Commentary on the Gospel of

Fr. Roland Chidiebere, CMF
The ultimate goal: union with God

Humanism, the idea of placing “prime importance on ‘human’ rather than ‘divine or supernatural’ matters,” on its own, has the world as its scope. It revolves around the human person’s affairs within the world and unable to go beyond. King Solomon excelled in the gift of wisdom he received from God, but unfortunately, he appears to run ‘a rat-race’, that is, not going beyond the hole! He asked God for the gift of wisdom to decipher between good and evil among his people; wisdom to administer justice to the people. This he did very well to the admiration of the international community, testified to by the Queen of Sheba. And furthermore, to please his fellow human beings, this time his wives, he erected altars for each of their own gods! Obviously, at this he went too far – all in attempt to the satisfy his fellow humans. And of course, in the process he lost his closeness to God. He lost his friendship with God, for his faith-expression went wanting! This is both a lesson and a challenge to us, that at bid to retain friendship or gain cheap popularity with fellow humans, we should not to lose sight of the ultimate goal, namely, our union with God.

Today’s Gospel message on the encounter between our Lord Jesus Christ and the woman whose daughter was possessed, invites us to the faith dimension (missed out by King Solomon) that ought to crown our humanistic acts. Our charity ought to enhance one’s salvific journey. Our call to share with others is not meant to be earth-bound. It is rather an expression that furthers our reunion with God. And this marks the big difference between philanthropic acts and charitable deeds. We come closest to God when we share in His love through our charity.

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