17TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YEAR A)

1st Reading                       1 Kings 3: 5, 7-12

Psalm                                  119: 57 & 72, 76-77, 127-128, 129-

                                              130 (R. 97a).

R:// "O Lord, how I love your law"

2nd Reading                     Romans 8: 28-30

Gospel                                Matthew 13: 44-52

LORD, GRANT ME A LISTENING HEART

Friends, Peace and Goodness! With the realisation that we have arrived at the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) also informs us that this is the last Sunday of July. We should be preparing to enter the month of August. While it is yet to come, we need to be grateful to God for his Providence. 

Our first reading is from 1 Kings 3: 5, 7-12. I particularly find this choice interesting because last week we mentioned the man Solomon as the quintessential wise man to whom the authorship of the book of Wisdom is attributed. Here, in the first reading, we have the man Solomon in perspective, singularly with the text telling us about how he acquired the wisdom. This is a famous passage especially when Solomon is mentioned. Let us unpack the text carefully. 

The text is set in Gibeon. Already 1 Kings 3:4 describes Gibeon as "the greatest high place" because the Tabernacle and the Golden Altar were there (2 Chronicles 1: 3). At this time, the Temple had not been built. Israelites offered sacrifices to God at many places. These are "high places" or "altars". The greatest and most important of them is at Gibeon. Solomon went there to offer a massive sacrifice of one thousand burnt offerings. This is, if you like, a prayer context. Within this context of prayer, God appears to Solomon in a dream and tells him to "Ask something and it will be given". Usually, people who desperately seek divine favour in a particular case offer huge sacrifices and sometimes spend much time in divine presence. That was the case of Hannah. Probably, Solomon is seeking a particular thing from God. Now, he gets the opportunity to ask the Lord and he gets the assurance that it will be granted. It is as if the new king of Israel is presented with a blank cheque. What he asks for will reveal what he is made of. In fact, the religious nature of the king is stressed when the author told us ealier that Solomon "loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father David" (1 Kgs. 3:3). It looks as if the young king seeks divine counsel in every aspect. This is a devout man. 

The second foundation we should build upon is quite an uncomfortable situation. Before our text, Solomon had made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh of Egypt and was still sacrificing at the high places because the Temple had not yet been built. On the one hand is a devout man, and on the other is a man who is simultaneously shrewd. The question of the Gibeon dream, I suggest, is to test whether his devotion goes deeper than his shrewdness. 

There is a point of particular attention. I think that should be our first major issue from the text. The blank cheque that God offers him is expressed in the statement "Ask something of me and I will give it to you". The Hebrew word for "ASK" as used in the text is SHĀ'AL (שְׁאַל). It is the same root from which the name SAUL (שָׁאוּל) is derived. Saul means the "one who is asked for" or "the asked-for one". This is Solomon's predecessor. Saul was the king Israel asked for (1 Sam. 8:10), the king who represented human ambition for power. What Solomon asks for is a contrast to everything Saul embodied. He does not ask for what in human eyes asserts leadership and rulership. He did not ask for long life, the lives of his enemies, and riches. Why? He is aware, as a devout man, that Deuteronomy 17: 16-17 warns the king against accumulating horses, wives, and silver and gold. These are riches, what can help in war against one's enemies (the horse), and what can perpetuate a lineage (wives), thus long life. The three categories he does not ask for are the three categories of desire that are things associated with the corrupting temptations of kingship. Solomon bypasses all of them and asks for an "UNDERSTANDING HEART". 

Before we delve into "UNDERSTANDING HEART" as our second point, we need to carefully establish the point. The problem does not lie in the opportunity to ask. The problem lies in what you ask for. Be very conscious and careful not to ask for what can bring you down. We need to discern carefully what we pray for and desire. Sometimes, when they get into our space and domain, they can further corrupt us. Precisely, sometimes we suffer for what we possess. The things that Solomon did not ask for were the things that are contained in making him shrewd. He did not make them priorities. He rather prioritised something else. He chose the divine first and the God gave him both the divine and the human. Our priorities need to be set right. 

The second point is what Solomon asked for. He asked for an "UNDERSTANDING HEART". This is rendered in the Hebrew as LĒB SHŌMĒAʿ (לֵב שֹׁמֵעַ). These are two words put together to form an adjectival phrase. The first word is the noun. It is LĒB which means HEART. The heart, in Hebrew anthropology, is the centre of the entire inner life of a person, having to do with the intellect, will, conscience, desire, and moral perception together. The second word is SHŌMĒAʿ. It is the participle of SHĀMAʿ (שָׁמַע), which means to hear, to listen, to obey. The word is famous in the Shema of Deuteronomy 6:4, "Hear (shema), O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one". Consider is carefully and you will see that Solomon may not be asking for an intellectual discernment. He is conspicuously asking for a LISTENING HEART. This is a heart that has been tuned to hear, to attend, to receive what comes from beyond itself. The king Solomon is asking to be spoken to my God and, more than, to be granted the ability to make use of what has been given him God, especially in the governance of His people as a king. He is asking for something that aligns with his role as a king. Sometimes, we seek things that do not line up with what and who we are. Maybe Solomon should be a model of self-acceptance. 

It is interesting to find that "The LORD was pleased that Solomon made this request" (1 Kgs. 3:10). The Hebrew verb is YIṬAB (יִיטַב), from TŌB, which means "good". What it means is that God found Solomon's request good and right. God is happy about it. Why? What Solomon just did is to tell God that he is not a king in his own right. He is the servant of YHWH among the people of YHWH. His primary responsibility is not to accumulate power. He is to administer justice. To effectively do that, he needs to hear God speak to his heart. 

Why is this very important? Let us cross-check from Proverbs 2:1-6 to see what the author says. He says, "If you receive my words and treasure my commands, turning your ear to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding, if you cry out for intelligence and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it like HIDDEN TREASURES, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and discover the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding". We should begin to notice what Proverbs 2:1-6 is saying. The author simply says "seeking wisdom like silver, searching for it like HIDDEN TREASURES". Wisdom literature depicts wisdom as a hidden treasure that must be actively sought, at the cost of everything that competes with it (Proverbs 8-9). Solomon models this seeking at Gibeon. I think it is precisely this image of the HIDDEN TREASURE, the costly search, and the selling of everything to possess it that Jesus places at the centre of today's Gospel in Matthew 13: 44-52. I suggest we should leave the Gospel out to our own meditations. 

Let us end with a third point. How did Solomon describe himself? He describes himself as "a mere youth, not knowing how to acr" (1 Kgs 3: 7). The Hebrew word for youth here is NAʿAR (נַעַר). This word can mean a child, a young man, or even a servant. In all its usages, the word describes a person who is in a position of dependence and learning. We should find it fascinating that Solomon, at the moment of his greatest opportunity, describes himself as someone who does not yet know. Far from being the display of false modesty, I think this is a precondition of Wisdom. If we juxtapose that with Proverbs 9:10, it will make a lot of sense. Proverbs 8:10 states that "the fear of the LORD is the beginning of Wisdom". The posture of reverential dependence before God is to fear him. That is what Solomon has been doing, thus "loving the Lord and walking in the statutes of his father David" (1 Kgs 3:3) and in his act of offering sacrifices. Solomon asks for a listening heart precisely because he knows he does not yet have all the answers. He needs the skill of leadership. 

That skill resides in the word that is translated into WISDOM. The word is ḤOKMÂ (חָכְמָה). This word is understood well as a Skill or Ability. It is what describes the skill of a carpenter or anyone who puts ideas to fruitful use. Those ideas, for Solomon, should come from an understanding heart, a heart that listens to the Word of God. 

Solomon does not ask for the power to know everything. He asks for a heart that knows how to listen. That again is from the Word of God. 

Pax et Bonum