He gives us profound insight. Most everything that the world holds up to be of some importance is nothing, but vanity.
Recall that “the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream at night. God said: Whatever you ask I shall give you.” Solomon responded, “Give your servant, therefore, a listening heart to judge your people and to distinguish between good and evil. For who is able to give judgment for this vast people of yours?” The Lord was pleased by Solomon’s request. So God said to him: “Because you asked for this—you did not ask for a long life for yourself, nor for riches, nor for the life of your enemies—but you asked for discernment to know what is right—. I now do as you request. I give you a heart so wise and discerning that there has never been anyone like you until now, nor after you will there be anyone to equal you. In addition, I give you what you have not asked for: I give you such riches and glory that among kings there will be no one like you all your days.”
Solomon was given the gift of wisdom like no one ever had before him. God also gave him worldly riches, which he did not even ask for.
Wisdom is the gift to be able to see the things of God and their use for God and others. However, despite Solomon being the wisest man, he ends up losing everything.
Solomon himself demonstrates this weakness of human nature perhaps better that anyone. He was a man who, in his younger years, was blessed with many graces, great spiritual insight, wisdom beyond anyone who ever lived, and even the grace of divine inspiration to write Sacred Scripture. He served the Lord, built the temple, and dedicated his life to the service of God and the people entrusted to his care.
However, Solomon got caught up in the gifts God had given him, rather than in God who gave the gifts. He gave himself over to stockpiling money and material goods. He gave himself over to the cravings of the flesh, and to the worship of false gods. From being the wisest man dedicated to serving God, he became a fool and sought pleasure and power violating God and His holy Laws.
Here is a true story. A woman and her husband were not able to have children. Because they had no children, they were able to build their own house and had a motor home and would go out to the lake often. They also saved hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years.
They used their money primarily for their self. Although they were nice people, they gave no money to organizations, nor relatives, nor anyone who was poor in their community.
He died in 2011 at the age of 82 and his wife lived another 11 years, until she died at the age of 84. She developed dementia, and so one of her nieces admitted her into an assisted living center.
One day, there was a water-line break in her apartment. She temporarily moved to another unit, until it was repaired. When she returned to her apartment, all her diamond rings were missing. It was presumed either the workers stole them or the elderly woman misplaced them.
A year later, the elderly woman was admitted to a long term nursing home. Family members came to see her, but the niece took care of her needs and would not allow other family members to help the elderly woman. Before entering the nursing home, the niece had her aunt sign over her home, her car, and her bank account in her name, she said, “So the nursing home wouldn’t get her wealth”.
A few years later, the elderly woman died. The niece who took care of her aunt, was seen wearing her aunt’s diamond rings. She bought a new home in another city, so one of her daughters could live there.
The moral of the true story is, if you store up for yourself your own wealth, failing to help others in need, a relative may steal your wealth, and end up using it her self, and so the greed of the aunt was passed to her niece.
How much different would this true story be, if the couple helped others. Perhaps their good example would have inspired the niece to be generous too.
However, the uncle and aunt and the niece, rather than storing up riches in heaven, stored up material things.
St. Paul in the second reading said “Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.” He said, “Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry.”
The Gospel tells us to not be concerned about earthly possessions nor to seek wealth for the sake of wealth only to store more for the sake of storing it or to not waste time with the worldly things of pleasure: to eat, drink and be merry, because we do not know when our earthly life will end. God said to the rich man, “You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom- will they belong?” Jesus then said, “Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves, but are not rich in the matters of God.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1723) says, “The beatitude we are promised confronts us with decisive moral choices. It invites us to purify our hearts of bad instincts and to seek the love of God above all else. It teaches us that true happiness is not found in riches or well-being, in human fame or power, or in any human achievement - however beneficial it may be - such as science, technology, and art, or indeed in any creature, but in God alone, the source of every good and of all love: All bow down before wealth. Wealth is one idol of the day and notoriety is a second. . . .
Extra wealth for one’s own sake can be a stumbling block to heaven, because God wants those who have-- to help those who have not. Jesus said, “What you do to the least of my brothers, you do unto me.”
Solomon was given wisdom to see the things of this world come from God and are to be used for God and others. But, he lost his wisdom, and so did the elderly woman, her husband and their niece. They traded their wisdom for the riches of the world, and not for the riches of God.
Let us pray for wisdom in using the gifts God has given us, for His glory, and the good of our neighbor, for by doing so, we will be storing up treasure in heaven. May the Virgin Mary, the seat of wisdom help us seek the greatest treasure, Jesus Christ, and possess Him forever in heaven.
