Robert Barron - A Wise and Discerning Heart
Peace be with you. Friends, our first reading is from the First Book of Kings, and it's one of my favorite passages in the entire Old Testament. And it's one that I think, if you're going on a retreat anytime soon, you're even spending some time in your Holy Hour, or it's the end of the day and you just want to get in touch with the Lord, this is a wonderful little passage to focus on. The setting is the very early days of the reign of King Solomon. Remember Solomon's the son of David and Bathsheba. He becomes the king after a bit of a dynastic struggle. But here he's a young kid, not the experienced Solomon but this young kid just beginning his time as king. Can you imagine?
I mean, even when you're starting a new job and you're kind of unsure of yourself, imagine though now you're the king of a nation and suddenly all this responsibility falls upon you and you feel, "I'm just not really up to it". And so you pour out your heart to God and you ask. Well, this is what Solomon does now, he asks the Lord. Here's what he says: "O Lord, my God, you have made me, your servant, king... but I am a mere youth, not knowing at all how to act". I totally get that. Think of anytime you've moved into a position of responsibility and you just say, "I don't think I'm up to this". So, "Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong".
What a prayer. He could have asked for anything. See, that's the point. He's this young kid, and "I don't really feel up to this job, so give me, Lord, a lot of money and wealth. Lord, give me the nicest palace in the world. Lord, make my enemies afraid of me. Lord, make my army the greatest in the world. Make all of my courtiers sycophantic to my desires". I mean, he could have asked for any of those things. Wealth, honor, pleasure, power, the usual suspects. But he doesn't. He asks for a wise and discerning heart, the capacity to distinguish right from wrong. See, what's he asking for? He's asking to see his world from the perspective of God. He's asking to be able to govern with the mind and the heart of God.
You see how important that is? If you have all those things I mentioned, you've got wealth and honor and power, and everyone around you was a sycophant, and your army's the biggest in the world, and you've got the greatest palace going, unless you have wisdom of heart, unless you can see the world from God's perspective, you will not know what to do with those things. And those things, which will be superficially pleasing to you, listen now, will eventually turn on you and destroy you. You want, everybody, a spiritual lesson from the most ancient times to the present day? That's it. Especially young people. What do they want out of life? And it's those things: wealth, honor, pleasure, power, esteem, money, homes, cars.
"That's what I want". But unless they have wisdom of heart, those things will in fact turn on them. I'm going to date myself here a little bit with some of these names, but just fill in ones from more present times. What do all these people have in common? Janice Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, John Belushi, Kurt Cobain, Lindsay Lohan, Justin Bieber, I'm bringing it a little bit up to date. Almost all those people were as very young men or women suddenly given all the goods of the world. Think of Hendrix when he was playing back in the late '60s, the most famous guitarist in the world. People practically worshiped him. John Belushi.
I remember when I was a kid, John Belushi had the number-one film in the country, the number-one album in the country. He was universally recognized. Think of Kurt Cobain. I remember when Kurt Cobain committed suicide, and it was such a shock to so many people. But he was, I mean, probably the most famous rock and roll singer in the world at the time. Justin Bieber. I mean the list goes on and on. What do they have in common? They were all given the goods of the world, but they didn't see the world from the standpoint of God. They didn't have this wisdom of heart that allowed them properly to distinguish good from evil. And therefore all those things they accumulated tended to turn on them.
Now, those are relatively contemporary kind of pop stars. Go back into our literary tradition. What do you find? A story like the Dr. Faustus story. This man, he wanted knowledge. "Give me all the knowledge in the world". Yeah, so he got it, and it destroyed him because he had knowledge without wisdom. Or the story of King Midas. I mean so brilliantly told, that lovely legend of King Midas. "I want gold, Lord. Let everything I touch turn to gold". And so it did. Until when he had to touch the people he loved and they turned into lifeless gold in front of him. Beautiful, beautiful telling of this spiritual truth. If you get all the goods of the world but without a discerning, wise heart, not only won't they do you any good, they will turn on you. There's the King Midas. They will turn on you and destroy you.
And so Solomon asks for the right thing. Asks for the right thing. Listen to how the Lord responds: "Because you have asked for this, not for a long life for yourself, nor for riches, nor for the life of your enemies..." See all these goods of the world? Big army, and give me a long life, and make me loved. "...but rather for understanding, I do as you requested". Here's an important truth from the Bible. God will not refuse this kind of prayer. "Lord, give me the greatest sports car in the world. I ask it through Christ our Lord". Well, that's a stupid prayer. And see, that ending is meant to be the giveaway. I mean, it doesn't make any sense to be asking for that through Christ our Lord. But Lord, give me a wise heart. Lord, help me to see the world as you do. I ask it in Jesus' name.
That's a good prayer, and he won't refuse that one. Remember the Lord says that God will never refuse the Holy Spirit to those who ask. So I mean, ask for all these worldly things. Well, God might just say, "That's not good for you". But what's always good for us? The Holy Spirit. Ask for him, ask for him, and you will not be refused. I've talked about this before to those who follow me, and it's my motto as a bishop. I took it from Thomas Aquinas. When the Lord said to him, speaking from the cross, "Thomas, you've written well of me. What would you have as a reward"?
Again, Aquinas could have asked for anything. "Make me the most famous scholar in the world, Lord. Make everyone understand and love what I've written. Lord, give me wealth". No, but Thomas said, and this is my motto as a bishop, "Non nisi te, Domine". I'll have nothing. I'll have none of that "nisi te," except you, Lord. You're what I want. He asked for a wise and discerning heart. He asked that Christ might live within him. So here's the spiritual exercise, everybody. So whether you're going on a retreat, you're doing a Holy Hour, or even tonight before you go to bed, here's your spiritual exercise. You're Solomon. You're Thomas Aquinas.
And the Lord says to you, "Okay, what do you want? I'll give it to you. I promise I'll give it to you. What do you want"? What would you ask for? If you rub the bottle and the genie comes out. "You've got three wishes". What would you ask for? Wealth, honor, a nicer car? Or "Lord, clear up these disputes in my family," or "Lord, make them like me better," or "Lord, make me more successful in my job"? Don't ask for that. It's all trivial nonsense. Ask for Christ. "Lord, I want you. I want a wise and discerning heart, so that now I will know what to do with anything that I might have or not have".
So if I've got a wise and discerning heart, well then I'll know what to do with the wealth that I have if I get that wealth. If I've got a wise and discerning heart, I'll know what to do with power if it comes to me. If I've got a wise and discerning heart, I'll know what to do when people honor me. I'll know how to use that for God's purpose. But if I don't have Christ, all those things will turn on me and destroy me. Take that to the bank, everybody. That is a basic spiritual truth, and it's embodied here in this story. Let me just glance at the Gospel, because we're continuing this marvelous reading of the parables in Matthew. But keep Solomon in mind.
Keep what I've just said in mind. Jesus says, "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field". And when someone finds it, they'll sell everything they've got and buy that. It's a lovely image, really, because they think what people did in ancient times before insurance and all that is if an invading army was coming or marauders were coming, people would bury their wealth in the ground to protect it, and then they would flee. Well then sometimes they would never come back. They would die or something would happen to them. And then that treasure remained buried in the field. And then sometimes, maybe it's many generations later, someone's farming that field and they come upon this hidden treasure.
That's the image here. It's kind of beautiful. The kingdom of God is like that. If you find that hidden treasure, sell everything else you've got and buy it. What's the hidden treasure? A wise and discerning heart. What's the hidden treasure? It's Christ dwelling in you. "Non nisi te, Domine". I'll have nothing except you, Lord. That's the hidden treasure. Once you find that, forget everything else in your life. You can sell it. Sell all of it to buy that one thing, because without that one thing, you're lost. Look at the next parable.
"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it". The same idea. There's the merchant looking for pearls. That's all of us, right? Going through life. We're looking for things that will make us happy. That's the wealth and pleasure and honor and all the things we look for. Okay, okay. But when you find the pearl of great price, that's the kingdom of God, everybody. That's the treasure buried in the field. That's the wise and discerning heart. That's Christ dwelling within you. When you find that, the rest of it, you can sell it off. Who needs it? And buy that pearl.
What's the tragedy? Boy, all of us sinners, we're susceptible to it. We spend our lives, we're like this person, diving for pearls and diving here and diving there and exhausting ourselves, and we're finding bits and pieces of little pearls, but there's the pearl of great price, and we missed it. We missed it. Or we're looking for treasure in all the wrong places, and there's this one buried treasure and we missed it. Don't miss it. Don't miss it. Life's short. When you find a pearl of great price, and to tell you God's truth, you found it today in these readings. If you've got ears to hear and eyes to see, you found it in these readings. If you find it, sell everything else you've got. And for God's sake and for your own happiness, buy it. And God bless you.