Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart — 1 Kings 3:9
The word “understand” is used at least five times in today’s readings. To comprehend the term, “understanding heart,” from the ancient biblical perspective, we should know that Solomon is asking God for a “listening heart.” The heart in the Old Testament refers not to the organ circulating the blood, but to the seat of the intellect and the ability to discern good and evil. Solomon wants to follow God’s direction through the process of discernment. But, something else also happens when a person starts listening with their hearts. Our late Pope Francis writes, in The Joy of the Gospel (Word Among Us, 2013), that:
When we live out a spirituality of drawing nearer to others and seeking their welfare, our hearts are opened wide to the Lord’s greatest and most beautiful gifts. Whenever we encounter another person in love, we learn something new about God. Whenever our eyes are opened to acknowledge the other, we grow in the light of faith and knowledge of God. If we want to advance in the spiritual life, then, we must constantly be missionaries (272).
You see, if we are to grow our relationship with God, we cannot have a spirituality that is merely a vertical me and Thee. No, to grow our relationship with God, we must have a spirituality that is me, Thee, and the other. This is a spirituality that is both vertical and horizontal. As Pope Leo states:
We must be ready to put our hands into the dough of the world! It is not enough to talk about flour without getting our hands dirty; we must touch it. . .Our time presents itself as a mill where the pains of poverty, social divisions, the challenges of new technologies, and the sincere desires for peace are still being ground together like new flour that risks being fermented with a bad leaven. . .The Kingdom will grow, not by force or by numbers but through the patience of those who, with faith and love, continue to knead with God. Pope Leo to missionaries: ‘We must do the will of the Father’ – Vatican News
How do we do this? First, we must make the decision that we want to deepen our relationship with God and ask God for an understanding heart. Then, we must step out to encounter the other—the poor, the disadvantaged, the incarcerated, the immigrant, the sick. . .Join the justice ministries community here at HNOJ Cathedral.
Barbara Molinari Quinby, MPS, Director
Office of Human Life, Dignity, and Justice Ministries
Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral Raleigh,