kings cemented alliances through marriages. Solomon probably never saw most of his wives who were the daughters of the surrounding kings and princes.
C. But that's where the problem began. He wanted to make his wives feel at home and make their kingly fathers think that Israel was just like other nations and had entered modern times. Solomon knew that the people of Israel were supposed to only worship the Lord, but surely there couldn't be any harm in letting the wives and their servants have their own gods and goddesses and their own temples. For the first time and most important time, Solomon chose not to be wise. He chose to be accommodating, nice, tolerant, and indulgent. He said to himself, "Truth is everywhere, and all religions are really the same. I can't force my religion on anyone and if people want to follow the ways of other gods, fine." On the hill opposite the Temple of Jerusalem, he built the temple of Moloch, the child-eating god of the Ammonites. In that hideous temple, the statue of Moloch stood with its mouth opening to a hot furnace where the children were sacrificed. Solomon said, "I can't force my morality on others. If some of my subjects want to sacrifice children, well, that's their choice and I shouldn't interfere with it." More temples were set up to other false gods and then Solomon said, "What really matters is not truth; what really matters is that we all get along; surely, the Lord won't mind if I try to make everyone happy." And so Solomon allowed temples to the fertility goddess Astarte to be built and degrading sexual practices to be performed. He even presided at some of the pagan temple rites . And the people saw, and they did the same--they followed their leader. They left the one true God and did as they wished. And old King Solomon died at an advanced age, rich beyond his dreams, powerful beyond measure, the envy of all kingdoms. And the people cried in sorrow and tore their garments that such a great king had passed away. And in heaven God wept too, but for a different reason. His wonderful wise servant Solomon had committed the worst sin possible: idolatry, and taught the people to do the same. He did not practice the most important virtue--fidelity. And that rich empire of Solomon crumbled at his death, and the people descended into darkness for many years--all because of their unfaithfulness.
II. Fidelity
A. "If you choose," says Sirach in the first reading, "you can keep the commandments...God does not command anyone to sin." FIDELITY is the message of the Scriptures today and the message of my homily. God wants us to be faithful and will judge us by how faithful we are to him. Fidelity is faithful love, and God sees it as the greatest virtue.
B. Aren't we in the same predicament as King Solomon was? Solomon tried to make his faith fit the world he lived in rather than adjusting the world to fit his faith. Don't we try to do that? Don't we try to fit our faith into our daily life rather than try to fit our daily life into our faith? For instance, Solomon didn't have to build temples to false gods, but he wanted to please people. Don't we sometimes water down our faith so that it fits the world a little bit easier? We won't talk about or defend our faith to others because we don't want them to be uncomfortable; we won't proclaim the values we believe because we don't want to offend--just like Solomon, right? Solomon thought he could have the morality of the world and his faith in God. But it didn't work that way. He chose the world's morality and lost God. Do we do that? Do we compromise our principles and think we can still keep God? Solomon tried to mold his religion into his own image and likeness--he decided what rules he would follow and which he would ignore. Do we do the same? Many of us have a pick and choose Catholicism, a smorgasbord faith, a cafeteria mentality that picks maybe only 6 commandments to follow or rejects this moral law and accepts that one. Choosing to water down our faith, making our faith in our own image, doing what we want instead of what God wants is infidelity--unfaithfulness, the worst possible sin. Fidelity is a value our God loves above everything else. He wants a faithful people. The problem is, that is hard for us. The problem is: if we are unfaithful, then as individuals we begin to crumble just as surely as the empire of Solomon did. We lose God, we lose ourselves, we descend into darkness.
C. St. Paul tells us in the second reading that we have a wisdom, a wisdom not of the world nor of the rulers of this age who are people headed for destruction. No, we have God's wisdom: a mysterious, a hidden wisdom." In other words, like Linda Ronstadt once sang many years ago, "You and I travel to the beat of a different drum."
D. We've got to be convinced again of the wisdom of Christ--he's right, even if the world thinks he's wrong. The kingdom of Solomon crumbled with his death; the Kingdom of God lasts forever. Like Sirach says, before us are set right and wrong, goodness and evil, life and death. Whichever we choose will be given to us. Fidelity, that faithful love of God, means we choose God's way, the way of light, the way of right. Choose to be right, choose the way of fidelity, choose to be faithful to the light!
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