Greatness and Humility

 Reflection on Today's Readings, Thursday of 5th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II, and the Memorial of St. Scholastica, February 10th, 2022
Texts: 1kings 11:4-13; Psalm 103:1-4.35-37.40; Mark 7:24-30
Man lives a paradoxical life: strong and at the same time weak, destined to live and at same time destined to die, powerful and at the same time powerless, so high and so lowly. This is not less true of Solomon: A man of wisdom and folly. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom", the wise says. Here goes the saying, "Any river that forgets its source will run dry." Solomon forgot the source of his wisdom, he lost the fear of the Lord, and his wisdom turned into folly.
The life of Solomon reminds us that the higher we go, the higher the risk of falling. One could be so great that he starts to put trust in himself instead of God. As man climbs the ladder of greatness, humility which he needs so dearly, the glory of his greatness, starts to slip off his hand. That is where the weakness of man lies; he could be so powerless to get hold of the humility. It takes uncommon humility for a man who is so great to be humble and submit to God. Without humility he could no longer submit to God. This is clear in today's first reading, "The Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart had turned from the Lord the God of Israel who had twice appeared to him and who had then forbidden him to follow other gods; but he did not carry out the Lord’s order." Many a time we pray to be great but forgetting to pray for humility. Humility makes one simple. Solomon lost first humility and was obsessed with greatness. His obsession with greatness gave him up for the love of women. Solomon replaced the love of God with the love of women. Getting entangled in the web of love paralyses be it man or woman.
We see in Solomon a man who builds so great a kingdom by his wisdom and tears it down by his folly.The same man who built also tore down what he built. Hence, in today's first reading it is said, "The Lord therefore said to Solomon, ‘Since you behave like this and do not keep my covenant or the laws I laid down for you, I will most surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your servants."
The life of Solomon teaches us that the other side is a possibility for anyone: a poor man can also become rich as a rich man can also become poor, a wise man can become a fool as a fool can also become wise, a prince can become a servant as a servant can also become a prince, etc. The poor should be hopeful, the fool should be hopeful, servants of today should be hopeful. The wise should beware of the other side and embrace humility, so also the rich and princes.
We see, in today's gospel reading, a woman of great humility. This is clear  in the gospel reading thus: "And he (Jesus) said to her, ‘The children should be fed first, because it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the house-dogs.’ But she spoke up: ‘Ah yes, sir,’ she replied ‘but the house-dogs under the table can eat the children’s scraps.’" This shows that the problem of Solomon is not really love of woman but the kind of woman he loved, their characters. If he had loved a woman that always says, like Mary, "do whatever He tells you", he would have not gone astray. This tells us that we should be mindful of what we love. We should always love what will keep the love of God alive in us. Mary is the right choice here. The love of Mary is a surest way to the love of God, for she will always tell us to do what God tells us. Unlike the wives of Solomon, Mary will not lead us astray; she will not turn our hearts away from God.
We are also reminded that humility wins us God's favour and mercy. David was aware of this. This is clear in his response to Shimei who cursed him while he was running away from his son, Absalom: “'My own son seeks my life; how much more now may this Benjaminite! Let him alone, and let him curse; for the Lord has bidden him. It may be that the Lord will look on my distress, and the Lord will repay me with good for this cursing of me today.' So David and his men went on the road, while Shimei went along on the hillside opposite him and cursed as he went, throwing stones and flinging dust at him" (2Sam. 16:11-13). The humility of the woman of today's gospel reading won her answer to her plea.
We celebrate, today, the memorial of St. Scholastica. She was a sister to St. Benedict. The note on her in the daily missal says of her thus: "She consecrated herself to God and lived the monastic life with great zeal and faith, thus becoming a beacon of holiness, peace and strength to the  Christians of central Italy" (p. 1569). She continues to inspire in us holiness, purity, love of God, peace and strength.

God our Father, infuse in us Your grace and grant us the gift of humility, that we may always stand firm in You. Amen

Fr. Andrew Olowomuke