Homily for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

                                              

   The Wisdom Of King Solomon: A Discerning Heart

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara

Homily for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, July 26, 2026

Today’s first reading is one of the most beautiful stories in the entire Old Testament. I would recommend this passage to every young person. The event occurred in the early days of King Solomon's reign. Solomon is the son of King David and Bathsheba. After his father, David, he became king following a dynastic struggle. At the beginning of his reign, he was beset by self-doubt, as any untested young person would be. Imagine starting a new job or position at your workplace and feeling unsure of yourself. When I became a pastor for the first time, I felt anxious about my fitness for the role. Now compare that to becoming the king of a nation. You may be delighted by the position, but you also know that all the nation’s responsibilities fall upon you. If you are honest with yourself, you will ask, “Am I really competent to do this job?” As a young king, Solomon had serious doubts about his fitness for office. But in a dream, something happened. The Lord appeared to him and said, “Ask something of me, and I will give it to you.” I tell you, this is an extraordinary moment in the life of the young and inexperienced King Solomon. In response, Solomon prayed, “Lord, my God, you have made me, your servant, king to succeed David my father; but I am a mere youth, not knowing at all how to act… Give your servant, therefore, a listening heart to judge your people and to distinguish between good and evil” (1 Kings 3:7, 9). Beautiful prayer! Isn’t it?

What is Solomon asking for? He is asking to see his world from God's perspective and to govern with the mind and heart of God. Solomon could have asked God for anything: riches, long life, military success over his enemies, the nicest palace in the world, or to be the most dreaded person in the world—anything. He could have asked for wealth, power, honor, and pleasure. God placed no restrictions on his choice. Instead, he asked for “a listening heart,” “a wise and discerning heart,” and wisdom. That was a wise choice; it showed he already had wisdom: the wisdom to know that he didn’t have it and that he needed it. Honesty and humility are the first part of wisdom.

Why is wisdom so important? Why is Solomon’s request the only wise choice? If you have all those things I mentioned—you have wealth, power, honor, pleasure, long life, good health of mind and body, and everyone around you adores you to the point of sycophancy, your army is the greatest in the world, and you have the nicest and coolest palace in the world, etc.—unless you have wisdom, unless you can see the world from God’s standpoint, you will not know what to do with those things. And those goods of the world, which can superficially please you, will eventually turn on you and destroy you. If you gather young people and ask them what they want in life, the vast majority of them will say wealth, power, pleasure, esteem, homes, cars, etc. And there is nothing wrong with these worldly goods. But unless they have wisdom, sophia in Greek, those things will in fact turn on them. Look at some of the great athletes or musicians who suddenly were given all the goods of the world. Some of them are either broke, dead, or crackheads. They were given all the goods of the world, but they didn’t see the world from the standpoint of God. They didn’t have this wisdom to properly distinguish good from evil. Eventually, all those things they accumulated turned on them. If you have worldly goods, the best things that life can offer without wisdom, without a discerning heart, not only won’t they do you any good; they will turn on you. 

How did God respond to Solomon’s request? The first book of Kings states, “The Lord was pleased by Solomon’s request.” God then says to him, “Because you asked for this—you did not ask for a long life for yourself, nor for riches, nor for the life of your enemies—but you asked for discernment to know what is right—I will do as you requested. I give you a heart so wise and discerning that there has never been anyone like you now, nor after you will there be anyone to equal you” (1 Kings 3:11-12). Take this to the bank: God will not refuse this kind of prayer. But if you pray, “Lord, give me the greatest and most expensive Rolls-Royce, Lamborghini, or Ferrari through Christ our Lord,” which is a stupid prayer, God may not grant it. But if you pray, “Lord, give me wisdom, enable me to see the world from your perspective, and to distinguish good from evil, and I ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.” God will not refuse it. Jesus himself said, “The Lord will not refuse the Holy Spirit to those who ask.” If you ask for all the worldly goods and God sees they are not good for you, he might decline your request. But the Holy Spirit is always good for us. Ask for Him, and you will not be refused. 

Let us make this more practical. Let’s say you are celebrating your birthday. Your family and friends ask you to make a wish before blowing out the candles on your birthday cake. God appears to you and says, “Make a request, and I will give it to you.” What would you say? No matter your circumstances, ask for Jesus Christ. Tell the Lord, “I want nothing but you.” Tell him, “You are still the One I want for life.” Tell him, “I want wisdom so I will know what to do with anything else you might give me or not give me.” If you have wisdom and a discerning heart, you will know how to handle wealth if it is given to you. If you have wisdom, you will know how to handle power if it comes to you. If you have wisdom, you will know how to respond when people honor you. You will know how to use that for God’s purpose. But if you don’t have Jesus Christ, all those things will turn on you and destroy you. 

This is the basic spiritual truth, embodied in today’s Gospel (Matthew 13:44-46). From our Lord Jesus, we hear, “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” In ancient times, long before banking and insurance became the norm, people would bury their wealth in their land or around their homes to protect it if an invading army was coming, and then they would flee. Sometimes they didn’t make it back. Either they were killed or simply couldn’t return home. Many Ukrainians who fled their country at the beginning of the Russian invasion would never make it back. When this happened, the buried treasure would remain buried in the field. After a while, someone farming in that field would discover the hidden treasure. Jesus says the kingdom of God is like that. If you find that hidden treasure, sell everything else you have and buy it. But what is the hidden treasure? It is Jesus Christ dwelling in you. It is a wise and discerning heart. I tell you, if you know this profoundly, you are willing to give up everything else for it. In the next parable, Jesus says, “The Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.” Who is this merchant looking for a fine pearl? All of us! As we go through life, we look for things that will make us happy, and those are wealth, power, honor, and pleasure. What is the pearl of great price? It is the Kingdom of God! That is the treasure buried in the field. That is the wise and discerning heart. That’s Jesus Christ dwelling in you. But the tragedy is that we spend our lives chasing pieces of treasure but not the fine pearl and not the great treasure. We spend our earthly lives mostly chasing fleeting and transient things: I want power, all the power. I want money, a lot of money. I want pleasure, all forms of pleasure. I want honor, every honor. I want to be in the spotlight, and I want everyone to adore and kiss my ring. We are looking for treasure in the wrong places of the world. But there is one buried treasure. Although it seems buried, it is staring us in the face. And we miss it. Don’t miss it. Life is short. And that hidden treasure and fine pearl is Jesus Christ.