For all the beautiful people in the world who believe the holy word of God, the Scriptures, to be outdated, worn out, unkempt, not relevant, and unable to speak to the twenty-first century world as a whole, they may wish to read this Sunday’s first reading from the First Book of Kings, Chapter Three. It’s a beauty.
We may wish to mentally picture and take close note of this event from the above reading that happens to King Solomon, son of King David, who is still to this day revered as the greatest King in Israelite history. Earthly king, of course. Not above our heavenly King, Jesus, the King of Kings. We may wish to move King Solomon aside for a moment and place ourselves in his stead. God comes to Solomon – or you – in a dream saying in the clearest terms we can imagine, “Ask something of me and I will give it to you.” That’s right, ask for whatever you want in this world at this moment, and God will give it to you. How many of us would refuse such a request? Only a fool would do so. We all know that God will deliver on the request we make. “Heal me from this illness, Lord?” A very good request. “Relieve me of this addiction that I’ve struggled with for so long, Lord.” It is done! “Ease my financial burden for the rest of my life, providing enough cash flow to satisfy my lavish lifestyle.” “Well, now you’re pushing it, but you’ll be all set and have no financial worries until you see me face to face for a brief second and I send you to Purgatory for that request.”
God coming to us in a dream and asking us to make a request for whatever it is we want from him is like having the world in our hands, don’t you think? It’s like we now have control over some portion of our life that God will deliver on our behalf, easing our burden in some way. Anything you want! That’s what God says: “Ask something of me and I will give it to you.” What would you ask? Would you ask to become God for a day, replacing the One who can make it possible (I think)? If you became God for a day, and you had all these people’s souls flying up to heaven to meet you face to face and receive their judgment, what sort of judge would you be for your 24 hours of fame before you returned to your usual daily grind after one day of “having it all?” Would you have the audacity to send any soul to hell, knowing that your judgment would be just and proper? Would you open heaven’s door to everyone who comes before you, even those who hated God in this world, or those who denied your existence? Or even those who never confessed a sin in their life after living a life of wretchedness, taking advantage of every person they came in contact with because life is too short to not have what I want and not have some fun along the way? Even in sexual matters? Would you say to that person if you were God for a day, “Come in and receive your reward for being such a bad person. I forgive you of all your evil even though you’re not sorry and never have been and never will be. But come, enter into your rest, even though your wretchedness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees.”
How about if you asked God in the dream in which he comes to you for peace on earth for one day, where no one gets murdered, no riots in France, the United States, China, or anywhere; no war between Russia and Ukraine; peace in the Middle East; no one loses their life in a tragic accident; no one gets burned out of their house where all fire departments throughout the world do not answer a single call. A day where all spousal abuse stops, no child abuse, no abortions, no fistfights in families, no verbal put-downs from your relatives or your boss at work, no political battles, no dog fights or lions taking down a deer; where no doctors’ appointments are necessary because everyone’s health is perfect for one day per your request to God; where the Garden of Eden returns for one day so the world can get a visual on how good life really is when we don’t have to deal with all the wretchedness of people like the guy stated above that you just let into heaven without any show of contrition or act of repentance. We pray for peace on earth each day, I pray. Without such prayer, God only knows how much worse our world would be. But your request to bring peace to earth for one day where God makes it happen… Well, you just made the most selfless request a person could ask for from God.
What makes this Scriptural story from a few thousand years ago relevant for us today in the twenty-first century is our desire to want to ask God for anything in our life that will serve the good of ourselves and that of many others, if not the entire world. There are countless parts of this world, this life, we all would like to change. Some for the better; but some people would undoubtedly make a request that would end up hurting many people’s lives. The “getting even” crowd, the vengeful hearts out there, the “send down fire from heaven” people who would not hold back on their ugly passions even though the request was coming from an all-merciful God. Those who would make more war and not peace. But, most people, I believe, whether initially self-serving or not, would request from God something that will make the world a better place. I would trade off the tempting request for a constant cash flow in my life for one day of total peace on earth. The one day of peace on earth would draw more hearts to God, helping millions and millions to understand that peace is much better than strife. That the world is better off without us acting like the Yankees-Red Sox from the 1970’s and 80’s, when they loved to battle in more ways than just baseball. I know this because I grew up in this mindset. Nowadays, it’s just a baseball game. This is what getting close to God’s judgment will do to a rabid, God-fearing sports fan, putting all things into perspective.
One reality check here to this story from the First Book of Kings, of course, is that God would not make such a request of asking for whatever you want to any person who is not already in perfect line with his will. Someone who already has a heart for God. Is this why many folks may not have the dream of Solomon? Just an honest question. Imagine if God made the above request to Charles Manson? Or any serial killer? Or the worst abortionist disguised as a doctor? Or any politician drunk on power? We would have to run for the hills from a request that came back from such a person. Fortunately, we can trust God would not make such a request to any perpetrator or participator in the worst forms of evil. God is love (thank you, St. John). Which is why God comes to the humble King Solomon in a dream, and not someone who fits the bill from the short list above.
King Solomon, whose name means wisdom, makes a request to God that will serve his people with fairness, justice, mercy, and truth. The King of Israel, the son of King David, who is already rich in material goods, makes a request to God that will allow all Israel to prosper during his lengthy reign as King. Not by way of material goods, but prosper by way of leading others to the true King in the ways of obedience and holiness, loving God and their neighbor. In Solomon’s request of asking God that he, Solomon, know right from wrong, and choose the right in every encounter, the King of Israel is making a request he knows will not satisfy all his people who come before him for judgment, but that he will satisfy both justice and truth. But even more, King Solomon asks for the wealth of his people Israel to be hearts that worship the one, true King, which will set the rest of their lives on a path of peace, not only with God, but peace with each other.
If God came to you in a dream and said, “Ask something of me and I will give it to you,” would all sorts of unbelievable thoughts go off in your brain? … “I can have the world, I can have it all! I’m going to take advantage of God’s request that satisfies the deepest yearnings of selfishness inside of me.” Or, “I’m going to ask for something that brings the presence of God into the lives of other people, such as the world knowing what is right or wrong.”
In the end, it’s most unlikely this dream of King Solomon will happen to us. If it does, I’d be curious to hear about it. But these verses are most relevant to our lives. Truth be told, for us to discern right from wrong does not take a dream from God. We already have all the virtuous tools to make it happen in our confused world. It takes the living out of our faith in Christ, knowing and loving him, living each day in obedience to our faith. If we understand obedience to our faith as the path to true freedom in Christ, which it is, and the path to true freedom overall, then there’s no better spiritual place to be. Have you noticed it’s those who are disobedient in their Christian faith who do all the fighting with God and other people? This is useless energy. There are times when the defense of our faith needs to be fought, especially if the faith is badly misunderstood or wrongly misrepresented like some Catholic politicians and others have done. In their obstinance, they lead people who follow them away from God, not toward Him. Thus, rather than waiting for God to come to us in a dream petitioning us to ask for anything we want, the better path is to pray for what King Solomon asked for from God: the wisdom to discern right from wrong. In a world of confusion, we can use a few more folks to join the wisdom team in this matter.