Finding your heart's desire... and following the path of your heart's desire: a life long piece of work... That's what my homily this weekend today's Sunday's scriptures - especially the story of Solomon's dream and God's extravagant offer. A video of my homily is above and here's the text. (If a video doesn't appear above, click here!)
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Can you imagine?
Can you imagine God coming to you in a dream as he came to Solomon? And in your dream, God says to you, “Ask for whatever you want. I'll give it to you!”
What would you ask for? What first came to your mind when I just asked that question? What's at the top of your wish list? What's the most important item on your bucket list? How would you respond to the Lord's offer?
Do you remember how Solomon responded? He said, “Look, God, you made me king, but I'm too young, and I'm inexperienced. I don't know how to be a king. And there are so many people, it's all too much.” And you can imagine Solomon saying, “God, let somebody else be king. Give me an easier job at the palace.”
And maybe, maybe that's how we'd answer the Lord's invitation as well. I can imagine folks saying (I know times in my own life when I might have said that) “Oh, God, look at my life! It’ too much! It's not what I was prepared for. It's not what I wanted. It's not what I expected. Too many problems, too many disappointments. You want to do something for me, God? Here's what you can do: just make my life a little easier, a little simpler, a little happier!”
But Solomon didn't ask for a happier life. He didn't ask God to make the Israelite people, over whom he was king - he didn't ask to make the Israelites a better people, or a more orderly people, or people more obedient. Rather, Solomon asked, “Lord, just give me an understanding heart, to help me distinguish between right and wrong, so I can govern your people as you want me to govern them.”
And how did God answer him? God said, “I will do as you requested. Because...” (There's a hitch!) “I will do as you requested BECAUSE...”
See, God is really smart. He's not gonna give away the store to Solomon - in a dream. He's not gonna give away the store to you and me, either. God told Solomon, “I will do as you requested BECAUSE you didn't ask for a long life for yourself. You didn't ask for wealth or riches. You didn't ask me to make you successful or happy. You didn't ask me to make you a king who defeats all his enemies. No, Solomon - you asked me for an understanding heart so that you can know what is right to do - and have the wisdom to DO - the next right thing."
It's really important for you and me to consider this story very seriously.
And not just Solomon's story, but also the three short parables in today's gospel:
• The one about what we truly treasure and want to keep in our lives.
• The one about the pearl of great price that we're willing to give up everything for.
• The one about deciding which fish to toss back, and which fish to keep.
With different images and examples and metaphors, all of today's scriptures are getting at the same three questions.
FIRST question… What is my heart's desire? What in my heart-of-hearts is most important to me? What do I treasure? What do I most want? And what do I really need?
SECOND question.. What's the path of my heart's desire? What kind of path has my heart's desire mapped out for me? Where has it taken me? Where is it leading me?
And turning things around a bit, the THIRD question… What is God's desire for me? What path has God charted to lead my heart to his? What does God (God who knows everything I want and everything I truly need) - what does God ask of me?
Now, some of us here today will hear those questions and consider them in retrospect. We're old enough to look back on our lives and how our hopes and dreams and desires have shaped our lives - look back on the often disappointing, joyful, crazy, zigzag paths down which we have walked in pursuing our heart's desires.
And we hope, and we pray, and we have every reason to trust - that the Lord is still making that offer. The Lord is still saying to us, no matter how old we are, “Ask for what you want, and I'll give it to you.” We can likewise hope, and pray, and trust that if we ask for it, God will still give us wise and understanding hearts: to discern, to discover, and to choose what's the next right thing to do - at 59, 69, or 79, or 89 years of age.
Others of us here today are still in the process of discerning our heart's desires, of finding and making our way down the paths where our heart's desires are leading us. Young folks… and you younger folks can also hope and pray and trust that: if you ask for it, and open yourselves to it, and if you desire it - God will give YOU a wise and understanding heart - and maybe you'll be able to avoid some of the twists and turns and ups and downs that us old timers have taken.
I have no doubt about this: God visits each of us and offers over and over again, as he offered to Solomon, “Ask for what you want, and I will give it to you.”
And… but… there's the hitch: God doesn't give away the store. If we ask for what we need - if we ask - not to escape our present circumstances - but to have in our minds and hearts the wisdom and understanding we need to deal with, to work through, to live through the nitty gritty reality of where our paths have led us --- then God will give us what we asked for: offering each of us the grace and the will, the love and the strength, to choose and to decide, to do the next right thing.
You know, I'm always aware in my preaching of when I'm saying things that may sound too spiritual - or very impractical. And I think this homily just might be one of those times. You might be sitting there saying, “Yeah, that's nice…”
So let me close with something St. Paul said to us in the second reading today, when he wrote, “All things work together for the good, for those who love God… ALL things WORK TOGETHER for the GOOD, for those who love God.
I'm gonna presume that, just by your presence here today: you are people who love God.
What we struggle with, and often forget or miss, is that even and especially in the midst of all our difficulties and problems, our pain and our sorrow, our defeats and our disappointments - even in the midst of all that - GOD loves US.
But he's not gonna give away the store for us…
We are the people who worship in the shadow of the Cross. The Father didn't rescue Jesus, his son, from his suffering - but rather walked with him - through it. While Jesus - with all the wisdom and love in his heart - Jesus followed the path of his heart’s desire: his desire to give away everything, even his life -for you and for me.
In your dreams, in your prayers, in your
quiet moments, in your troubles, and your tears, and your fears: the Lord is
always saying to you and to me,
“Ask for what you want. I will give it you.”
May we all ask for, may we all pray for, may we all desire - wise and understanding hearts - that in discerning and walking the path of our heart's desire, God will give us, always, the grace to know and to choose and to do - the next right thing.
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