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SOLOMON AND JESUS CHRIST

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FRIDAY, FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME    1 Kings 11:29-32,12:19; Ps 81:10-15; Mk 7:31-37 Solomon and the Mystery of Christ King Solomon started off very well and ended not so well. We say not so well because he realised his mistakes and sins and confessed them before his death. As we noted earlier in the week, in the early part of his reign, Solomon was a type of Jesus Christ, the man of peace and the Son of David. He had the good examples of his father, David, and his mother, Beersheba; though nothing much is written about her, her son witnessed to her unsung virtues. King Solomon foreshadowed the life of Jesus Christ. He was the son of David and the one who inherited the Davidic dynasty directly from David himself. He ruled the people of God in wisdom and peace for the greater part of his reign. His rule brought so much wealth, fame, and visibility to Israel as a nation. A central role of his functioning as a type of the Son of Man is the construction of the Temple in Je...
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REMAINING CONNECTED TO GOD

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THURSDAY, FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME    1 Kings 11:4-13; Ps 106:3-4,35-37,40; Mk 7:24-30 Our Spiritual Connection to God Our connection with God can be compared to the connection between a power source and an appliance. The appliance functions as long as it is connected to the power source. Once the connection is severed, it ceases to function. The same applies to our spiritual connection with God; we must keep our focus on God to remain spiritually alive in God. We cease to live spiritually once our attention, especially our minds and hearts, is taken away from God, who is the source of our spiritual life. We can consider a more apt analogy by examining the fish's dependency on water. The water is the life of the fish; the fish must be inside the water always to survive. The fish dies when it leaves or is separated from the water. To live a spiritual life, we must take in God and remain connected to Him in our minds and hearts. When it comes to spiritual life, we ...
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SOLOMON HOUSED WISDOM

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OUR LADY OF LOURDES    1 Kings 10:1-10; Ps 37:5-6,30-31,39-40; Mk 7:14-23 The House of Eternal Wisdom From the sacrifices King Solomon offered to the Lord, the God of Israel, we were able to discern his love for God. For gifts or sacrifices one makes for a cause or for a person demonstrate the depth of love one has for that cause or person. Being that God is the first to love and prompt us in all things, especially in our relationship with Him, we understand that Solomon’s love and generosity to God, as expressed in the sacrifices to God, both at his thanksgiving at Gibeon and in the dedication of the Temple he constructed in Jerusalem for God, is only a response to God’s love and generosity to him. The measure of wealth and means he put into the construction of the Temple was also an indication of his love and devotion to Yahweh, the God of his father, David. We have also noted the contribution of his upbringing in making him become aware of God’s love and generosi...
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OUR TEMPLE AND TRADITION

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SAINT SCHOLASTICA, VIRGIN   1 Kings 8:22-23,27-30; Ps 84:3-5,10-11; Mk 7:1-13 Making the Word of God our Tradition God has no need of a Temple built by human hands. But He approved the building of the Temple in Jerusalem for the glory of his holy name. Of what use is the temple if God does not dwell therein and has no need of temples and churches? Even Solomon who successfully completed the Temple in Jerusalem was aware that God cannot be contained in a physical temple, for he asked while praying: “O Lord, God of Israel, not in heaven above nor on earth beneath is there such a God as you, true to your covenant and your kindness towards your servants when they walk wholeheartedly in your way. Yet will God really live with men on the earth? Why, the heavens and their own heaven cannot contain you. How much less this house that I have built!” God dwells in the spiritual temple, which he constructed for himself. He only commanded the construction of the physical temples and ...
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THE CONSECRATION OF THE TEMPLE OF GOD WITHIN

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MONDAY, FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME   1 Kings 8:1-7,9-13; Ps 132:6-10; Mk 6:53-56 The Consecration of the Temple of the Lord After his coronation as the king of Israel, Solomon offered a thousand holocausts to God in thanksgiving and consecration of himself to God at the high place in Gibeon. After constructing the Temple in Jerusalem, Solomon planned with the elders of the people to bring the ark of the covenant into the Temple he had built for God in Jerusalem in grand style. “All the men of Israel assembled round King Solomon in the month of Ethanim, at the time of the feast (that is, the seventh month), and the priests took up the ark and the Tent of Meeting with all the sacred vessels that were in it. In the presence of the ark, King Solomon and all Israel sacrificed sheep and oxen, countless, innumerable. The priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, in the Debir of the Temple, that is, in the Holy of Holies, under the cherub’s wings.” The s...
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LIGHTING UP OUR LAMPS

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SUNDAY, FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME   Isa 54:7-10; Ps 112:4-9; 1 Cor 2:1-5; Mt 5:13-16 Let your Light Shine before Men God made us in his own image, and we have understood this to mean that God made us rational. It is one thing to possess a rational nature, and another to live a rational life. So, we have considered our rationality to imply that we are made to contain or house God. Rationality, which is the ability to reason to knowledge of truth, would have to know the truth to live rationally. The scriptures present God as the Truth, from whom every living thing came to be. Since creatures that God made are truths by their being, the implication is that God made us to know creatures enroute to the knowledge of God, their maker and ours. The duty to know the truth is attached or inherent to our nature. This duty requires that we pay attention to both creation and God. From creation, we learn the same truth of God in a mediated way, but from God, we receive direct enligh...
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JESUS, OUR SOLOMON

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SATURDAY, FOURTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME     1 Kings 3:4-13; Ps 119:9-14; Mk 6:30-34 Eternal Wisdom, Our Shepherd Solomon succeeded his father, David, after his death. Chronologically, he is the first ‘Son of David’ to rule after David; in this regard, he is a type of the Son of Man. Thus, he is called Solomon, which means ‘the man of peace’ or ‘the peaceful one.’ As a son who grew up before David, he heard and learnt of God from his Father David. King David, as we have reflected through the week, had God in his mind, heart, and mouth; he talked, composed songs, and sang of God; he showed forth the word and statutes of God by his behaviour, despite his occasional failures, as recorded in the scriptures. As David’s progeny, it is not surprising that Solomon came with some ready-made virtues. He did not learn about the importance of God’s word for man’s daily engagements and fulfilment in life. His name and demeanour show that God had a central place in his life. If he ...
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