Homily:
17th Sunday, Ordinary Time: Cycle A
I grew up with an older brother and sandwiched between two
sisters. My brother was the oldest and
so I wasn’t all that close to him. I
ended up being closer to my older sister and, being somewhat of a mama’s boy, I
often found myself watching things like beauty pageants on TV, because that’s
what my mom and my sister wanted to watch.
I don’t hear much about them anymore, but back in the ‘80s
the Miss America, Miss USA, and Miss Universe contests all had that allure of
pageantry and glamour that made it all seem fascinating to me. For me the highlights were the talent
portion, where these women would display their incredible abilities to play
instruments, to sing, or to dance, and also the evening gown competition, as
each tried to outdo the other in having the most luxurious dress. Then, there was the interview portion, where
these women had to respond to questions with extremely complicated answers with
poise and alacrity to prove that they could represent the best of our nation
(or the world, for that matter) on a world stage. Inevitably, the “one wish” question would
come up. “If you could have one wish for
anything in the world, what would it be?”
After watching a few of these you quickly learned that if a contestant
even hinted at wishing for something for themselves, that their chance at
winning the crown was gone. And, as
years went on, the answers to these became somewhat rote and always altruistic. “I would wish that there would be world
peace.” “I would wish for an end to
world hunger.” “I would wish for a cure
for cancer.” While these are all
wonderful things to wish for, the fact that they became the “pat” answer to
this question made these young women seem to me to be rather fake and
inauthentic.
In today’s first reading, we see God putting King Solomon
through a similar “interview” as he is taking over the reins of the kingdom
from his father David. As we hear the
dialogue between God and Solomon, we can almost feel the tension building as
Solomon discerns what it is that he should ask from God. Waiting with abated breath we hear his
answer: “I wish for ‘an understanding heart to judge your people and to
distinguish right from wrong.’” “Wait, ‘an
understanding heart’? He asked for wisdom? Something for himself? NO! He
is supposed to ask for world peace or an end to hunger or that everyone in the
world would be as rich as he is! What
was he thinking!?!?” Yet, what do we
hear as God’s response? We hear that God
was pleased with his answer… Why?
Well, first Solomon acknowledged his relationship with
God. He acknowledged that the kingdom
that he has been given is really God’s kingdom and that the people he is ruling
are really God’s people and that, in actuality, it was God who had made him
ruler over his people. Because he had a
relationship with God, Solomon knew that God wasn’t just some divine magician
who could be called upon to magically make everything wrong in the world right. Instead, he knew that God had called him to rule over his people and that God
had given him the great
responsibility to care for and to provide for his people. With such a great task—and the shadow of his
father, king David, looming over him—Solomon humbly acknowledged that he
couldn’t handle this task alone and that he needed God’s help to fulfill the
work to which he was calling him. Thus,
he didn’t ask that there would be no problems, but rather that he would have
the understanding—the wisdom—to lead his people well in both good times and in
bad. And God was pleased with his
answer.
I think that many days we find ourselves in a similar
situation to Solomon yet we hardly recognize it. Daily we are surrounded by the needs of God’s
people and yet (if we manage, first of all, not to ignore them) all we can
think to do is to pray that God will wave his hand over the earth and make it
all go away. We fail to recognize that
the task of caring for God’s people here on earth has been given to us. Certainly, God doesn’t need us to care for his people—he is all-powerful and can handle it
himself; but in his desire for a relationship with us, he invites us to participate
in the work of caring for his people here on earth. With this in mind, perhaps we can look to the
example of Solomon to see how we ought to pray and thus know for what we ought
to ask when we come before God with our needs.
When we come before God we must first acknowledge our
relationship with him. Solomon
acknowledged before God that he was God’s servant, called to care for and to
rule over God’s people. And so, we too
must acknowledge that God has called each of us to be his servant and has given
each of us a particular task in the care of his people.
Next, our task is to ask God for the understanding to know
how he has called us to participate in alleviating the problem or issue that we
are bringing before him. Solomon,
recognizing the great responsibility that God had given him, asked for
understanding to be able to judge God’s people well and to distinguish right
from wrong. First time parents, I
suspect, are quite familiar with this prayer.
Faced with the responsibility of caring for and raising a child, new
parents ought to find frequent recourse to pray for the understanding they need
to raise their children.
Finally, as we begin to take responsibility for the tasks
that God has given us, we will find the things for which we truly need God’s
intervention—such as a miraculous healing from an addiction for a friend (or
even ourselves) or the conversion of a family member long-estranged from the
Church. Then, we can come again before
God, bringing these things to him, and trusting that he hears and answers these
prayers too. Friends, when we pray in
this way, taking responsibility for the things to which God has called us and
asking for God’s wisdom to fulfill them, we not only engage in our relationship
with him, but we also make ourselves open to uncovering the hidden treasures
that are the kingdom of heaven.
My brothers and sisters, the characters in the parables
from today’s Gospel reading were “surprised by joy” to find the hidden treasure
and the pearl of great value. When we
accept the particular way that God has called us to serve his people here on
earth, then we too will be “surprised by joy” when we find the ways in which
the kingdom of heaven is being realized in our midst: a family healed after the
leaving off of an addiction or the deathbed conversion of that long-estranged
family member. This is the same kingdom
that each week we come together to realize and to celebrate when we come here
to worship at this altar; and the meal that we share from it is a participation
in the eternal banquet of heaven: the banquet of God’s kingdom yet to
come. Let us pray, then, for God’s
wisdom to take up the task that he has given us as his servants and thus prepare
ourselves to be surprised by joy when his kingdom appears like a great treasure
before us.
Given at All Saints Parish:
Logansport, IN – July 30th, 2017
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