Keep Your Eyes On the Ball!

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, July 26, 2020

Solomon, also named Jedidiah, was the son of King David and Bathsheba. He was not the oldest son of David, but David promised Bathsheba that Solomon would be the next king. While David was still the king, his older Son, Adonijah declared a palace coup and made himself the king. But he was outsmarted and outmaneuvered by Solomon’s mother, Bathsheba and the prophet Nathan, who urged David to declare Solomon king according to his earlier promise. Solomon was thereby anointed a king while his father, David, was still alive. He inherited a considerable empire from his father. Like his father David, Solomon was also devoted to God. God was pleased with him. God accepted his ordination as the king of his chosen people, Israel. In today’s reading (1 King 3), God appeared to him in a dream and said to him, “Ask something of me and I will give it to you.” Wow! That’s an open check offer. But when Solomon opened his mouth to ask, he did not ask for money/wealth, power, death to enemies, and fame. He did not ask God to help him control the whole world and make everyone submissive to him. He did not ask to be spoken well of and be loved by everyone. He did not even ask God for good health, long life and an easy life. He only asked for wisdom: O Lord, my God, you have made me, your servant, king to succeed my father David; but I am a mere youth, not knowing at all how to act. I serve you in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a people so vast that it cannot be numbered or counted. Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong.

Solomon’s request thrilled and delighted God. His request made God dance. Because God was so happy with him, God answered his prayer and then gave him more than he requested: “Because you have asked for this— not for long life for yourself, nor for riches, nor for the life of your enemies, but for understanding so that you may know what is right—I do as you requested.” God blessed King Solomon with matchless wisdom, and the best known story of his wisdom was the case involving two prostitutes. Both women had given birth to male children almost at the same time, but one of them lost her baby. When she realized at midnight that her baby boy was dead, she quickly exchanged her dead son with the other woman’s living son. When the case was brought to King Solomon, he resolved to cut the living child in two—half to one and half to the other. But the rightful mother of the child, deeply moved out of love for her son said, “Please, my lord, give her the living baby. Don’t kill him” (1 King 3:26a). But the other woman said, “Neither I nor you shall have him. Cut him in two” (1 King 3:26b). With this, Solomon was able to know the true mother of the living baby, and ordered that the baby be given to the woman who did not want the child be cut in two. 

Solomon was a young King, but it did not take long before his wisdom spread far and wide. People came from surrounding nations just to hear his wisdom. One of those celebrated visits was that of the Queen of Sheba who came from southern Arabia to listen to his wisdom. Apart from his wisdom, Solomon was also known for being the one that build the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. He is the builder of the First Temple in Jerusalem. After the temple was completed, he erected many other buildings of importance in Jerusalem. By every human standard, King Solomon was a very successful king. He had wisdom like no one. He had massive wealth like no one. He was the wisest and wealthiest king. He was loved, protected and blessed by God immensely. He started well with God. He started with the Spirit of God, but ended in disaster. Solomon is the definition of the Latin adage, “Corruptio optimi pessima,” (the corruption of the best is the worst). At the beginning of his kingship and through his reign as the King of Israel, he was the best. Best man. Best king. Best soul. But he ended his life with this memorable quote: “Vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!” 

But how did a man so blessed, so gifted, so endowed with the best things life has to offer ended in disaster, in failure and in huge disappointment? The answer is very simple! He took his eyes away from the Ball. He took his eyes away from the kingdom of heaven. He took his eyes away from God.  The writer of the book of Hebrew urges, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now sitting down at the right hand of the throne of God” (12:2). King Solomon had large fields of treasure, fine pearls, net that collected the best of fishes. He had everything he wanted, but didn't use what he had to get himself a seat at the table. He chased the beauties, the pleasures and the kingdoms of this world, found them, and in the process lost his way. 

Sisters and brothers, the story of Solomon reminds us once again of the fleeting and the vain nature of most of the things we pursue in life. Whatever we have and are today are passing away. Everything! Wisdom. Wealth. Fame. Power. Honor. Profession. Vocation. Status. Position. Class. Everything is fleeting. But we can use what we have and are to acquire the field and treasure of the kingdom of heaven. We can use our knowledge, wisdom, beauty, treasure etc. to get for ourselves a place in the kingdom of heaven. In today’s Gospel, Jesus (Matthew 13:44-52) compares the kingdom of heaven like a treasure buried in the field which a person finds and hides again, then departs with joy. After selling everything he has, he buys that field. God’s kingdom should be something that we are willing to sell everything we have in order to purchase. Nothing else should come ahead of it. It should be our greatest pursuit and greatest inheritance. Nothing in life should top it! Not parents, siblings, friends, jobs, spouse, country, profession, children. Absolutely nothing should top our pursuit of heaven. God wants heaven for us even more than we want it. He wants us to be right where he is. Another word for heaven is happiness. If we resist heaven, we resist happiness. Don’t be a Solomon! Keep your eyes on the ball. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Solomon took his away from God and ended up in disaster. Peter took his eyes away from Jesus and almost got drowned. Keep yours firmly fixed on him!