Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/020912.cfm

(I wrote an excellent reflection on this gospel two years ago, and it’s worth a re-read.)

A low winter sun highlights
a trailor

So the LORD said to Solomon: "Since this is what you want,
and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes
which I enjoined on you,
I will deprive you of the kingdom and give it to your servant.
I will not do this during your lifetime, however,
for the sake of your father David;
it is your son whom I will deprive.
Nor will I take away the whole kingdom.
I will leave your son one tribe for the sake of my servant David
and of Jerusalem, which I have chosen."

If God complained about Solomon’s behavior in the end, historians find fault with Solomon from the outset. He was not as wise as his paid chroniclers claim; nor was his Jerusalem the intellectual capital of the mid-east. He squandered his father's political and economic capital on building a palace for himself, overtaxing the people and ignoring the tensions that led to civil war after his death. During a brief moment when the world’s major powers – Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece – were in disarray, Solomon’s kingdom enjoyed its hour of freedom. But because that little nation lay squarely between those three major powers, when they were ready to resume the struggle for world domination, Israel was the first to suffer.

We should take Solomon’s punishment seriously. God calls us to himself with promises; he discourages our sins with threats. In either case, God is so beautiful and this world’s treasures so useless, we would be fools to ignore his urgent invitation.

Besides, it doesn’t take much perspicacity to see how people destroy their lives by ignoring God; nor how many live happily and peacefully despite the occasional heartbreak. Bad things do happen to good people, just as they happened to Jesus. But those who follow the Lord survive disappointments and come out more generous, more patient, more courageous and much wiser.

The trick is to remember the instruction of the saints: During the good times, remember the bad; and during the bad times, remember the good.” Don’t live on the edge between the two, wasting time, opportunities and valuable resources on misadventures, immorality and nonsense.  Some people seem to thrive on crisis. They habitually live flat-out, from one emergency to another; but they will have no extra resources when a real crisis happens. Those who find satisfaction in the quotidian, the life of prayer and Christian fellowship can afford to be generous even during desperate hours.