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Commentary on Acts 22:3-16 or 9:1-22; Psalm 116; Mark 16:15-18

As the First Reading opens, we see Saul going to the high priest getting letters authorising him to go to the synagogues in Damascus and, if he found any Christians (“any who belonged to the Way”) there, he would bring them back to Jerusalem in chains.

As Saul approached the city, “suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him” and he fell to the ground. He heard a voice saying:

Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?

Quite puzzled, he replied:

Who are you, Lord?

The reply came:

I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

This must have been news to him.

To attack the followers of Jesus was to attack Jesus himself.

Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me. (Matt 25:40)

It is significant that when Saul got to his feet, he was blind. But it was not just a physical blindness; he had not been able to see Jesus as the Word of God. He would stay like this for three days, and during that time neither ate nor drank.

Then a Christian called Ananias was told to go and baptise Saul. Not surprisingly, Ananias was not keen on going to see a man who was going all out to get rid of Jesus’ followers. But he was reassured that this was what God wanted. Ananias was told:

Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel.

Presumably with some trepidation, Ananias then went to Saul and told him that the Lord had sent him so that Saul could regain his sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. He laid hands on Saul’s head. Immediately scales fell from Saul’s eyes and he could see again. But what he could see was now very different from what he saw before his blindness. He was ready for baptism.

The rest, as they say, is history. Almost immediately, Saul began to go to the synagogues of Damascus proclaiming that Jesus was the Son of God. It was an extraordinary transformation.

Later, his name will be changed to Paul. From then on, he will launch into an extraordinary career of bringing the Gospel to both Jewish and gentile communities in what is now Turkey, in Greece, and ultimately in Rome, the capital of the Roman Empire. This is reflected in the words of the Gospel where Jesus, before his ascension, tells his disciples:

Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation. (Mark 16:15)

Each one of us has been baptised, most of us at a very early age. But becoming a Christian is not just a once for all event. The process of conversion to a deeper following of Christ is something that can and should continue right through our lives. It is also important to realise that, like Paul, every one of us is called not just to take care of our own spiritual well-being. Rather, our following of Christ is something that calls on us to share that message with people around us, to “proclaim the good news to the whole creation”.

The Gospel reading is from the end of Mark’s Gospel, from what is sometimes referred to as the “longer ending” to distinguish it from a “shorter” one. Both of these texts are thought to have been inserted to round off a rather abrupt original ending of this Gospel. That version described the women on Easter Sunday fleeing from the empty tomb in “terror and amazement” and, because of their great fear, “they said nothing to anyone”.

The longer ending carries on from that point with material that we find in the other narratives, such as references to Mary Magdalen, and to Jesus appearing before his disciples.

Today’s reading includes instructions that Jesus gave to his disciples before leaving them for the last time. They are words which apply very much to Paul. They begin with the instructions to proclaim the Good News to the whole of creation. This is exactly what Paul was doing as he reached out to gentile communities all the way from what is now modern Turkey, through Greece and Macedonia, and on to Rome.

The one who believes and is baptised will be saved…

Paul was second to none in his belief in Christ. He would be able to say later on:

…it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.

An expression of total union with his Lord.

Jesus then indicates some of the signs that will accompany those who profess their faith. Again, Paul was capable of many of these – like escaping great dangers and bringing healing and wholeness into people’s lives.

Conversion is not something that only happens once in a lifetime. It is something that can happen to us several times in the course of our life. Let us be ready to answer whenever the Lord calls us to something greater.

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Commentary on Nehemiah 8:2-6,8-10; 1 Corinthians 12:12-30; Luke 1:1-4;4:14-21

In this third year of the Sunday Scripture cycle (Year C), we begin today to read the Gospel according to Luke. During the Ordinary Sundays of this year, it is Luke’s story about Christ that we will be following.

Today’s Gospel passage is in two distinct parts. It begins with the opening paragraph of Luke’s account. It is addressed to a friend, Theophilus (meaning, ‘beloved of God’). Luke implies that Theophilus has already been instructed orally in the message of Jesus, but Luke will now present him with an accurate and orderly account of Jesus’ life and teaching.

Luke clearly acknowledges that he himself never saw Jesus. His Gospel was written at least 50 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. Yet he wants to assure his friend that what he writes is accurate and is based on the experiences of people who did know Jesus personally.

At the same time, it is important to remember that Luke, like the other evangelists who have differing versions of the same events, is not writing a biography. His first purpose—as we see in the second part of today’s passage—is to tell us the meaning of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection for our personal lives, and why we should accept and follow Jesus as our King and Lord.

A preparation for his work
The second part of today’s passage involves a jump in the text. We leapfrog from the opening paragraph of Luke’s Gospel to Jesus’ first public appearance in his hometown of Nazareth. In between are the stories of the Annunciation, Zechariah and Elizabeth, the births of John the Baptist and of Jesus, the baptism of Jesus and the temptations in the desert. In other words, we have jumped from chapter 1 to chapter 4 in the text.

All that has been described at the very beginning of the text is really a preparation for today’s scene—for what we are seeing here is the solemn inauguration of Jesus’ public life and mission.

Immediately before this, he had been down at the River Jordan with his cousin, John the Baptist, and following his baptism, he had his strange experience in the desert (to be discussed on the First Sunday of Lent). So the Gospel says that:

Then Jesus, in the power of the Spirit [arising from his baptism and his triumph over the Evil One], returned to Galilee…

Galilee is the northern province of Israel to which Jesus belonged. He returned:

…to Nazareth, where he had been brought up…

A purposeful journey
Luke very deliberately has Jesus start his work here. His public life will be a single, direct journey from Nazareth to Jerusalem, the focal point of the story told by Luke in his Gospel and in the Acts of the Apostles. Unlike the other Gospels, there will be no going back and forth between Galilee and Jerusalem. And it is in Jerusalem, the city of peace, that Jesus will suffer and die. It is here that he will rise to life and become our Lord and Saviour. And it is from here too that his disciples will go forth to every corner of the world with the Good News.

So it is that on this first day he goes into the synagogue “as was his custom” on the Sabbath day. It is important to remember that Jesus was an observant Jew. His attacks were never on the Law as such, but on its interpretation and abuses. As he said:

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
(Matt 5:17)

In Nazareth, there were no priests in the synagogue, which was simply a prayer hall. The priests were in the Temple (in Jerusalem), the only place where sacrifice was held. In the synagogue, every male Jew had a right to read the Scriptures and to speak to the assembly.

Mission statement
As Jesus stood up to read, a passage from the prophet Isaiah was given to him. It was a passage about the coming Messiah. But what happens now, of course, is that Jesus is announcing that he himself is that Messiah. He applies the words of the prophet to himself:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me

The words “He has anointed me” is a way of saying “I am a king.” A king was proclaimed by anointing. We remember the prophet Samuel anointing David as king. The Greek for Messiah is Christos and it means “the anointed one.” Saviour King, Messiah, Christ—they here all mean the same thing. Jesus Christ means Jesus King. ‘Christ’ is an explanatory title; it is not a name.

And what kind of king is Jesus going to be? There immediately follows a proclamation, a programme or manifesto of what we can expect from him. Today we might call it a ‘mission statement’. The words are to be taken both literally and symbolically.

Good news for the disadvantaged
His words are addressed directly to the materially poor, those in prison, the physically blind, and all the oppressed and exploited of the world. While Matthew speaks of “the poor in spirit”, Luke addresses the beatitude directly to:

…you who are poor…you who are hungry…you who weep… (Luke 6:20-22)

The message for them is one of hope, of healing and of liberation. This will come about not by some miracle, but by the transformation of those who, aligning themselves with Jesus, can put an end to these things.

But the message is surely to be understood symbolically as well, so as to include all of us. The Brazilian educator and philosopher, Paolo Freire, in his Pedagogy of the Oppressed, emphasised that where there are rich and poor, powerful and weak, oppressors and oppressed, all are equally in need of liberation.

So in addition to the materially poor, there are those who are emotionally underdeveloped, those who are lonely or rejected, those who are crushed by their need to be surrounded by material plenty—all are poor, really poor. And they include all of us at some time.

The unfree
In addition to those held in captivity, especially those who are unjustly in prison, but also those who, guilty of some crime, need conversion and reconciliation, there are many, many who are far from free. Very few people indeed are truly free, and many actually fear true freedom and the responsibility that goes with it. True freedom is something for all of us to pray for. Jesus said:

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind…

There is a kind of instinct that makes people in some cultures consult the blind as sources of a special insight. Physical blindness is far less disabling than the blindness that comes from prejudice, ignorance, jealousy and other emotional blocks.

Said the writer Henry David Thoreau, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation”. Societies which often boast of their freedom create sometimes unbearable pressures on people. For example, some who flee to Western societies from countries whose governments repress individual freedoms may, after a time, hanker after a lifestyle that is not so materialistic and competitive. We need to become aware, here in our own society, to what extent we are living under pressures we could well do without.

A shared life
How do Jesus’ words reach us today? The answer, I believe, is in today’s Second Reading. The problem with our Christian living is that it is so individualistic. We try to manage things on our own. And that is even true of the way we try to live our Christian lives.

But it is not the picture that Paul describes. He sees the multiplicity of Christians as living members of one Body. Each member interacts in a constant giving and receiving. And each member gets the same respect. In fact, it is the “weaker” and “less honourable” parts which receive greater attention.

That is how the words of Jesus in today’s Gospel become living realities. For it is in mutual giving and receiving as one Body that we enable each other to experience the enrichment (overcoming our poverty), the vision (banishing our blindness), and the freedom (removing the oppressions and addictions) which Jesus wishes us to have.

Finally, we cannot help noticing the contrast between the proclamation of the Law in the First Reading and that of Jesus in the Gospel. The Law was essential for dignity, human rights and freedom, but there is a new ingredient in what Jesus gives—compassion—that’s what makes the difference.

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Commentary on Mark 8:1-10

Today we have the second of two multiplication stories found in Mark. The first, with 5,000 people, was in a predominantly Jewish area while this one, with 4,000 people, is in mainly gentile territory. Jesus is reaching out to both groups. The people have nothing to eat and are hungry. The meaning is both physical and spiritual.

Once again we see Mark indicating the emotional response of Jesus. He is filled with compassion for the people in their need.

I have compassion for the crowd…If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way—and some of them have come from a great distance.

They will collapse “on the way”, i.e. on the road. Jesus is the Way, the ‘Road’. To walk the road of Jesus, we need a certain kind of nourishment. This is what Jesus came to give.

The disciples, interpreting Jesus literally, as they usually do, ask:

How can one feed these people with bread here in the desert?

In the presence of Jesus, the question answers itself, but the disciples have not yet clicked. In Mark’s Gospel, they are often shown to be without an understanding of just who their Master is—that is because they represent us.

The disciples are asked what they can supply. Seven loaves and a few fish is all they have. There is a strong Eucharistic element in this, as in the former story (with the 5,000). The people are told to sit down, and:

…he took the seven loaves, and after giving thanks [Greek, eucharistesas] he broke them and gave them to his disciples to distribute, and they distributed them to the crowd.

Again, we note that Jesus himself does not give out the food the people need. It comes from him, but is distributed by his disciples. The same is true today. It is our task to feed the hungry—both physically and spiritually. All were filled—4,000 people altogether—and even so, there were seven (a perfect number) baskets left over. A sign of God’s abundance shared with his people.

As before:

…he sent them away. And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha. [i.e. back to Jewish territory]

Jesus was leaving no room for any misinterpretations of what he had done. The disciples, too, are quickly removed from the scene. There was to be no self-congratulation or glorying in their connections with Jesus, the wonder worker. Through the miracle, the teaching had been given and that was it.

And so, we pray:

Lord, teach me to serve you as you deserve;
to give and not to count the cost;
to fight and not to heed the wounds;
to labour and seek no reward,
save that of knowing that I do your holy will.

(Prayer of St Ignatius Loyola)

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Commentary on 1 Kings 12:26-32; 13:33-34

Today is our last reading from the First Book of Kings for a while. While Solomon’s former courtier, Jeroboam, ruled over 10 of the tribes of Israel, Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, ruled over Judah (including Simeon) which contained Jerusalem and the Temple. For Jeroboam this meant that the people in Jeroboam’s territory might still continue to go to Jerusalem to worship and could be won over to give their allegiance to Rehoboam, who would, in turn, get rid of Jeroboam. Jeroboam did not have confidence in the divine promise given to him through the prophet Ahijah (see yesterday’s Reading and 1 Kgs 11:38) and thus took action that led to his losing God’s blessing on his kingship.

He made two calves and built two shrines, one in Bethel and the other in Dan, to house them. Pagan gods of the Arameans and Canaanites were often represented as standing on calves or bulls as symbols of their strength and fertility. To the people Jeroboam said:

You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

Jeroboam’s intention was not to adopt another god, but to use the symbol of Baal-hadad to represent the Israelites’ invisible God. Such representations were never used; Yahweh could not properly be represented by a human-made image. In doing so, Jeroboam was reducing Yahwism to the level of the surrounding religions. It was very similar to what Aaron did when the people waited impatiently for Moses to come down from Mount Sinai and made the golden calf. Like Aaron, Jeroboam attempted to combine the pagan calf symbol with the worship of the Lord, although he apparently attempted no physical representation of the Lord – no ‘god’ stood on the backs of his bulls (as in the case of the Canaanites).

Bethel and Dan had long been places of worship. Dan was located in the far north of the kingdom near the source of the River Jordan. In the time of the Judges, there was a similar paganised form of worship practised here. Bethel was situated about 20 km (12 miles) north of Jerusalem, close to the border of Ephraim, but within the territory of Benjamin. It held an important place in the history of Israel’s worship of Yahweh. The two sites marked the limits of the new northern kingdom and the clear implication was that it was not necessary to go beyond them to worship the Lord.

“And this thing became a sin” says the writer. This tactic of Jeroboam violated the second part of the First Commandment (the carving of idols for worship) and it inevitably led to the violation of the first part (“You shall not have other gods besides me”). What is worse, although Jeroboam intended the worship of Yahweh (but not in Jerusalem), it opened the way for full pagan practices to come into Israel’s religious rites. This happened especially under King Ahab.

Jeroboam also built temples in high places. When they entered Canaan, the Israelites often followed the Canaanite tradition (and other cultural traditions too) of locating altars on high hills. These were probably former places of worship to Baal. It is clear that the Israelites were forbidden to take over pagan altars and high places and use them for the worship of the Lord. Altars were to be built only at divinely sanctioned sites. It is not clear whether a multiplicity of altars was totally forbidden provided the above conditions were met. It seems, however, that these conditions were not followed even in the time of Solomon, and pagan high places were being used for the worship of the Lord. These practices would lead in time to a falling away from the true worship of Yahweh and involve the mixing of different religious practices, which was strongly condemned.

For all of these innovations, Jeroboam began to provide priests to minister at the shrines. But these priests were from the common people and not from the tribe of Levi which was the Mosaic tradition. It is likely that Levite priests in his kingdom had migrated to Jerusalem (and the Temple), because non-Levites had been promoted as priests for the worship in Dan and Bethel, or because they declined to function at these shrines.

Jeroboam also instituted a feast to correspond to the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles for which the people would normally travel to Jerusalem. Now they could celebrate the feast in Bethel. Priests from the shrines in the high places were appointed to officiate at Bethel. Finally, Jeroboam himself offered sacrifices and overstepped his privileges as king by assuming the role of priest.

It is clear that Jeroboam did all of this not out of religious conviction, but simply to protect his throne. His motives were political and not religious. He had to keep his people away from Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah. But precisely for that reason and for neglecting clear warnings he was given [not in our readings], Jeroboam incurred the wrath of God and was ultimately destroyed.

The story reminds us of the dangers of abusing religion for other ends. The mutual relationship of church and state is always a complex issue. The end of our commitment to Jesus Christ is to join with him in the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth. It is to bring us closer to God and to each other, to lead us to an ever deeper understanding of what is true and good, which should be a source of justice and peace and unity. But it can so often become, as we well know, a source of terrible divisions, hatred, violence and destruction.

It is also the case that religion when lived on the very highest level can be a source of division and hostility to those who feel threatened by it. Jesus said very provocatively that he had come to bring not peace, but the sword and the division of families. But this is a very different issue from the abuse of religion and we need to distinguish both. As Christians we cannot isolate ourselves from the important concerns of our communities.

Religion is false when it leads to hatred and destruction. Religion is true when it leads to unity and the creation of more good. But in either case, religion will never be free from divisions because all true religion is both a contradiction and a challenge to conventional thinking.

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Commentary on Mark 7:31-37

Jesus is still in gentile territory. He has now moved east from the Mediterranean coast to the interior, on the east side of the Sea of Galilee, in the area of the Decapolis (Greek for “Ten Towns”).

A deaf and mute man is brought to Jesus for healing. He takes the man aside, puts his fingers in the man’s ears, touches his tongue with spittle, looks up to heaven and prays, “Be opened”. Immediately the man’s ears are opened, his tongue loosed and he is able to speak plainly. As often happens in this Gospel, the people who witnessed the miracle are told not to say anything about it to anyone:

…but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.

The people “were astounded beyond measure” and they said:

He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.

As often happens in the Gospels, and especially in Mark, what we have here is much more than a miracle story, i.e. the healing of a physical ailment. We are approaching a climactic part of this Gospel, and this passage leads into it. What Jesus does to this man is something that is meant to happen to every one of his followers, including his immediate disciples.

We all need to have our ears opened so that we can hear and understand in its fullness the message of Jesus. In addition to that, once we have heard and understood, the natural consequence is that we go out and speak openly to the world about what we have heard and understood. Both hearing and speaking are inseparable for the Christian disciple.

And so, in the older form of the baptismal rite, the celebrant touched the ears of the one being baptised and put saliva on the lips (saliva was then still believed to have healing powers). This rite symbolises the grace of the sacrament by which the newly baptised (in speaking about an adult) hears and accepts the Word of God, and undertakes the responsibility of proclaiming it in word and action.

And, as in today’s story, when we have truly experienced the power of that message and the love of God in our own lives, we cannot but do what that man did—broadcast it far and wide.

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Commentary on 1 Kings 11:29-32; 12:19

The prophecy made in the time of Solomon is now being carried out. Solomon has died and his son Rehoboam wants to take over the throne. But as we saw, God was greatly displeased with the idolatrous behaviour of Solomon and would deny the kingdom to his son.

Instead, Jeroboam, a former servant in Solomon’s court, will become the ruler and Rehoboam will be rejected by the people. Jeroboam was from Ephraim and, as a resourceful and rich young man who impressed Solomon, he had been put in charge of the whole labour force of the tribe of Joseph.

In today’s reading, as Jeroboam is leaving Jerusalem, he meets with the prophet Ahijah. There are just the two of them present and the prophet is wearing a new cloak. Then, in a highly symbolic gesture, he indicates what is going to happen. (It is not unusual in the Old Testament for prophets to make statements by symbolic actions which are not only meaningful, but produce actual results—see Jeremiah 18:11.)

Ahijah takes his new cloak and cuts it into twelve pieces. At the same time, he tells Jeroboam that the kingdom is being taken from Solomon and ten of the tribes of Israel (each one was named after one of the 12 sons of Jacob) and will be given to Jeroboam. They will form what will be known as the Northern Kingdom (called Israel or Ephraim).

The two remaining pieces represent just one tribe left for Solomon’s successor, namely, Judah which had absorbed Simeon. They would become the Southern Kingdom (or Judah). In fact, his division goes back to the time of the Judges, but under David and Solomon the two territories had become temporarily united. Now they were splitting again—and for good.

The reason that part of Solomon’s kingdom will remain within his family is because of God’s loyalty to David and also for the sake of Jerusalem, which was in the territory of Judah. It was God’s chosen city, the city of David and the place where his earthly presence was symbolised in the Temple.

It is not in our reading, but Ahijah goes on to give the reasons why most of Solomon’s kingdom is being taken from his family and his immediate successor. It was because of Solomon’s worshipping of false gods and departing from the statutes that had been so faithfully observed by his father, David. Nevertheless, Solomon would be allowed to keep his throne up to his death and then one tribe would be given to his son to rule over. And, if Jeroboam is faithful in his service of Yahweh, God will be with him. He will have a lasting dynasty and it will be the kingdom of Israel.

When Solomon heard about this, he regarded Jeroboam as a rebel and a threat to his rule. Jeroboam was forced to flee in exile to the royal court of Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Solomon. This spelt the end of David’s kingdom, but it will be resurrected—in a very different way—with the coming of Jesus.

Today we have to acknowledge that, in a way, the kingdom of Jesus is divided into many factions, both within the Catholic Church and between many Christian denominations. It is surely not his will as expressed in Jesus’ prayer to his Father at the Last Supper:

I ask not only on behalf of these but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their word, that…they may be one, as we are one…that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
(John 17:20-23)

Let none of us be a source of division in our own church or parish, or in our relations with Christians of other denominations. Let there be for all of us, one Lord and one Shepherd.

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Commentary on Mark 7:24-30

Having challenged some of the religious principles of the Pharisees and scribes, Jesus now pointedly goes into gentile territory. The next three stories take place in non-Jewish areas. Why did Jesus go to the city of Tyre on the Mediterranean coast? It may have been to give him some breathing space from the crowds which pressed in on him everywhere. Later, he will move on to Sidon, and then eastwards by way of the Sea of Galilee to the area known as Decapolis (Ten Towns). All of these places were dominated by Gentiles. Because the people there recognised his healing powers, he ministered to them also.

We are told that he entered a house in Tyre and did not want to be recognised. Why was this? Because his mission was only to his own people? Because people without faith only saw in Jesus a wonder worker? Nevertheless, he was already too well known even here to escape notice. His fame had spread even to these places.

It is then that a gentile woman came to him. She was a Greek, but Syro-Phoenician by birth. She prostrated herself before Jesus and begged him to exorcise the evil spirit in her daughter. Jesus’ answer seems somewhat strange and out of character:

Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.

Jesus’ words suggest an image where the children of the family are fed first, and then the leftovers are given to the dogs under the table. In so speaking, Jesus indicates the prior claim of the Jews to his ministry. In fact, we see this, too, in the missionary work of Paul. Whenever he arrived in a town for the first time, he always went to the Jewish synagogue first to preach the message of Christ, and only later to the Gentiles. Because of the shared tradition of Jews and Christians, they were the obvious people to hear the message first.

Jews (and also Muslims) avoided dogs as unclean animals. They were unclean because they ate all kinds of things indiscriminately. The name ‘dogs’ was sometimes applied by Jews to Gentiles, and for the same reason. It is likely that the woman would be aware of this disparaging title.

It is also important to sense the tone in which Jesus spoke, and this is indicated by the reply of the woman. It is done in a mood of friendly banter. This is clear from the immediate response of the woman:

Sir [also translated ‘Lord’], even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.

In other words, they do not wait until the children are finished eating. They eat simultaneously, even though they only get scraps. Her powerful faith is immediately rewarded and her daughter is healed.

This is a story anticipating the faith of future Gentiles who will become Christians. Let us pray that such faith may be ours also. We know that Jesus excludes absolutely no one from his mercy and healing power. Both as individuals and communities, may we too be as inclusive as possible in our relationships.

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Commentary on 1 Kings 11:4-13

As his life progressed, Solomon moved steadily downhill. The sacred writer implies that women were the cause of his downfall, and especially foreign women. Apart from the daughter of Egypt’s Pharaoh, he took many foreign women as his wives. Among these were many from ethnic groups with which the Israelites were forbidden to marry. The reason for this prohibition was the danger that one would be tempted to worship their gods—as is the case here.

Solomon fell in love with many such women, and towards the end of his life, we are told he had 700 wives and 300 concubines (this is presumably something of a literary exaggeration!). The problem was not so much the number of women in his life—for even David had a number of wives. But these women turned him away from Yahweh as his God. Unlike his father, David:

…his heart was not true to the Lord his God…

Among the gods Solomon began to worship under the influence of his wives were Astarte (Asthtoreth), the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom (Molech), the idol of the Ammonites. Worship of Molech not only severely jeopardised the recognition of the absolute kingship of the Lord over his people, but also involved (on rare occasions) the practice of child sacrifice.

To appease his wives, Solomon built shrines to Chemosh, the god of the Moabites, and to Molech on a hill facing Jerusalem. And he did the same for many of his wives, who openly worshipped their own gods.

Twice in the past God had appeared to Solomon: the first time when he asked Solomon what special gift he wanted and Solomon, setting set aside wealth and military power, had asked for wisdom. In the second vision, just after Solomon had completed the Temple, Yahweh had promised many blessings on Solomon. But now God is angry with him, especially because of his repeated idolatry and his violation of the covenant. Solomon had broken the most basic demands of the covenant and thereby severely undermined the entire covenant relationship between God and his people.

In punishment, his kingdom would be given over to not a son, but to one of his servants. However, for the sake of David, Solomon would remain king until his death. Also, for David’s sake, Solomon’s son would be left king of just one tribe. In this way, the promise of an everlasting dynasty for David’s line would be at least partially observed.

As Jerusalem contained the Temple built by David’s son, the destiny of Jerusalem and the Davidic dynasty were closely linked. The Temple represented God’s royal palace, where his earthly throne (the Ark) was situated and where he had pledged to be present as Israel’s Great King.

Solomon’s foreign marriages were primarily contracted for political ends, and the pagan shrines were intended for his wives and for traders. Such contacts, however, jeopardised the purity of the religion of Yahweh, and the author interprets the situation in the spirit and language of Deuteronomy. God punishes Solomon’s impiety by raising up enemies abroad (Hadad the Edomite) and at home (Jeroboam will take over 10 tribes as king, leaving only Judah to Solomon’s son). In the end, Solomon’s great wisdom could not prevent his being ruled by his ‘heart’ and his political and economic interests.

How often have we, too, been ruled by our emotions and other considerations and been led into behaviour which we know is wrong? It is so easy for us to rationalise, which means creating false reasons to justify what we do. And yet, the only way to go for our own long-term good is the way of truth, integrity and genuine love.

Again we pray for that wisdom which gives us an insight into where truth and goodness are to be found. The road to that wisdom, of course, is the Way of Jesus.

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Commentary on Mark 7:14-23

After defending himself against the accusations of some Pharisees and scribes about his not observing the traditions of the elders, Jesus now turns to the people. He enunciates what for him are the main principles:

• Nothing that goes into the body from outside can make a person ritually or religiously unclean.
• What makes a person unclean is the filth that comes from inside their mind and is spoken through their mouth or expressed in action.

This was a major issue in the earliest days of the Church and was dealt with by the Council of Jerusalem. The story is told in the Acts of the Apostles (chap 15).

The first Christians were all Jews who continued to observe Jewish customs. But when non-Jews began to be accepted into the Christian communities, should they also be obliged to follow these laws and customs? It became clear that, from a religious point of view, no food could be called unclean. This helped to break down the barriers between Jew and Gentile. It has been pointed out that, immediately after this, Jesus entered gentile territory, something he did not often do in his own ministry (see tomorrow’s commentary).

Even Jesus’ disciples seemed shocked by Jesus’ teaching (probably reflecting the reactions of some of the early Jewish Christians). Jesus repeats what he says in the light of the Kingdom he was proclaiming:

He said to them, “So, are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters not the heart but the stomach and goes out into the sewer?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “It is what comes out of a person that defiles.”

Real uncleanness is in the ‘heart’—i.e. in one’s mind. Real uncleanness comes from within ourselves in the form of:

…sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.

As Christians, we do not normally worry about clean and unclean foods on religious grounds, but we can sometimes judge people’s religious commitment by their observance or non-observance of purely external things—a nun not wearing a habit, a person not taking holy water on going into the church, or someone taking Communion in the hand versus by mouth.

We may have gotten rid of the problem of unclean foods, but there are many other ways by which we focus on trivial externals while ignoring the real evils, the places where real love is absent—in ourselves.

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Commentary on 1 Kings 10:1-10

The story of the Queen of Sheba’s visit to Solomon gives an opportunity for the sacred writer to describe the extraordinary magnificence of the Jerusalem court.

Archaeological evidence suggests that Sheba is to be identified with a mercantile kingdom that flourished in southwest Arabia circa 900-450 BC. It profited from the sea trade of India and east Africa by transporting luxury commodities north to Damascus and Gaza on caravan routes through the Arabian Desert. It is possible that Solomon’s fleet of ships threatened Sheba’s continued dominance of this trading business. The queen, too, may have wanted to establish better trading relationships. Solomon dominated the Transjordan and, holding Ezion-Geber, controlled the caravan route from north Arabia to Syria and Egypt. Judging by the descriptions of both Solomon and the queen, it was a highly lucrative trade for both of them.

However, some hold that the queen mentioned here more probably ruled over one of the Sabaean settlements of northern Arabia. The Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) distinguishes between the more usual ‘Sheba’ (used here) and ‘Seba’ which it associates more closely with Cush, or Ethiopia. The name Seba came to be used for the region of the far South, (just as Tarshish stands for the Western limits of the earth) and it was comprised of great tribes of travelling merchants. This far-off people, together with the kings of Arabia and Seba, will come to do homage to the future King, as implied in Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus (see Matt 2:11, referring to Ps 72:1-11 and Is 60:6).

The purpose of the queen’s visit was to test Solomon’s wisdom, whose fame had reached as far as her kingdom. Arriving with a large retinue and weighed down with expensive gifts, she asked him questions on all the things in which she was particularly interested. He dealt easily and competently with every problem she posed to him.

It seems that the Queen of Sheba recognised a connection between the wisdom of Solomon and the God he served. Jesus used her example to condemn the people of his own day who had not recognised that “something greater than Solomon” was in their midst (see Matt 12:42; Luke 11:31).

When the queen saw the wealth and opulence with which Solomon was surrounded—his palace, the food on his table, the number and dress of his attendants and the holocausts he offered in the Temple, she was rendered speechless. Solomon far surpassed all her expectations both in his wisdom and his prosperity. Indeed, she said, blessed were the king’s court and attendants to be always in the presence of such wisdom. The reports she had received at home gave no idea of the reality she now saw with her own eyes.

She concluded by calling blessings on the God who put a person of such wisdom and judgement as Solomon on Israel’s throne:

Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel! Because the Lord loved Israel forever, he has made you king to execute justice and righteousness.

However, her blessings do not imply a personal recognition of the God of the Israelites; there is no hint that she abandoned belief in her own gods.

Before leaving, she gave even more gifts, including 120 gold talents, an enormous amount of money. Never again would anyone bring such an abundance of gifts as the Queen of Sheba brought to Solomon.

Underlying this story, of course, is the understanding that all Solomon’s magnificence was a sign of God’s blessings on his people. God alone was the source of all these blessings. It is clear that the description of this visit was not merely to describe the queen’s desire to experience Solomon’s wisdom at first hand. For the writer, the focus is not on the queen, but on the magnificence of Solomon’s court as a reflection of Israel’s glory and God’s special favour on them as a people.

We too need to remember that all the good things we have and experience are not simply the result of our own efforts. They can disappear just as quickly as they came. We can never claim anything as absolutely our own. We are simply stewards of all that comes into our hands. What we are given is not merely for our own enjoyment, least of all to be used at the expense of others. They are gifts by which we can be of service to others. Everything is for one purpose only: God’s praise and service. And an awareness of that is a form of real wisdom.