It is 13th February 2020. The readings are from 1 Kings 11:4-13 and the Gospel from Mark 7:24-30. Division and divisiveness in any band comes with the presence of sinfulness and the acquaintance with the sinful people. Faith is gradually destroyed by division that is caused by sin. By time we all need to grow up and glow in our lives. At times, living long does not bring the wisdom we desire in our life. We tend to return to our old sinful ways by age and become stubborn with the relationship and belief. Faith alone can provide the understanding and wisdom we need by living long. We are given a dispensation by God through Jesus only through our faith in Him. More we drift and deviate from our faith, we anger God. The first reading presents us a lesson for our life from Solomon. As he became old, he moved away from God and moving closer to his foreign wives who demanded their worship to be practiced by him. Failure in our life comes by moving away from God. Indifference towards God is not tolerated by God. Are we compromising our faith for the sake of family and relationship? Without due reverential respect, we cannot be faithful to God and that was what lacking in the life of Solomon. He got pulled towards the gods of his wives who did not allow him to worship living God of his father David. The attachment to loving relationship is not sin but it can provide a platform to sin when God is ignored and pushed to the bottom in loving and revering Him. No one must replace God in our life. A true, genuine and authentic love must lead us to God. Any loving relationship that destroys and deviates us from God is that could potentially turn into an idolatry. God deals severely with the idolatry. God might spare us all due to the commitment and faithfulness of our parents to God. But if we continue to oppose and move away from God, the consequences are unimaginable beyond our life time. “For your father David’s sake, however, I will not do this during your lifetime, but will tear it out of your son’s hands.” (1 Kgs.11:12). The responsorial Psalm intercedes, “O Lord, remember me out of the love you have for your people.” (Ps.105:4). The Gospel teaches us to come to Jesus no matter whoever we might be and whatever the quality of our faith. Jesus can bring us closer to God only when we are able to capture Him through our simple faith. We are invited to consider to emulate the woman at the Gospel in her faith in Jesus and to be extremely careful with the model of faith of Solomon. May we have a day full of blessing by the way we trust God through Jesus. God bless you.