20260121 DEALING WITH HOSTILITIES IN GOD’S NAME
21 January 2026, Wednesday, 2nd Week in Ordinary Time
First reading |
1 Samuel 17:32-33,37,40-51 |
David and Goliath
David said to Saul, ‘Let no-one lose heart on his account; your servant will go and fight the Philistine.’ But Saul answered David, ‘You cannot go and fight the Philistine; you are only a boy and he has been a warrior from his youth.’
‘The Lord who rescued me from the claws of lion and bear’ David said ‘will rescue me from the power of this Philistine.’ Then Saul said to David, ‘Go, and the Lord be with you!’
He took his staff in his hand, picked five smooth stones from the river bed, put them in his shepherd’s bag, in his pouch, and with his sling in his hand he went to meet the Philistine. The Philistine, his shield-bearer in front of him, came nearer and nearer to David; and the Philistine looked at David, and what he saw filled him with scorn, because David was only a youth, a boy of fresh complexion and pleasant bearing. The Philistine said to him, ‘Am I a dog for you to come against me with sticks?’ And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine said to David, ‘Come over here and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field.’ But David answered the Philistine, ‘You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel that you have dared to insult. Today the Lord will deliver you into my hand and I shall kill you; I will cut off your head, and this very day I will give your dead body and the bodies of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that it is not by sword or by spear that the Lord gives the victory, for the Lord is lord of the battle and he will deliver you into our power.’
No sooner had the Philistine started forward to confront David than David left the line of battle and ran to meet the Philistine. Putting his hand in his bag, he took out a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead; the stone penetrated his forehead and he fell on his face to the ground. Thus David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone and struck the Philistine down and killed him. David had no sword in his hand. Then David ran and, standing over the Philistine, seized his sword and drew it from the scabbard, and with this he killed him, cutting off his head. The Philistines saw that their champion was dead, and took to flight.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 143(144):1-2,9-10 |
Blessed be the Lord, my rock.
Blessed be the Lord, my rock,
who trains my arms for battle,
who prepares my hands for war.
Blessed be the Lord, my rock.
He is my love, my fortress;
he is my stronghold, my saviour
my shield, my place of refuge.
He brings peoples under my rule.
Blessed be the Lord, my rock.
To you, O God, will I sing a new song;
I will play on the ten-stringed lute
to you who give kings their victory,
who set David your servant free.
Blessed be the Lord, my rock.
Gospel Acclamation | Heb4:12 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
The word of God is something alive and active:
it can judge secret emotions and thoughts.
Alleluia!
Or: | cf.Mt4:23 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Jesus proclaimed the Good News of the kingdom
and cured all kinds of sickness among the people.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Mark 3:1-6 |
Is it against the law on the sabbath day to save life?
Jesus went into a synagogue, and there was a man there who had a withered hand. And they were watching him to see if he would cure him on the sabbath day, hoping for something to use against him. He said to the man with the withered hand, ‘Stand up out in the middle!’ Then he said to them, ‘Is it against the law on the sabbath day to do good, or to do evil; to save life, or to kill?’ But they said nothing. Then, grieved to find them so obstinate, he looked angrily round at them, and said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out and his hand was better. The Pharisees went out and at once began to plot with the Herodians against him, discussing how to destroy him.
DEALING WITH HOSTILITIES IN GOD’S NAME
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [1 SM 17:32-33,37,40-51; PS 144:1-2,9-10; MK 3:1-6]
In the first reading, Israel was under threat from the Philistine army. The Philistines were much taller, stronger, well-built, and well trained in warfare. Indeed, we read that “from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span, came forward. He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. He had greaves of bronze on his legs and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. The shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron; and his shield-bearer went before him” (1 Sm 17:4-7). As a consequence, no one in Saul’s army was willing to take up the challenge of fighting Goliath. “They were dismayed and greatly afraid” (1 Sm 17:11).
But David was not afraid of Goliath. He was defiant toward him. He offered himself to fight Goliath and to take away the shame from Israel. “David said to Saul, ‘Let no one lose heart on his account; your servant will go and fight this Philistine.’ But Saul answered David, ‘You cannot go and fight this Philistine; you are only a boy, and he has been a warrior from his youth.'” Where did this young boy get his courage, if not from his faith in God? He assured King Saul, “The Lord who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from the power of this Philistine.” Such was David’s confidence in God’s fidelity. This confidence was strengthened by Saul’s prayerful blessing when he affirmed David’s decision, saying, “Go, and the Lord be with you!”
Accordingly, we see how God was at work in the life of David. The whole incident demonstrates the power of God at work through David because of his confidence in the Lord. Saul’s action also confirmed and foreshadowed David’s royal status. By allowing Saul to place the armour on him, David was symbolically clothed with the Spirit who would enable him to be king. On the other hand, David’s removal of the military gear signified that, more than human strength and military hardware, divine power and assistance are more important and reliable. It was also a veiled rejection of Saul’s approach to kingship, for unlike him, David would not wear royal garments like those of other nations. Instead, he chose to identify with the great shepherd-leaders of Israel–the Patriarchs, and especially Moses–who lived by faith in the promises of God (cf. Heb 11). Hence, David’s only weapons were a staff in his hand and a sling. It is significant that whereas his enemies relied on weapons made by human hands, David would conquer them using divine weapons.
That God was on the side of David became even more obvious when Goliath “cursed David by his gods”. By cursing this son of Abraham, Goliath was in fact calling down the Lord’s curse upon himself (cf. Gen 12:3). In doing so, Goliath committed the capital crime of blasphemy, and according to the Torah, the punishment for blasphemy was death by stoning. “One who blasphemes the name of the Lord shall be put to death; the whole congregation shall stone the blasphemer. Aliens as well as citizens, when they blaspheme the Name, shall be put to death” (Lev 24:16). It is perhaps significant that David used a sling and a stone to defeat Goliath, thereby showing himself to be a faithful observer of the Torah and thus a man after the Lord’s own heart. David sought to claim his victory in the name of Israel’s God. “David answered the Philistine, ‘You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have dared to insult. Today the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I shall kill you.'” David was confident that the greatest military resource he possessed was the Lord God Almighty, the commander of the armies of Israel.
However, David’s victory was not limited to the killing of Goliath; he would also defeat and humiliate the Philistine army. In this way, it demonstrates that “The Lord your God is indeed God in heaven above and on earth below” (cf. Jos 2:10f). Such a victory over their enemies reveals the Lord’s power and might, “so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that it is not by sword or by spear that the Lord gives the victory, for he is Lord of the battle, and he will deliver you into our power.”
In the Gospel, Jesus also faced hostility from the religious leaders. Today’s reading is the last of a series of five incidents that Mark placed together in the previous chapter, highlighting the controversies Jesus had with the Jewish authorities. Not only did the hostility increase over time, but it also led His opponents to decide to eliminate Him. Yet Jesus was able to stand firm against them because He trusted fully in God’s mercy and compassion.
Firstly, they were intent on finding fault with Jesus. At the synagogue, “there was a man there who had a withered hand. They were watching him to see if he would cure him on the Sabbath day, hoping for something to use against him.” They were not there to understand Jesus’ intentions. Their minds were already made up, and they were only looking for evidence to condemn Him. Their hearts and minds were closed. When we encounter such people in our lives, no matter what we say or do, we are already judged and sentenced. Nothing we say will be received objectively, with openness to seek the truth or understanding. There is no charity or sincerity in listening or engaging in dialogue.
Secondly, they failed to understand the heart of God’s mercy and compassion. They were calculative and legalistic, as if God desired His people to suffer unnecessarily. True, Jesus could have waited until sunset to heal the man with a withered hand to avoid offending His opponents, who considered healing on the Sabbath a form of work and therefore a violation of the Sabbath rest. Yet, when we care for our loved ones, we do everything we can, as quickly as possible, to relieve their pain and suffering. No one would want to delay helping those in need if they could act immediately. For Jesus, acting without delay was more in line with the heart, mercy, and compassion of God. His position was that the Sabbath was made for man, and even the Torah permits breaking the Sabbath for exceptional reasons. This does not mean that Jesus had no respect for the Sabbath. On the contrary, He honoured its holiness through His presence in the synagogue. What He opposed was the legalistic interpretation of the Sabbath law, narrowly applied and devoid of compassion.
Thirdly, they were inconsistent in their desire to be faithful to the Law of Moses. What is scandalous–and even contradictory–is that, although the Scribes and Pharisees were supposedly the guardians of the Law, they themselves broke it on multiple counts. While insisting on strict observance of the Sabbath’s details, they overlooked the weightier matters of doing good and refraining from evil–or even failing to do any good on the Sabbath. Instead, they were plotting evil by planning to eliminate Jesus, and killing is a far greater and more malicious sin. Worse still, they were inconsistent in their observance of the Law because they sought the help of the Herodians, who were considered traitors to the Jews for collaborating with the Romans. By doing so, they compromised their so-called allegiance to the Law.
Yet Jesus could stand firm against such opposition because He understood the spirit of the Law and its true intent: to love God and to love our neighbours. These two commandments must go together and complement each other, for this is the true will of God for us. By upholding only the letter of the Law while disregarding its spirit, the Scribes and Pharisees were acting against God’s will. Jesus’ healing on the Sabbath is, in truth, consistent with the eschatological Sabbath, when all things will be made new, and humanity will be fully restored and made whole. We too must not make God our enemy, but rather recognise that God is on our side when we do good, and when we practice mercy and compassion.
Best Practices for Using the Daily Scripture Reflections
- Encounter God through the spirit of prayer and the scripture by reflecting and praying the Word of God daily. The purpose is to bring you to prayer and to a deeper union with the Lord on the level of the heart.
- Daily reflections when archived will lead many to accumulate all the reflections of the week and pray in one sitting. This will compromise your capacity to enter deeply into the Word of God, as the tendency is to read for knowledge rather than a prayerful reading of the Word for the purpose of developing a personal and affective relationship with the Lord.
- It is more important to pray deeply, not read widely. The current reflections of the day would be more than sufficient for anyone who wants to pray deeply and be led into an intimacy with the Lord.
Note: You may share this reflection with someone. However, please note that reflections are not archived online nor will they be available via email request.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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