The LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream at night. God said, "Ask something of me and I will give it to you." O LORD, my God, you have made me, your servant, king to succeed my father David; but I am a mere youth, not knowing at all how to act. I serve you in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a people so vast that it cannot be numbered or counted. Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong. For who is able to govern this vast people of yours?" The LORD was pleased that Solomon made this request. So God said to him: "Because you have asked for this--not for a long life for yourself, nor for riches, nor for the life of your enemies, but for understanding so that you may know what is right-- I do as you requested. I give you a heart so wise and understanding that there has never been anyone like you up to now, and after you there will come no one to equal you.
Psalms 119(118)
I have said to the LORD, that my part; is to keep your words. The law of your mouth is to me more precious than thousands of gold and silver pieces.
Let your kindness comfort me in accord with your promise to your servant. Let your compassion come to me that I may live, for your law is my delight.
For I love your commands more than the finest gold. For in all your precepts I go forward; every false way I hate.
Wonderful are your decrees; therefore I observe them. The revelation of your words sheds light, giving understanding to the simple.
Letter of St Paul Ap. to the Romans 8,28-30.
Brothers and sisters: We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined he also called; and those he called he also justified; and those he justified he also glorified.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 13,44-52. Jesus said to his disciples: “The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it". Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind. When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away. Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. Do you understand all these things? They answered, "Yes." And he replied, "Then every scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old."
The words of the Popes Faced with the unexpected discovery, both the farmer and the merchant realize that they are facing a unique opportunity which should not be missed; hence, they sell all that they own. Assessing the inestimable value of the treasure leads to a decision that also implies sacrifice, detachment and renunciation. When the treasure and the pearl are discovered, that is, when we have found the Lord, we must not let this discovery become barren, but rather sacrifice everything else in order to acquire it. It is not a question of disdaining the rest but of subordinating them to Jesus, putting him in first place; grace in first place. The disciple of Christ is not one who has deprived himself of something essential; he is one who has found much more: he has found the complete joy that only the Lord can give. It is the evangelical joy of the sick who have been healed; of the pardoned sinners, of the thief for whom the doors of heaven open. (…) Today we are called to contemplate the joy of the farmer and the merchant in the parables. It is the joy of each of us when we discover the closeness and the comforting presence of Jesus in our lives. A presence which transforms the heart and opens us to the needs and the welcoming of our brothers, especially the weakest. (Pope Francis, Angelus, 30 July 2017)
ANGELUS 23 July 2023 Dear brothers and sisters, buongiorno!
Today’s Gospel offers us the parable of the wheat and the weeds (cf. Mt 13:24-43). A farmer, who has sown good seed in his field, discovers that an enemy by night has sown weeds in it, a plant that looks very similar to wheat, but is invasive.
In this way, Jesus talks about our world, which in effect is like a large field, where God sows wheat and the evil one sows weeds, and therefore good and bad grow together. Good and bad grow together. We see this in the news, in society, and even in the family and the Church. And when, along with the good wheat, we see bad weeds, we want to tear them up immediately, to make a “clean sweep”. But today the Lord warns us that to do this is a temptation: one cannot create a perfect world, and one cannot do good by hastily destroying what is bad, because this results in even worse effects: one ends up, as we say, “throwing the baby away with the bathwater”.
There is, however, a second field where we can clean up: it is the field of our heart, the only one where we can intervene directly. There, too, there are wheat and weeds. Indeed, it is precisely from there that both expand into the great field of the world. Brothers and sisters, our heart, in fact, is a field of freedom: it is not a sterile laboratory, but rather an open and therefore vulnerable space. To cultivate it properly, it is necessary on the one hand to take constant care of the delicate shoots of goodness, and on the other, to identify and uproot the weeds, at the right time. So let us look within a bit and examine what is happening, what is growing within me, what grows in me that is good and evil. There is a good method for this: it is called an examination of conscience, which is seeing what happened today in my life, what struck my heart and which decisions I made. And this is precisely to verify, in the light of God, where the bad weeds and the good seed are.
After the field of the world, and the field of the heart, there is a third field. We can call it the neighbour’s field. They are the people we associate with every day, and whom we often judge. How easy it is to recognize their weeds, how we like to “flay” others! And how difficult it is, instead, to know how to see the good grain that is growing! Let us remember, though, that if we want to cultivate the fields of life, it is important to seek first and foremost the work of God: to learn to see the beauty of what the Lord has sown, the sun-kissed wheat with its golden ears, in others, in the world and in ourselves. Brothers and sisters, let us ask for the grace to be able to see it in ourselves, but also in others, starting from those who are close to us. It is not a naïve perspective; it is the perspective of one who believes, because God, the farmer of the great field of the world, loves to see goodness and to make it grow to make the harvest a feast!
So today too, we can ask ourselves some questions. Thinking of the field of the world : Do I know how to resist the temptation to generalize, to sweep others aside with my judgments? Then, thinking of the field of the heart : Am I honest in seeking out the bad weeds in myself, and decisive in throwing them into the fire of God’s mercy? And, thinking of the neighbour’s field : Do I have the wisdom to see what is good without being discouraged by the limitations and sluggishness of others?
May the Virgin Mary help us to cultivate patiently what the Lord sows in the field of life, in my field, in the neighbour’s, in everyone’s field.
Today, in the liturgy, the Old Testament Reading presents to us the figure of King Solomon, the son and successor of David. It presents him at the beginning of his reign, when he was still very young. Solomon inherited a very demanding task and the responsibility that lay heavily on his shoulders was great for a young king. He first of all offered God a solemn sacrifice, “a thousand burnt offerings”, as the Bible says. Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night and promised to grant him what he asked in prayer. And here we see the greatness of Solomon’s soul. He did not ask for a long life, nor wealth, nor the elimination of his enemies; instead he said to the Lord: “Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong” (1 Kings 3:9). And the Lord heard him, so that Solomon became famous throughout the world for his wisdom and his right judgements.
Therefore he prayed God to grant him “an understanding heart”. What do these words mean? We know that the “heart” in the Bible does not only indicate a part of the body, but also the centre of the person, the seat of his intentions and opinions. We might say: the conscience. Thus an “understanding heart” means a conscience that knows how to listen, that is sensitive to the voice of truth and for this reason can discern right from wrong.
In Solomon’s case, the request was motivated by the responsibility of leading a nation, Israel, the people whom God chose to show the world his plan of salvation. The King of Israel, therefore, had to try always to be in tune with God, listening to his word, in order to guide the people on the paths of the Lord, the path of justice and of peace.
However, Solomon’s example is valid for every person. Each one of us has a conscience so as to be, in a certain way, “king”, that is, to exercise the great human dignity of acting in accordance with an upright conscience, doing what is right and avoiding wrong.
The moral conscience presupposes the ability to hear the voice of truth and to be docile to its indications. People who are called to the task of government naturally have a further responsibility and, therefore — as Solomon teaches — are in even greater need of God’s help. Yet each one has his own part to play, in the concrete situation in which he finds himself. An erroneous mentality suggests to us that we ask God for favourable things or conditions; in fact, the true quality of our life and of social life depends on the upright conscience of each one, on the capacity of one and all to recognize right, separating it from wrong and seeking patiently to put it into practice, thereby contributing to justice and to peace.
Let us ask the Virgin Mary, Seat of Wisdom, for help in this. Her “heart” was perfectly docile to the Lord’s will. Even though she was a humble and simple person, Mary was a queen in God’s eyes, and we venerate her as such. May the Blessed Virgin help us to form in ourselves, with God’s grace, a conscience ever open to the truth and sensitive to justice, to serve the Kingdom of God.
FAUSTI - "For the joy of it, he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field". These last four short parables, addressed to the disciples, complete Jesus' discourse with an appeal to decision and responsibility. Joy is the strength to decide for the Kingdom, a treasure to live coherently and to transmit appropriately. The first two parables are symmetrical, but with differences that illuminate different aspects of the one theme: deciding for what is worthwhile. They speak of "finding" (the result of an "explicit search" or not), of a "hidden treasure" and of a "beautiful pearl" - suggestive images of the value and beauty of the Kingdom - and put the accent on "selling everything" to "buy" the field and the pearl. It is not enough to search or find: you have to decide. Whoever wants to keep his foot in two shoes, does not walk. The reason for the decision is joy, passion for treasure. Love for Jesus makes you indifferent to the rest, free to finally walk towards happiness. This is why God gives us joy: to make us decide. And that is why the enemy does everything to make us sad. To prevent us from taking any positive decisions. The second pair of parables is about responsibility. It is true that the Church is not a sect of the just ones. It is the great net, thrown into the sea, that fishes the brothers out of the abyss. Woe if it were not so! But he who has obtained mercy, lives it with care towards the others. The goodness of God is an incentive to correspond to it, not an alibi for wickedness: salvation is to be like Him! In a special way the "scribe" is responsible for understanding everything and transmitting it in its entirety, with attention to the new and to the old, to interpretation and to tradition. He must keep in mind the New and the Old Testament, showing the truth of the promises in the light of Jesus, which is the fulfillment. It is impossible to understand the fulfilment without knowing the promise, but also to gather the promise without knowing the fulfilment. The veil of the Old Testament is lifted only by Christ (2 Cor 3:14-16). The Bible is the family treasure, from which, in due time, the scribe, faithful steward of the mysteries of the Kingdom, distributes his ration of food to each one. Blessed is the servant whom the master, upon his return, will find to serve in this way. Otherwise he belongs to the number of those who close the Kingdom of Heaven before men: they do not enter it and prevent others from entering. Jesus is the hidden treasure and the precious pearl. Whoever, sooner or later, finds Him, whether he seeks Him not, like the peasant, or whether he seeks Him, like the merchant. The Lord, as He makes Himself found by those who seek Him (Is 66:6), so says: "Here I am" by making Himself found even by those who do not seek Him (Is 55:1). He is Wisdom who prepares the banquet of life: the joy of having met Him is the strength to decide to achieve Him. The Church is made up of those who center their lives on Him, treasure and precious pearl; for the rest, they serve as much as He likes. Everyone is responsible for living concretely in the light of this love. The scribe, in a special way, is called to transmit well this treasure, ancient in its newness and always new in its ancient root.
1st book of Kings
RispondiElimina3,5.7-12.
The LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream at night. God said, "Ask something of me and I will give it to you."
O LORD, my God, you have made me, your servant, king to succeed my father David; but I am a mere youth, not knowing at all how to act.
I serve you in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a people so vast that it cannot be numbered or counted.
Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong. For who is able to govern this vast people of yours?"
The LORD was pleased that Solomon made this request.
So God said to him: "Because you have asked for this--not for a long life for yourself, nor for riches, nor for the life of your enemies, but for understanding so that you may know what is right--
I do as you requested. I give you a heart so wise and understanding that there has never been anyone like you up to now, and after you there will come no one to equal you.
Psalms 119(118)
I have said to the LORD, that my part;
is to keep your words.
The law of your mouth is to me more precious
than thousands of gold and silver pieces.
Let your kindness comfort me
in accord with your promise to your servant.
Let your compassion come to me that I may live,
for your law is my delight.
For I love your commands
more than the finest gold.
For in all your precepts I go forward;
every false way I hate.
Wonderful are your decrees;
therefore I observe them.
The revelation of your words sheds light,
giving understanding to the simple.
Letter of St Paul Ap.
to the Romans
8,28-30.
Brothers and sisters: We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.
For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
And those he predestined he also called; and those he called he also justified; and those he justified he also glorified.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ
according to Saint Matthew
13,44-52.
Jesus said to his disciples: “The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls.
When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it".
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind.
When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away.
Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous
and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.
Do you understand all these things? They answered, "Yes."
And he replied, "Then every scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old."
The words of the Popes
RispondiEliminaFaced with the unexpected discovery, both the farmer and the merchant realize that they are facing a unique opportunity which should not be missed; hence, they sell all that they own. Assessing the inestimable value of the treasure leads to a decision that also implies sacrifice, detachment and renunciation. When the treasure and the pearl are discovered, that is, when we have found the Lord, we must not let this discovery become barren, but rather sacrifice everything else in order to acquire it. It is not a question of disdaining the rest but of subordinating them to Jesus, putting him in first place; grace in first place. The disciple of Christ is not one who has deprived himself of something essential; he is one who has found much more: he has found the complete joy that only the Lord can give. It is the evangelical joy of the sick who have been healed; of the pardoned sinners, of the thief for whom the doors of heaven open. (…) Today we are called to contemplate the joy of the farmer and the merchant in the parables. It is the joy of each of us when we discover the closeness and the comforting presence of Jesus in our lives. A presence which transforms the heart and opens us to the needs and the welcoming of our brothers, especially the weakest.
(Pope Francis, Angelus, 30 July 2017)
POPE FRANCIS
EliminaANGELUS 23 July 2023
Dear brothers and sisters, buongiorno!
Today’s Gospel offers us the parable of the wheat and the weeds (cf. Mt 13:24-43). A farmer, who has sown good seed in his field, discovers that an enemy by night has sown weeds in it, a plant that looks very similar to wheat, but is invasive.
In this way, Jesus talks about our world, which in effect is like a large field, where God sows wheat and the evil one sows weeds, and therefore good and bad grow together. Good and bad grow together. We see this in the news, in society, and even in the family and the Church. And when, along with the good wheat, we see bad weeds, we want to tear them up immediately, to make a “clean sweep”. But today the Lord warns us that to do this is a temptation: one cannot create a perfect world, and one cannot do good by hastily destroying what is bad, because this results in even worse effects: one ends up, as we say, “throwing the baby away with the bathwater”.
There is, however, a second field where we can clean up: it is the field of our heart, the only one where we can intervene directly. There, too, there are wheat and weeds. Indeed, it is precisely from there that both expand into the great field of the world. Brothers and sisters, our heart, in fact, is a field of freedom: it is not a sterile laboratory, but rather an open and therefore vulnerable space. To cultivate it properly, it is necessary on the one hand to take constant care of the delicate shoots of goodness, and on the other, to identify and uproot the weeds, at the right time. So let us look within a bit and examine what is happening, what is growing within me, what grows in me that is good and evil. There is a good method for this: it is called an examination of conscience, which is seeing what happened today in my life, what struck my heart and which decisions I made. And this is precisely to verify, in the light of God, where the bad weeds and the good seed are.
After the field of the world, and the field of the heart, there is a third field. We can call it the neighbour’s field. They are the people we associate with every day, and whom we often judge. How easy it is to recognize their weeds, how we like to “flay” others! And how difficult it is, instead, to know how to see the good grain that is growing! Let us remember, though, that if we want to cultivate the fields of life, it is important to seek first and foremost the work of God: to learn to see the beauty of what the Lord has sown, the sun-kissed wheat with its golden ears, in others, in the world and in ourselves. Brothers and sisters, let us ask for the grace to be able to see it in ourselves, but also in others, starting from those who are close to us. It is not a naïve perspective; it is the perspective of one who believes, because God, the farmer of the great field of the world, loves to see goodness and to make it grow to make the harvest a feast!
So today too, we can ask ourselves some questions. Thinking of the field of the world : Do I know how to resist the temptation to generalize, to sweep others aside with my judgments? Then, thinking of the field of the heart : Am I honest in seeking out the bad weeds in myself, and decisive in throwing them into the fire of God’s mercy? And, thinking of the neighbour’s field : Do I have the wisdom to see what is good without being discouraged by the limitations and sluggishness of others?
May the Virgin Mary help us to cultivate patiently what the Lord sows in the field of life, in my field, in the neighbour’s, in everyone’s field.
BENEDICT XVI
RispondiEliminaANGELUS 24 July 2011
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today, in the liturgy, the Old Testament Reading presents to us the figure of King Solomon, the son and successor of David. It presents him at the beginning of his reign, when he was still very young. Solomon inherited a very demanding task and the responsibility that lay heavily on his shoulders was great for a young king. He first of all offered God a solemn sacrifice, “a thousand burnt offerings”, as the Bible says. Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night and promised to grant him what he asked in prayer. And here we see the greatness of Solomon’s soul. He did not ask for a long life, nor wealth, nor the elimination of his enemies; instead he said to the Lord: “Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong” (1 Kings 3:9). And the Lord heard him, so that Solomon became famous throughout the world for his wisdom and his right judgements.
Therefore he prayed God to grant him “an understanding heart”. What do these words mean? We know that the “heart” in the Bible does not only indicate a part of the body, but also the centre of the person, the seat of his intentions and opinions. We might say: the conscience. Thus an “understanding heart” means a conscience that knows how to listen, that is sensitive to the voice of truth and for this reason can discern right from wrong.
In Solomon’s case, the request was motivated by the responsibility of leading a nation, Israel, the people whom God chose to show the world his plan of salvation. The King of Israel, therefore, had to try always to be in tune with God, listening to his word, in order to guide the people on the paths of the Lord, the path of justice and of peace.
However, Solomon’s example is valid for every person. Each one of us has a conscience so as to be, in a certain way, “king”, that is, to exercise the great human dignity of acting in accordance with an upright conscience, doing what is right and avoiding wrong.
The moral conscience presupposes the ability to hear the voice of truth and to be docile to its indications. People who are called to the task of government naturally have a further responsibility and, therefore — as Solomon teaches — are in even greater need of God’s help. Yet each one has his own part to play, in the concrete situation in which he finds himself. An erroneous mentality suggests to us that we ask God for favourable things or conditions; in fact, the true quality of our life and of social life depends on the upright conscience of each one, on the capacity of one and all to recognize right, separating it from wrong and seeking patiently to put it into practice, thereby contributing to justice and to peace.
Let us ask the Virgin Mary, Seat of Wisdom, for help in this. Her “heart” was perfectly docile to the Lord’s will. Even though she was a humble and simple person, Mary was a queen in God’s eyes, and we venerate her as such. May the Blessed Virgin help us to form in ourselves, with God’s grace, a conscience ever open to the truth and sensitive to justice, to serve the Kingdom of God.
FAUSTI - "For the joy of it, he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field". These last four short parables, addressed to the disciples, complete Jesus' discourse with an appeal to decision and responsibility. Joy is the strength to decide for the Kingdom, a treasure to live coherently and to transmit appropriately. The first two parables are symmetrical, but with differences that illuminate different aspects of the one theme: deciding for what is worthwhile.
RispondiEliminaThey speak of "finding" (the result of an "explicit search" or not), of a "hidden treasure" and of a "beautiful pearl" - suggestive images of the value and beauty of the Kingdom - and put the accent on "selling everything" to "buy" the field and the pearl.
It is not enough to search or find: you have to decide.
Whoever wants to keep his foot in two shoes, does not walk.
The reason for the decision is joy, passion for treasure.
Love for Jesus makes you indifferent to the rest, free to finally walk towards happiness.
This is why God gives us joy: to make us decide. And that is why the enemy does everything to make us sad. To prevent us from taking any positive decisions.
The second pair of parables is about responsibility.
It is true that the Church is not a sect of the just ones. It is the great net, thrown into the sea, that fishes the brothers out of the abyss. Woe if it were not so! But he who has obtained mercy, lives it with care towards the others. The goodness of God is an incentive to correspond to it, not an alibi for wickedness:
salvation is to be like Him!
In a special way the "scribe" is responsible for understanding everything and transmitting it in its entirety, with attention to the new and to the old, to interpretation and to tradition. He must keep in mind the New and the Old Testament, showing the truth of the promises in the light of Jesus, which is the fulfillment.
It is impossible to understand the fulfilment without knowing the promise, but also to gather the promise without knowing the fulfilment.
The veil of the Old Testament is lifted only by Christ (2 Cor 3:14-16).
The Bible is the family treasure, from which, in due time, the scribe, faithful steward of the mysteries of the Kingdom, distributes his ration of food to each one.
Blessed is the servant whom the master, upon his return, will find to serve in this way.
Otherwise he belongs to the number of those who close the Kingdom of Heaven before men: they do not enter it and prevent others from entering.
Jesus is the hidden treasure and the precious pearl.
Whoever, sooner or later, finds Him, whether he seeks Him not, like the peasant, or whether he seeks Him, like the merchant.
The Lord, as He makes Himself found by those who seek Him (Is 66:6), so says: "Here I am" by making Himself found even by those who do not seek Him (Is 55:1).
He is Wisdom who prepares the banquet of life: the joy of having met Him is the strength to decide to achieve Him.
The Church is made up of those who center their lives on Him, treasure and precious pearl; for the rest, they serve as much as He likes.
Everyone is responsible for living concretely in the light of this love.
The scribe, in a special way, is called to transmit well this treasure, ancient in its newness and always new in its ancient root.