+ Today we have interesting readings. In the first reading, it seems
that Saul and David had a rather rocky relationship. Saul was king and
commander of the people of Israel. David got a position of trust in Saul’s
court because he was known to be an astute and wise person. But, court politics
being what they were, with false witnesses abounding – much like we have in our
own modern-day politics – and David was accused of being traitorous to Saul –
and in fact Saul, was even in fact jealous of David because of his ease of
thought process and governing ability. He felt threatened by Saul. And so he
took troops and went to eradicate David.
David was hiding in a cave,
being tipped off by Saul’s son, Jonathan, who was very fond of David, and who
entered into an inspired man-to-man relationship of fondness and admiration
that is a classic for all times,
Now, Saul just happened upon
the cave where David was hiding. David’s small cohort of men spied this and
said to David: “Wow, God had delivered your enemy right into your hands – he’s
right here in this cave. So David snuck up on Saul and cut off the border of his
cloak: in another historic and classical gesture: demonstrating to Saul how
close – literally – he was to him, and chose this option rather than ramming
him through with a sword!
Saul got the message and
changed his tune about David: he praised him for his mercy, compassion and
uncommon act of maturity and insight – and he restored him to his place in his
court and felt differently about him from then on.
Sometimes we are faced with a
similar situation where our enemies are dropped right in front of us: a person
focused on God, his will, his ways, his thoughts and his justice – arrived at
through constant prayer, study and action of self-sacrificial service to people
– would react as David did – ultimately letting God be the judge – realizing
that men sometimes do stupid and irrational things – and that we ourselves
often do them ourselves – so we cannot, and ought not really “cast the first
stone” – as found in another gospel passage.
In the gospel passage today:
Jesus chooses a rag-tag group of fishermen to be his intimate crowd – with whom
he would become open, transparent, vulnerable, intimate and quite literally at
one point – on Crucifixion Day – naked! They would be the one’s to transmit the
naked truth of Truth, Justice, Beauty, Goodness, Forgiveness and Reconciliation
with God to the ends of the earth.
This unadulterated message is
available to us this very day: are we mature enough, spiritually grown up
enough to grasp it with the hands of faith – and integrate it into our
marvelously constructed spiritual and even physical and mental selves.
Or do we think we are smarter
than God?
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