​Solomon has it all! He even has God talking to him in his dreams!  His dreaming self hears the question 
God is always asking, "What is it that you want?"  When we wake up, of course, the question is harder 
than it looks.  Why? Because it can only be answered with great care.  The word we speak coming 
straight from our heart. 
 
I know a lot of jokes about genies wriggling out of bottles or fairies swooshing their wands, who ask the 
lucky finder the same question.  Usually the answer is a request for endless wealth.  Solomon does not 
need to ask for what he already has, so he asks God for the gift of 'Wisdom'. A Wisdom that supports a 
community to grow.  A Wisdom for relating!   Notice how this stirs surprise and delight in Gods' own 
heart.   And  God  is  delighted  to  answer  this  prayer.   The  Psalmist  must  have  had  a  similar 
experience.  You can hear it as she sings, "The law from your mouth means more to me than silver or 
gold."  Or in the words and experience of Saint Paul, God adorns us in Glory.  What are they all telling 
us?  What lesson can be learned here? 
 
First of all, something happens.  A baby looks at you and smiles and, no matter what you're feeling, you 
just have to smile back.  Because, first of all, something happens.   You're standing at a graveside, tears 
your only prayer, as the storm of grief rages from your heart to your eyes.  Someone takes your hand 
and joins you in that lonely place which is now less lonely.  First of all, something happens. A secret 
weakness is exposed, but the support of a good friend is stronger than the shame that threatens to 
engulf us.  First of all, something happens.  We are unexpectedly kissed, we see an old person refusing 
to be old.  First of all, something happens. 
 
These are the 'moments' that throw us into the Mystery 
we share with each other.   We are suddenly face to 
face  with  the  Presence  within  which  we  live  our 
lives.  God does not wait for a suitable moment or for a 
polite  introduction.   His  presence  breaks  through  our 
routines,  demanding  our  attention,  insisting  that  we 
talk.  When God speaks, we may laugh or cry, we might 
sing or fall silent.  But whatever we do we are praying 
at our best.  The 'moment' the 'encounter' has changed 
everything. 
 
We pray for the coming of God’s Kingdom.  But when 
it arrives it is always a surprise!  In farming a field, a 
treasure  is  stumbled  upon.   A  door  opens  and  the 
perfect pearl is for sale.  Out of nowhere there is a gold 
embossed  invitation  to  the  Kings'  Banquet!   Every 
genuine  encounter  with  Jesus  is  always  a  surprise.   Lawyers  who  expected  justification  are 
challenged.  A rich young man asks for advice and is offered a vocation. Zacchaeus, hoping for a glimpse 
of a prophet, dines with his Saviour.  A woman at a well leaves with a bucket full of self-revelation.  All 
of them got more than they asked for.  Their emptiness suddenly brimming over, their ravaged lives 
called to greatness. 
 
These experiences bring us to prayer.  Our own story now made more by our encounter with Jesus.  We 
begin to make links with the Prophets and disciples who have gone before us.  In their company, old 
worlds  are  subverted,  new  worlds  rise  from  the  ruins.   We  are  blessed  by  a  Love  stronger  than 
death.  We are suddenly filled with a new confidence.  We have become the prayer.

A  handful  of  wheat,  a  fistful  of  mustard  seeds,  a  pinch  of yeast.   Jesus  uses  these  beautiful  things  to  say  something amazing about the Kingdom of God.  He begins with the great reassurance that love is invincible.  No matter how small the beginning, no matter how vulnerable or threatened the middle, the end is never in doubt.  In life and in death, the Kingdom will come and Gods' will, will be done.  
 
Next. He will not allow us to take a simplistic, no grey in the middle, view of the world.  We are all complicated.  There is no neat division of people into the 'good' and the 'bad'.   We are all a strange mixture of both.  Take the first disciples as an example. One moment they are all over Jesus like a rash, then they are following at a distance or not following Him at all.  And if we are honest, we  don't  always  go  along  with  Holy  things.   We  drift  from  time  to  time.   The  Great Reassurance of God walks with the Great Not-So-Sureness of the human heart. 
And so the struggle goes on.  Or the struggle goes well.  It is a struggle for bread, for shelter and for Compassion.  Only the Wisdom which allows the wheat and darnell to remain intertwined can make this happen.  This Wisdom puts us in a place of unending repentance as we await the time of harvest. 
 
This  invitation  to  unending  repentance  is  one  of  the  big  themes  of  Saint  Matthews Gospel.  It is an invitation to shake ourselves free of anything in us which causes hunger, homelessness and despair.  And when we have completed this work, we start all over again.  This labour goes on and on throughout our lives.  This is why, when we leave the retreat  centre,  full  of  good  intentions  and  two  minutes  into  the  journey  home  we  are screaming at someone who cut us up on the road, we smile.  Or we leave Holy Mass full of love, kindness and consideration which evaporates the minute someone presses the wrong buttons.  We smile! How many times have we witnessed Saint Peter proclaim his love unto death for Jesus being chastened and illuminated by his own betrayal.  Perhaps we dream more than we can do.  Perhaps not. 
 
In the teaching of Jesus weeds and wheat grow together.  Small seeds become huge trees.  Leaven raises dead dough into bread.  All are given the gift of time.  Time to try again.  Time to become repeat repenters and not just repeat offenders.  But one day the time  will  run  out  and  the  urgency  of  the  struggle  is  clear.   We  all  fail  and  we  are  all ashamed of the failing within us.  But we must not give up on ourselves.  Out of our errors and frailty come some of life's most important lessons.  There is a freedom that awaits us. It can only be found by those who carry the light, of a certain kind of love, into darkened places.

When Saint Augustine spoke his well known, "Thou hast made us for Thyself, O God, and our hearts are restless till they rest in Thee." - it sounded like he was saying that the human person is, in modern speak, 'hardwired for God'.  It sounds great to say that humanity cannot be reduced to physical, social or psychological models.  We are much, much more.  We are made in the image  of  God.   It  is  good  to  say  and  believe  these  things,  but  we  have  to  be  able  to  say something about the other drives that are in us and how they work together or not. 
 
Sacred  Scripture  speaks  of  the  human  face  bearing  the Sacred  Imprint  and  that  the  God  Drive  in  each  person demands that we give them endless respect.  And while this is true, it is also true that there are other 'drives' in us.  We have physical drives for food, air, water, and sex.  We have strong social drives to be liked and respected, to wear decent clothes, and live in decent houses.  To be in control of our own  lives,  rather  than  being  controlled  by  another.   Our physical and social drives move in unique ways in each of us.  Our minds, sift through these drives, trying to put them in order and lining up the ones that are most important.  So we  are  hard  wired  for  God,  and  we  are  hard  wired everywhere else.  How do we hold these different drives in such a way that we are real? 
 
Well, it isn't easy!  There is a real temptation to get into worshipping idols.  This isn't fanciful Old Testament theatrics.  When we do not reserve our God drive for God but attach it to money, family, power, food or sex, we ask these social realities to do for us what only God can do for us.   We  ask  that  they  give  ultimate  meaning  and  worth  to  our  lives.   But  they  cannot.   The invitation of Jesus to 'store up treasure for ourselves in Heaven '. (Mta 6,19) is a call to see through the temptation to give our wealth, our position or even our family too much importance. On their own they are fine.  But they must take second place to what comes first. 
 
This is no put down.  When families, communities and nations are not distorted by giving them undue importance they can be what they are.  They are the relational field where our deeper spiritual identity acts with love and justice.  We do not pull our father, mother, daughter, son, or spouse into an ultimate void and ask them to fill it.  Just a little bit too much pressure there!  Rather, they are the relationships where the one loved by God loves in turn.  We do not ask any created thing to grant us eternal worth.  Rather, the places where we meet as communities and 
nations are places where, the one rooted and grounded in God, expresses their sacred self in compassionate and just behaviour.  Things fall into their right place, and life, and the life of God in us, flows freely.   
 
This life flows in us and through us.  We join the transparent Prophets, the Just and the little ones.   People  welcome  us,  not  because  we  have  blood  ties,  or  power.   They  welcome  us because the Prophets, the Just and the little ones come from God, - the first in our hearts. This is what they seek, and this is their reward - the right ordering of spiritual, physical, psychological, social and moral life.