King Solomon’s Wisdom on Peace and Brotherhood

 

King Solomon and Pope Francis share a common cause to achieve peace in the Middle East with a vast difference in modus operandi.

King Solomon achieved peace and brotherhood during his forty year reign using his method. Pope Francis is striving to achieve the same, however, he has taken a vow never to use Solomon’s method.

The following is a comparison of their modus operandi.

Pope Francis

In an article reported in the Chicago Tribune on Chicago Tribune on May 25, 2014 by Laura King, Pope Francis made this statement during his trip to the Middle East.

“Peace is not something which can be bought,” he said. ” It is a gift to be sought patiently and to be crafted through actions, great and small, of our everyday lives.  The way of peace is strengthened if we realize that we are all of the same stock and members of one human family.” 

In my humble opinion, I surmise the Pope is stating his belief that we are all related. Because  God is the maker of us all, we are therefore all related as brother or sister to each other because “we are all of the same stock and members of one human family.”

King Solomon

In a novel excerpt, I surmised what King Solomon based on his proverbs, may have explained to the Queen of Sheba about his method of achieving brotherhood. The novel is a contemporary application of a story form to promote understanding of proverbs and ancient wise sayings in relation to our modern times.

Excerpt

“Please first explain to me the reason why you have over two hundred wives?” Bilqis asked without hesitation in a playful exaggerated tone of bewilderment.

“There are a number of reasons.” I replied in a sincere and somewhat apologetic tone.

“The third reason is my marriages provide close kinship with my people. There is no closer bond than to be a relative or brother to the tribal leaders. They offer me their daughters to seal agreements in accordance to our customs.”

(Reasons one and two omitted for brevity of this post)

Summary

You have gathered by now that King Solomon’s action to achieve peace and brotherhood was to marry. The Pope has taken a vow not to marry and instead uses by his leadership role to demonstrate acts of humility, service to the poor, and words of faith to remind us we are all brothers and sisters of our maker.

So what is my purpose in making this comparison? It is to make us aware that while their actions may differ, they both also use similar words of wisdom to further the cause of peace and brotherhood.

Rich and poor live side by side, Yahweh makes them all. (Proverb 22:2) – King Solomon

Peace is not something which can be bought. It is a gift to be sought patiently and to be crafted through actions, great and small, of our everyday lives.” – Pope Francis

In the past three thousand years, we seem to speak and hear wise words of peace and brotherhood, hope and dream about peace with our minds, yet never seem to listen and act wisely as evidenced by the foolish actions recorded of our human history of wars.

When will we wise up, listen and begin to enact peaceful means with our human brothers and sisters to end the reasons why we now have a Memorial Day for war heroes? May they rest in peace and brotherhood.

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.