Utter surrender

Wednesday in the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time, Cycle II

1 Kgs 10:1-10; Mk 7: 14-23

There is a subtle parallelism and contrast in today's first reading and in the Gospel. In the first reading, the Queen of Sheba, a pagan, hears of the wisdom of Solomon and therefore goes in person in order to meet him and to "test him with subtle questions." Despite the fact that she does not recognise the God of Solomon and of Isreal as her God, she is open to the Truth. We admire her sense of searching for the truth, her openness and humility. We are not told that she converted and started adoring the God of Israel, but we can see that she took Solomon's words of wisdom to heart. Obviously they were not just wise words and counsels that he said. What he was passing on to her was Wisdom itself, the Eternal Logos. We do know however that this Queen lavished him with an extraordinary amount of gifts. These gifts represent not only the tangible gifts that she did indeed give him, but more than that, they symbolise the surrender of her will to him.

On the other hand in today's Gospel, which continues from yesterdays, we have the disciples who like the Queen of Sheba approach him with questions. This time however it is not Solomon who speaks words of Widsom, but the Eternal Logos Himself, Wisdom-in-Person, Jesus who replies to their questions. However they miss the point. They do not give him any gifts, in other words, they do not surrender their understanding to him in faith. Therefore they continue to see things from their own limited perspective. In other words, they look at things from a superficial perspective leading them also to live superficially. Jesus therefore patiently tries to open their minds and hearts to show them that the heart is the seat of all our passions, all our decisions, all our actions. He wants to show them that they will not change unless they first assent to Him with their heart as the Queen of Sheba did to Solomon.

Whether we understand Jesus's words is a matter of choice, because first it must be preceded by faith. The saints of the twelfth and thirteenth century had a saying which went, "I believe that I may understand." This is why Jesus chides his disciples, "Even you are likewise without understanding?" As spectators to these two scenes we are therefore presented with two possibilities. We can either hold on to our pride, keep a closed heart and mind and refuse to believe in the liberation from sin that Jesus has brought us. As a result, we remain slaves to our own sin. Or else we can make a leap in the dark, an expression of humility, similar to the one that the Queen of Sheba did and surrender whole being to Jesus.