There is something greater than Solomon here

WEDNESDAY 4 MARCH (Lk 11,29-32)

Solomon has never performed a single miracle. He has only acted and spoken with wisdom. His wisdom left the world breathless: “The queen of Sheba, having heard of Solomon’s fame, came to test him with subtle questions. She arrived in Jerusalem with a very numerous retinue, and with camels bearing spices, a large amount of gold, and precious stones. She came to Solomon and questioned him on every subject in which she was interested. King Solomon explained everything she asked about, and there remained nothing hidden from him that he could not explain to her. When the queen of Sheba witnessed Solomon’s great wisdom, the palace he had built, the food at his table, the seating of his ministers, the attendance and garb of his waiters, his banquet service, and the holocausts he offered in the temple of the Lord, she was breathless. “The report I heard in my country about your deeds and your wisdom is true,” she told the king. “Though I did not believe the report until I came and saw with my own eyes, I have discovered that they were not telling me the half. Your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report I heard. Happy are your men, happy these servants of yours, who stand before you always and listen to your wisdom. Blessed be the Lord, your God, whom it has pleased to place you on the throne of Israel. In his enduring love for Israel, the Lord has made you king to carry out judgment and justice”” (1Kings 10,1-9). Jesus does not speak with wisdom. He is the eternal Wisdom and lives in the eternal Wisdom which is the Holy Spirit. A substantial and not only quantitative or qualitative difference. Today this difference of substance is denied to Christ Jesus by his very disciples.

While still more people gathered in the crowd, he said to them, “This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. At the judgment the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here. At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here.

Jonah did not perform any miracles. He told the Ninevites only seven words and the whole city was converted: “The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: “Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you.” So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh, according to the Lord’s bidding. Now Nineveh was an enormously large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,” when the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth. When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes. Then he had this proclaimed throughout Nineveh, by decree of the king and his nobles: “Neither man nor beast, neither cattle nor sheep, shall taste anything; they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water. Man and beast shall be covered with sackcloth and call loudly to God; every man shall turn from his evil way and from the violence he has in hand. Who knows, God may relent and forgive, and withhold his blazing wrath, so that we shall not perish.” When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out” (Jon 3,1-10). Jesus does not say only seven words. He is the eternal Word of the Father, He is the Light, the Truth, the Justice and the Thought of the Father among men. Here too: difference of substance, not of quality and not even of quantity. This difference must be affirmed. Jesus is the Different from every man, every angel and every creature made by the Lord. Jesus is not a Saviour, He is Salvation, Redemption, Peace, Life, Truth and Grace. Nothing is lived outside of Him. But everything in Him, with Him and for Him. Either we return to the purity of the universal difference of Christ, or there is no salvation

Mother of God, Angels and Saints. Arrange that the Christian confesses the difference of Christ Jesus.