Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the word of God speaking to us through the Holy Scriptures about the king David of Israel who was about to die and join his ancestors in the afterlife, giving his own son, Solomon, advice for him how to be faithful to God and keep all of His commandments, and why all those were necessary if he was to keep God’s grace.

He said all those things to Solomon his son, because after all the power, majesty, grandeur and strength that God had given him, it will easily tempt anyone just as it had tempted him. We noticed from our previous day’s readings and before that, how even king David himself, a very faithful and devoted servant of God, as a man, was still tempted with lust and power, as he sinned against God when he committed adultery with Bathsheba, and when he, in a moment of pride, decided to disobey the Lord, and counted the people of Israel to fulfil his own ego.

In the same way therefore, it is also a reminder for all of us, that we too should be careful and be vigilant in our own lives, lest the devil comes to tempt us with all the lies and all the temptations of pleasures and goodness of this world. It is our human nature to be weak against all these temptations, just as the Lord Jesus Himself said of His disciples, that while the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

In the end, what David feared did come true, as Solomon, while he was mostly faithful to the Lord, especially at the start of his reign, all the temptations of worldly power, influence, fame and all the allures of women and pleasures of the earth were too much for him to resist, and he fell into sin and wickedness. Thus, king Solomon fell into sinful life towards the end of his life, preferring to listen to his many wives rather than to listen to God.

Today therefore, is a reminder not just to those who lived in the past and erred, but even more importantly, it is a reminder for all of us not to repeat the same mistake that king Solomon had done. Wise as he was, surpassing any man or creature before him and ever since except for God, but he was not able to resist the temptations and lure of worldly pleasures and therefore, he fell.

In the Gospel, we heard how Jesus commissioned His Apostles and sent them to preach the word of God and the Good News, preceding Him as He went about the villages and towns throughout Galilee and beyond, ministering to the people of God in those places. He commanded them not to bring anything beyond what they absolutely need for the journey, and to not be complacent about these things lest they were tempted.

This is because their mission was a mission of evangelisation and of service, that is to bring the word of God to the people still dwelling in ignorance and in the darkness of the world. It was not to impress the people through wealth, fame, affluence, or by offering them with worldly goods and properties, but through simple gestures and service, walking faithfully in the path of the Lord.

If one is to follow faithfully in the ways of the Lord, then indeed we should abandon all forms of worldliness and attachments to the things of this world, such as pride, greed, fame, affection, affluence and all the other things that distract us from the true goal beyond others, that is God and His love. Even Solomon and David themselves could fall into the trap of sin, as faithful as they were, and even more so for us, living in a world today where the temptations of evil are growing from time to time.

Let us all this day commit ourselves anew to the Lord, and let us dedicate ourselves to resist the temptations of the flesh, and seek beyond what the body and the flesh desired, but seek for greater satisfaction and for greater truth that can be found only in God. Let us all dedicate ourselves in the way of the Lord, and labour so that in all the things we do, we may bring greater glory to God, and bring salvation to ever more souls.

May Almighty God bless us and keep us, strengthen us and empower us, and may He bring us up from the darkness of sin and death, and deliver us into a new life blessed by His love and grace. God bless us all. Amen.