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I attended a Catholic Men's Conference about a decade ago where one of the speakers - a priest - said something to this effect, "Men, God wants all of your life, and that includes the two things that none of you want to surrender: money and sex. And until you surrender everything to God, you're not getting to Heaven."Tonight's Office of Reading from Sirach 47:12-25 in the Liturgy of the Hours reminds me of that. Look at what happened to Judah and Israel because Solomon could not control his concupiscence.A wise son succeeded David, who lived spaciously, thanks to him.Solomon reigned in a time of peace, and God gave him peace all roundso that he could raise a house to his name and prepare an everlasting sanctuary.How wise you were in your youth, brimming over with understanding like a river!Your mind ranged the earth, you filled it with mysterious sayings.Your name reached the distant islands, and you were loved for your peace.Your songs, your proverbs, your sayings and your retorts made you the wonder of the world.In the name of the Lord God, of him who is called the God of Israel,you amassed gold like so much tin, and made silver as common as lead.You abandoned your body to women, you became the slave of your appetites.You stained your honour, you profaned your stock,so bringing wrath on your children and grief on your posterity:the sovereignty was split in two, from Ephraim arose a rebel kingdom.But the Lord would not go back on his mercy, or undo any of his words,he would not obliterate the issue of his elect, nor destroy the stock of the man who loved him;and so he granted a remnant to Jacob, and to David a root springing from him.Solomon rested with his ancestors, leaving one of his stock as his successor,the stupidest member of the nation, brainless Rehoboam, whose policy drove the nation to rebel.Next, Jeroboam son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, and set Ephraim on the way of evil;from then on their sins multiplied so excessively as to drive them out of their country;for they tried out every kind of wickedness, until vengeance overtook them.