Fifth Thursday of Ordinary Time

The LORD, therefore, became angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice (for though the LORD had forbidden him this very act of following strange gods, Solomon had not obeyed him).

The Scriptures are full of examples of good people being lured into sin by others. Eve was lured into sin by the serpent, Adam by Eve, David by his lust for another’s wife, Solomon by his wives, and Judas by the Devil. All of them may have started with good intentions and doing good deeds, but eventually all of them fell into sin. In the same way, we all fall, too. We let the world lure us into wickedness or allow our selfishness to lead us into sin. No one is immune to temptation, but we all must do our best to resist it. A good life can be ruined by our inability to convert our hearts away from earthly things and to heavenly ones. The strange gods in our lives can be pride, envy, anger, greed, gluttony, lust, and wrath.

What sins are we constantly lured toward and into? How can we keep God in our hearts? What can we do to avoid all the worldly things that try to usurp God in our lives?

O Lord, give us the strength to never turn away from you again.

Amen.