We don’t like being told what to do. This must come as a consequence of Original Sin. In education, allowing students to pick their own exam style or select which questions to answer somehow relieves the animosity that comes from feeling forced into a corner by the mean old teacher. Notice: the students still take the test. What exercises and topics they opt for can both give a sense of ownership and can also reveal a great deal about them if it is left up to their choice.
In the Gospel’s illustrations, Christ presents various characters sifting through prospects: treasures, pearls, fish, and souls. When they finally secure their long-sought quarry, their lives are transformed. Holiness is that final aim, the gift from God that each person must accept for himself. Every saint has a different story of how that happens. These are “the mysteries of the kingdom” revealed even “to little ones” like us.
When God tells King Solomon, “Ask something of me and I will give it to you,” the monarch is provided an opportunity to determine his own destiny, to invest and commit himself and cooperate with the greater scope of God’s Will. The wise ruler petitions for “an understanding heart,” to be the kind of person able “to distinguish right from wrong.” Primitive ancient near eastern languages lacked the vocabulary for abstract concepts like “self” or “identity,” so they employed metaphors to supply such ideas. The heart is used for this purpose, with the added overtones of love with which we are familiar.
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“The Lord was pleased that Solomon made this request,” because he asked for this inner goodness to help the Hebrews and ultimately venerate God: “I serve you in the midst of the people whom you have chosen.” This bestows a distinctive character upon Solomon: “I give you a heart so wise and understanding that there has never been anyone like you up to now, and after you there will come no one to equal you.”
Solomon’s prayer was wise, his most well-known attribute. He sought not selfish longevity, nor the fame and convenience that come from wealth, nor for revenge against his adversaries. Would old age necessarily be healthy? Could a fortune not bring danger? Might not reprisal create even more foes? The Psalmist indicates that these basic desires for life, money, and retaliation are to be fulfilled better by following the Lord’s law: “Let your compassion come to me that I may live,” and “I love your commands more than gold, however fine,” and “Let your kindness comfort me according to your promise to your servants.” The model soul seeks its own perfection.
This sentiment is echoed Paul’s accounting of the various pathways to sanctity: “We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” Every individual experiences a particular summons within the universal call to holiness. That schema assures his stepwise progression from plan A to paradise: “And those he predestined he also called; and those he called he also justified; and those he justified he also glorified.” For we are “predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son,” each in a unique manner.
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When Christ gives this principle its conclusive endtime application with His escalating examples, He doesn’t leave out the terrifying risk of failure: “The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.” The disciples, likely exhilarated by the previous little allegories with which they could personally identify after leaving behind their whole former livelihoods to follow the Lord, must have been shocked by this last sudden negative one. So when He questions them, they are stifled to near silence: “‘Do you understand all these things?’ They answered, ‘Yes.’” They likely didn’t want to find out if the abysmal imagery would sink even lower.
He then ends the scene by advising the consideration of both “the new and the old.” Discern all possible options, then pursue what God prefers. Wise decisions entail patiently waiting for the prized goal, rejecting other possibilities in the meantime. Yes, they are His orders in the end, but He gives us a share in forming our own route to salvation, making us willing and virtuous participants in the whole process. Therefore, amid all the tests we pass through by the guidance He gives us, we too can say, “Lord, I love your commands.”