Homily for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

What Would You Ask?

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, July 29, 2023

Solomon was the son of King David and Bathsheba. He was the King of Israel who built the Temple, but later became a problematic figure in Israelite history. At the beginning of his kingly career, he was beset by self-doubt and inexperience as any untested young man would be. But in a dream, something happened. The Lord appeared to him and said, “Ask something of me, and I will give it to you.” This is definitely an extraordinary moment in the life of the young and inexperienced King Solomon. Responding, Solomon said, “Give your servant an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong.” His answer pleased God so much prompting God to say, “Because you asked for this, and 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.” Now, have this engraved in your soul. Whenever God is pleased with us, don’t interpret it as if God is gaining something he needs out of us. God needs nothing! We have nothing that God needs. God is pleased when we are fully alive. The glory of God is the human person fully alive. What pleases God is what brings us to deeper life. God is happy with Solomon because what he asked for is going to make him spiritually alive. That’s why God is pleased! But what is Solomon precisely asking for? He’s asking for a discerning heart! What is that? He is asking to see his whole life and work from the standpoint of God. He is asking for wisdom. For St. Thomas Aquinas, wisdom is the view from the hilltop. It means I am not looking at my life from my perspective or from the perspective of people around me or from what the culture expects. When I go up to the top of the mountain, I see the world from the perspective of God. That’s what wisdom means. That’s what Solomon asked for. 

But why is wisdom so important? It enables us to know what our life is about. It helps us to realize that our life is finally not about us, but about God. Wisdom will enable you to judge the whole of your life correctly. With wisdom in your heart and mind, you will value things properly. You will be able to choose the right things. With wisdom, you will know what to do with whatever comes your way. Let’s say you become wealthy, with wisdom you will know what to do with that wealth. Let’s say you become powerful, with wisdom you will know what to do with that power. You won’t abuse it. You won’t use it for your own end. You won’t use it for your own purposes. You will know how to use it aright. Suppose someone who doesn’t like you is now under your leadership; you are now the boss of someone you consider an enemy, with wisdom, you will know what to do and also what not to do with the power you have. We have a lot of people, powerful people, kings, presidents, CEOs, managers, directors, leaders of various groups within and outside the church who misused their power. Furthermore, suppose you are given a long life, with wisdom you will know what to do with those years you have been given. You won’t squander them chasing shadows and fleeting things. You won’t use your longevity for your own destruction and selfish enhancement. When you have the view from the hilltop, you will have spiritual self-control over your whole life. And part of your prayers would be: Lord, teach me to know the shortness of life and let me know how fleeting my life is (Psalm 39:5). 

Suppose Solomon had yielded to temptation, and said to God, “I want to be the richest man ever” and God grants his request and makes him the richest person ever but without wisdom. I tell you, he won’t use that wealth well. And later in his kingship, when Solomon lost the wisdom given to him by God what happened? He became extremely reckless. He became intoxicated with women and married lots of them. In the end, the amazing king who started with the Spirit of God ended with the flesh, ended in disaster. If you are given wealth but lack wisdom, the wealth would probably destroy you. If everything you touch turns to gold and you don’t have the view from the top, even the very people you love the most would turn to gold for you. Wealth without wisdom is utterly dangerous. Suppose the young Solomon had said to God, “make me the most powerful person ever” and God grants that to him, what would he do with that power? That power would devour him. Suppose he had asked God, “Give me all the pleasures in the world” and God does it, but without wisdom, it will be a disaster in a short order. Don’t we see this play out all the time in our culture? Consider the many young athletes, actors and popsters who are given all these things— wealth, power (cultural influence), pleasure (all the sensual pleasure they want). What happened to these young people? More often than not, those things they so coveted, became the very source of their own destruction. Why? Because they received them without wisdom. 

Put yourself now in this position. You are Solomon. The Lord is standing right in front of you. He says to you, “What do you want?” “Ask something of me and I will give it to you? What’s your answer going to be? How I answer this question will tell me a lot about the state of my soul. Am I likely going to be tempted to ask for one of the worldly goods? You betcha! That’s just the story of humanity. We want all the goods of the world. We strive after worldly goods but hardly seek the supreme Good himself. We want power. We want prestige. We want honor. We want pleasure. We want wealth. Right now, examine the content of all your prayers. What do we ask? Worldly goods! Don’t get me wrong. Worldly goods in themselves are good. But how many times did we ask for wisdom? We ask for success without asking for wisdom. We pray for our children to be successful in life without asking that they be given wisdom. But if the Lord says to you today, “Ask something of me and I will do it,” ask for wisdom. That’s the right answer. When Elijah said to Elisha I will give you whatever you want. Elisha asked for a double share of his master’s spirit. When the disciples of John the Baptist followed after Jesus and Jesus turned and asked, “What are you looking for?” Their answer was, “Lord, where do you stay?” When Jesus asked the blind Bartimaeus, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man simply said, “Lord, I want to see.” A key moment in the life of St. Thomas Aquinas has it that Thomas was praying before a crucifix for more enlightenment from Jesus. And a voice said to him, “Thomas, you have written well of me, what would you have as your reward?” Thomas said “Non nisi te, Domine” (which means “Nothing except you, Lord!”). If the Lord is standing right in front of you and then says to you, “Ask something from me and I will give it to you?” I hope you ask for the view from the hilltop (wisdom).