Wednesday, August 21, 2013

David and Solomon: An Allegorical Reading


King David is the warrior, which is likened to the ascetic practice of silencing the enemies of God warring in our minds and bodies.  The son of David is peace: Solomon*, born by God's providence of Bathsheba--a wife obtained by sin.  David, the man of ascetic struggle, knows his sin, his weakness; but it is weakness and knowledge of weakness that, by God's providence, produces Solomon: "the peace born of humility" (St. Isaac the Syrian, homily 36).  It is, in the end, this Solomon, this peace born of humility, that builds the Temple of God (the Image of God in a human being) and furnishes it with the adornment of all the sacred vessels (the virtues, the fruit of the Holy Spirit).

*The name Solomon means "peaceful."

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