Today’s Old Testament selection in the Office of Readings speaks of the building of the Temple by Solomon. As you recall, his father, David, wanted to build the Temple and got the go ahead from the prophet Nathan until Nathan was corrected by God and hurried back to David and told him it wasn’t his to build, that God had made all things and what could a mere man build that God didn’t already have at his disposal. It would be up to Solomon his son to build it for the Lord. God would build through the work of Solomon. David was excluded because he had spilled too much blood in battle. Solomon would be a king of peace.
Today’s reading then, from Sirach, tells of Solomon’s building of the Temple. It speaks too of his faults, and the hard-headedness of his sons.
In the reading from the Church Fathers, St. Augustine, we hear that the true Solomon is Jesus Christ. Solomon was the prefigure of Jesus himself. “If the Lord does not build the house, in vain do the builders labor.” (Psalm 127:1) All of us are given the duty to help in its construction, but the Lord is the builder. We build by preaching the Word and participating in the sacraments.
It is so easy in our daily lives to end up thinking, “It is all up to me!” How wrong we are when we fall into that trap. It is all up to God, and at the same time, it is our responsibility to open our hearts and minds and allow God to use us for his designs. The poor will not be fed, nor the homeless given shelter, nor the sick healed without our hands, hearts, minds and bodies. But let us never forget that all we do, we do because God gives us the energy, opportunity, time and talent to carry out his will in building the Temple of the Lord, his body.
