20180208 LOSING FOCUS BEGINS WITH ABANDONMENT OF GOD
08 FEBRUARY, 2018, Thursday, 5th Week, Ordinary Time
Readings
at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Green.
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First reading
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1 Kings 11:4-13 ©
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'The half was not told me'
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When Solomon grew old his wives swayed his heart to other gods;
and his heart was not wholly with the Lord his God as his father David’s had
been. Solomon became a follower of Astarte, the goddess of the Sidonians, and
of Milcom, the Ammonite abomination. He did what was displeasing to the Lord,
and was not a wholehearted follower of the Lord, as his father David had been.
Then it was that Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the god of Moab on the
mountain to the east of Jerusalem, and to Milcom the god of the Ammonites. He
did the same for all his foreign wives, who offered incense and sacrifice to
their gods.
The Lord was
angry with Solomon because his heart had turned from the Lord the God of Israel
who had twice appeared to him and who had then forbidden him to follow other
gods; but he did not carry out the Lord’s order. The Lord therefore said to
Solomon, ‘Since you behave like this and do not keep my covenant or the laws I
laid down for you, I will most surely tear the kingdom away from you and give
it to one of your servants. For your father David’s sake, however, I will not
do this during your lifetime, but will tear it out of your son’s hands. Even
so, I will not tear the whole kingdom from him. For the sake of my servant
David, and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen, I will leave your son
one tribe.’
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 105(106):3-4,35-37,40 ©
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O Lord, remember me out of the love you have for
your people.
They are happy who do what is right,
who at all times do what is just.
O Lord, remember me
out of the love you have for your people.
O Lord, remember me out of the love you have for
your people.
But instead they mingled with the nations
and learned to act as they did.
They worshipped the idols of the nations
and these became a snare to entrap them.
O Lord, remember me out of the love you have for
your people.
They even offered their own sons
and their daughters in sacrifice to demons,
till his anger blazed against his people;
he was filled with horror at his chosen ones.
O Lord, remember me out of the love you have for
your people.
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Gospel Acclamation
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Ps144:13
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Alleluia, alleluia!
The Lord is faithful in all his words
and loving in all his deeds.
Alleluia!
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Or
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Jm1:21
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Accept and submit to the word
which has been planted in you
and can save your souls.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Mark 7:24-30 ©
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The astuteness of the Syro-Phoenician woman
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Jesus left Gennesaret and set out for the territory of Tyre. There
he went into a house and did not want anyone to know he was there, but he could
not pass unrecognised. A woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit
heard about him straightaway and came and fell at his feet. Now the woman was a
pagan, by birth a Syrophoenician, and she begged him to cast the devil out of
her daughter. And he said to her, ‘The children should be fed first, because it
is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the house-dogs.’ But
she spoke up: ‘Ah yes, sir,’ she replied ‘but the house-dogs under the table
can eat the children’s scraps.’ And he said to her, ‘For saying this, you may
go home happy: the devil has gone out of your daughter.’ So she went off to her
home and found the child lying on the bed and the devil gone.
LOSING FOCUS BEGINS WITH ABANDONMENT OF GOD
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ 1 KGS 11:4-13, MK 7:24-30 ]
Solomon
started well as a young king. When he assumed kingship, he was humble and wise enough to
ask the Lord for the gift of wisdom and a discerning heart. He was
conscious of his limitations and lack of experience in governing his
people. As a consequence, God, who was delighted with his sincere motive
of wanting to serve Him and God’s people rather than his own interests, also
blessed him with other things as well. This was what the Lord promised
Him “Since you have asked for this and not asked for long life for yourself or
riches or the lives of your enemies, but have asked for a discerning judgement
for yourself, here and now I do what your ask. I give you a heart wise as
shrewd as none before you has had and none will have after you. What you
have not asked I shall give you too: such riches and glory as no other
king ever had.” (1 Kgs 3:11-13)
Unfortunately he
failed to take heed of another injunction the Lord made to him,
namely, “If you walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments as
your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.” (1 Kgs 3:14)
In his success and fame, Solomon in his later days lost focus of the most
essential thing in life, namely, God. As we read in the first reading,
“when Solomon grew old his wives swayed his heart to other gods; and his heart
was not wholly with the Lord his God as his father David’s had been.
Solomon became a follower of Astarte, the goddess of the Sidonians, and of
Milcom, the Ammonite abomination. He did what was displeasing to the
Lord, and was not a wholehearted follower of the Lord, as his father David had
been.” This was his greatest folly, prostituting himself to false gods
and abandoning his devotion to the true God.
Truly, most of
us only turn to God when we are in need of help or when we are desperate.
Often, when we become successful, we are like King Solomon; we tend to
forget about God and bask in our laurels and accomplishments. This is
always the constant temptation of every person. Instead of being
dependent on the Lord, we begin to rely on ourselves, consumed by the things of
this world, and often become proud and arrogant, thinking so highly of
ourselves. Consciously or unconsciously we are deceived by worldly
securities and external achievements. As a result, like King Solomon, we
turn to false gods in our lives, having strayed away from the true God.
The tragedy
is that when we turn away from God, we cannot but inevitably end up worshipping
other things instead. In the case of Solomon, because of his disobedience to the
statutes of the Lord, he married foreign wives who brought into the kingdom
their pagan gods. Not only was Solomon influenced by their religious
practices, he even “built a high place for Chemosh, the god of Moab, on the
mountain to the east of Jerusalem, and to Milcom, the god of the
Ammonites. He did the same for all his foreign wives, who offered incense
and sacrifice to their gods.” Should we be surprised at all? Those
of us who do not give God the primary place and the first place in our hearts
naturally make idols of our loved ones or our work, money and status. God
is among the last in the scale of importance in our lives! We put our
spouse or our friends, especially our boyfriend or girlfriend, before
Him. We would even compromise our values and principles for the love of
someone. Often, parents worship their children and place their needs
before God as well. When we value anyone or anything before God, we have
a misplaced devotion. This would lead to great disorder in our lives
because we assign a wrong place to creatures and created things.
The later
life of King Solomon was tragic. We read that “The Lord was angry with Solomon because his
heart had turned from the Lord the God of Israel who had twice appeared to him
and who had forbidden him to follow other gods; but he did not carry the Lord’s
order.” He forgot what the Lord had done for him. He forgot that
his fame and success were due solely to the grace and guidance of God. He
led a life of self-indulgence, of pleasure and sensuality.
Forgetfulness
of what the Lord has done for us is the cause of misery for many of us. Once we forget His
kindness and mercy, we begin to focus on ourselves instead of doing His will
and serving His people. That was the case of King Solomon. He ended
up serving himself and satisfying his desires. Unlike his father who,
although did badly at the start by committing adultery and killing his officer
to cover up his guilt, repented and never allowed it to happen again.
Hence, at the end of his life, his sin was not only forgiven but forgotten as
this failure of his was omitted in the assessment of historians on his reign.
It is such an
irony for we would think that one becomes wiser when one gets older. But in Solomon’s
case, he became more foolish as he was distracted by his achievements.
How true for all of us! His folly should be a warning to us all. Many of
us become complacent like him whenever we become successful. This is even
true in Church ministry. When we become popular, well known and in
demand, we act arrogantly and even disdain others. Such an attitude spells the
beginning of our downfall as it did for Solomon. Because of his sins, not
only did he suffer, but so did most of all the generations after him. The
Lord therefore said to Solomon, “Since you behave like this and do not keep my
covenant or the laws I laid down for you, I will most surely tear the kingdom
away from you and give it to one of your servants. For your father
David’s sake, however, I will not do this during your lifetime, but will tear
it out of your son’s hands.” The consequences of our folly in
abandoning God have lasting repercussions for those people coming after us. The
painstaking work that King David did to build up the kingdom, reuniting the
Northern and Southern Kingdom were destroyed later on by Solomon’s children; and
eventually the kingdom of Israel and Judah fell into the hands of foreign
powers. So too, let us never forget that forgetting God and losing
our focus and perspective will cause harm to our loved ones, our children and
children’s children!
It behooves us
therefore to learn from Jesus in today’s gospel. He was someone
who was very much focused in His mission. We read that He left
“Genesaret and set out for the territory of Tyre.” Most likely, He was
overwhelmed by the demands of the ministry and wanted to take a break in a
foreign land where He could be left alone. He felt the need to be alone
to recuperate. But we read that even then, “he could not pass
unrecognised. A women whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard
about him straightaway and came and fell at his feet.” Initially, Jesus
was reluctant to work another healing miracle. At any rate, He was
conscious that His primary mission was to restore the Kingdom of Israel and
that He was sent to redeem His people. This is no implication that He was
not concerned with the conversion of the Gentiles, but He knew that at that
point in time, His Father wanted Him to focus on Israel. Nevertheless,
because of the pleading of the woman “a pagan, by birth a Syro-phoenician” and
her insistent faith, He relented. Still, He was clear that He should not
lose focus in His mission for He told her, “the children should be fed first,
because it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the
house-dogs.” In truth, Jesus could have been tempted to work outside
Israel, for it seems that the non-Jews were more welcoming of Jesus than His
own countrymen. Many of us would have been tempted to go where we
are loved, honoured, accepted and revered, even though we know where we should
be working. In Jesus’ case, regardless how difficult it was to work
amongst His people, no matter how much rejection and opposition he faced, “He
loved them to the end.” (Jn 13:1)
Similarly, we
can also learn perseverance and single mindedness from the Syro-phonecian
woman. She did not give up so easily simply because she received a
negative or non-committal answer from the Lord. She continued to engage
Jesus, saying: “Ah yes, sir, but the house-dogs under the table can eat the
children’s scraps.” Her love for her daughter and her faith in Jesus made
her persist to the end. Truly, we too must cultivate a deep love for the
Lord, for only when we are devoted to Him above everyone else will we be
blessed by Him. Let the Lord be our compass always so that we do not lose
focus in our mission on earth, in whatever we do, whether as parents, workers
or collaborators. We must endeavor to serve God ultimately in all things,
whether taking care of our family or those under our charge, or in our
contribution to Church and society. Only then, like King David, can we
end our life in deep gratitude and joy rather than in regret, like King
Solomon.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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