20220120 INSECURITY THE CAUSE OF OUR DOWNFALL
20 January, 2022, Thursday, Week 2 in Ordinary Time
First reading |
1 Samuel 18:6-9,19:1-7 © |
Saul's envy and Jonathan's loyal friendship
On their way back, as David was returning after killing the Philistine, the women came out to meet King Saul from all the towns of Israel, singing and dancing to the sound of tambourine and lyre and cries of joy; and as they danced the women sang:
‘Saul has killed his thousands,
and David his tens of thousands.’
Saul was very angry; the incident was not to his liking. ‘They have given David the tens of thousands,’ he said ‘but me only the thousands; he has all but the kingship now.’ And Saul turned a jealous eye on David from that day forward.
Saul told Jonathan his son and all his servants of his intention to kill David. Now Jonathan, Saul’s son, held David in great affection; and so Jonathan warned David; ‘My father Saul is looking for a way to kill you,’ he said ‘so be on your guard tomorrow morning; hide away in some secret place. Then I will go out and keep my father company in the fields where you are hiding, and will talk to my father about you; I will find out what the situation is and let you know.’
So Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father; he said, ‘Let not the king sin against his servant David, for he has not sinned against you, and what he has done has been greatly to your advantage. He took his life in his hands when he killed the Philistine, and the Lord brought about a great victory for all Israel. You saw it yourself and rejoiced; why then sin against innocent blood in killing David without cause?’ Saul was impressed by Jonathan’s words and took an oath, ‘As the Lord lives, I will not kill him.’ Jonathan called David and told him all these things. Then Jonathan brought him to Saul, and David attended on him as before.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 55(56):2-3,9-14 © |
In God I trust: I shall not fear.
Have mercy on me, God, men crush me;
they fight me all day long and oppress me.
My foes crush me all day long,
for many fight proudly against me.
In God I trust: I shall not fear.
You have kept an account of my wanderings;
you have kept a record of my tears;
(are they not written in your book?)
Then my foes will be put to flight
on the day that I call to you.
In God I trust: I shall not fear.
This I know, that God is on my side.
In God, whose word I praise,
in the Lord whose word I praise,
in God I trust; I shall not fear;
what can mortal man do to me?
In God I trust: I shall not fear.
I am bound by the vows I have made you.
O God, I will offer you praise
for you have rescued my soul from death,
you kept my feet from stumbling
that I may walk in the presence of God
and enjoy the light of the living.
In God I trust: I shall not fear.
Gospel Acclamation | cf.Jn6:63,68 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life;
you have the message of eternal life.
Alleluia!
Or: | cf.2Tim1:10 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Our Saviour Jesus Christ abolished death
and he has proclaimed life through the Good News.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Mark 3:7-12 © |
He warned them not to make him known as the Son of God
Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lakeside, and great crowds from Galilee followed him. From Judaea, Jerusalem, Idumaea, Transjordania and the region of Tyre and Sidon, great numbers who had heard of all he was doing came to him. And he asked his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, to keep him from being crushed. For he had cured so many that all who were afflicted in any way were crowding forward to touch him. And the unclean spirits, whenever they saw him, would fall down before him and shout, ‘You are the Son of God!’ But he warned them strongly not to make him known.
INSECURITY THE CAUSE OF OUR DOWNFALL
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [1 Sm 18:6-9; 19:1-7; Ps 56:2-3,9-14; Mark 3:7-12 ]
The tragic life of Saul was caused by his deep insecurity which led to jealousy, misperception, misjudgement. This in turn led to anger, loss of control over his fears resulting in killing. In truth, Saul was a capable king. He was tall and handsome. No one was fighting or seeking after his crown. No one was starting a rebellion. He was supposed to unite and save the people from the Philistines, but he was rebellious and self-willed, disobedient to God and wanted things his way, even going against the directive of God to destroy his enemies including all their animals. This negative trait of his wanting things to be done his way foreshadowed the deeper insecurity when David came to the scene.
There was no reason for Saul to be insecure or jealous of David because the latter was on his side. David even sacrificed his life to fight Goliath, an experienced and strong soldier. David was just a boy with no weapon or sword, other than a sling and a stone. David was loyal to Saul. Furthermore, he and Jonathan were the best of friends and he would not do anything to harm his father. Most of all, Saul was the Lord’s anointed and David was always conscious that regardless how unjustly Saul treated him, he remained the Lord’s anointed. Even when Saul was pursuing him like a hunted dog later on, and David had an opportunity to kill him, he told his soldiers, “The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord’s anointed, to raise my hand against him; for he is the Lord’s anointed.” (cf 1 Sm 24:6-15)
Unfortunately, jealousy had consumed Saul from the day David won victory over the Philistines and the women upon his return, sang and danced to “the sound of tambourine and lyre and cries of joy; and as they danced the women sang: ‘Saul has killed his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.'” We read that “Saul was very angry; the incident was not to his liking. ‘They have given David the tens of thousands,’ he said, ‘but me only the thousands; he has all but the kingship now.’ And Saul turned a jealous eye on David from that day forward.” We can appreciate how the comparison of Saul with David had unleashed the demon of jealousy from within him, already latent because of his deep insecurity. Seeing how popular David had become, he felt threatened by him and sought to have him killed. In fact, he tried twice to kill him with a javelin but missed him. (1 Sm 18:10f)
The sad thing about jealousy is that we see things out of perspective, and only through the narrow eyes of fear. Even Jonathan tried to reason out with his father that David was not a threat to him. He said, “Let not the king sin against his servant David, for he has not sinned against you, and what he has done has been greatly to your advantage. He took his life in his hands when he killed the Philistine, and the Lord brought about a great victory for all Israel. You saw it yourself and rejoiced; why then sin against innocent blood in killing David without cause?”
The unfortunate mistake of Saul was to disregard David who was on his side to help him conquer his enemies. Instead, he made an enemy of him. In spite of Saul’s attempts to kill him, David still regarded him as king and his father. David said to Saul, “Why do you listen to the words of those who say, ‘David seeks to do you harm’? This very day your eyes have seen how the Lord gave you into my hand in the cave; and some urged me to kill you, but I spared you. I said, ‘I will not raise my hand against my lord; for he is the Lord’s anointed.’ See, my father, see the corner of your cloak in my hand; for by the fact that I cut off the corner of your cloak, and did not kill you, you may know for certain that there is no wrong or treason in my hands. I have not sinned against you, though you are hunting me to take my life.” (1 Sm 24:9-11) In fact, David spared the life of Saul twice. (cf 1 Sm 26) The irony is that it would not be David who would kill him but the Philistines who would kill him and his sons. (1 Sm 31) Eventually, Saul brought about his own downfall and prepared the way for David to take over his throne.
In the gospel, the religious leaders were also insecure because Jesus was becoming too popular and their status quo, their authority and position in society were threatened. After a series of confrontations Jesus had with religious leaders, and they were plotting to kill Him, we read that “Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lakeside, and great crowds from Galilee followed him.” Jesus knew that He was no longer welcome in the synagogue. They thought that removing Jesus from the synagogue would protect their status quo. On the contrary, by going out of the synagogue, Jesus reached out to even more people and even beyond Palestine. “From Judaea, Jerusalem, Idumaea, Transjordania and the region of Tyre and Sidon, great numbers who had heard of all he was doing came to him. And he asked his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, to keep him from being crushed.”
This is almost the same situation as David. When Saul rejected David, the Lord sent others to his help, including his son, Jonathan, who spoke on his behalf, planned the escape route for him; and his daughter, Michal who helped him to escape. Samuel too protected David from Saul and his soldiers by sending the Spirit of God upon them so that they fell into a prophetic frenzy. (1 Sm 19) Even Israel’s enemies, King Achish of Gath came to his assistance. (1 Sm 21:10-15) Indeed, when Jesus was rejected by the religious leaders in the synagogue, He had more people coming to Him. Even the unclean spirits confessed Him as the Son of God, acknowledging Him as someone close to God and that God was acting in and through Him when the religious leaders refused to see the hand of God working in and through Him. And this was because, “he has cured so many that all who were afflicted in any way were crowding forward to touch him.”
This is why the responsorial psalm reminds us to fear God and not man. “Have mercy on me, God, men crush me; they fight me all day long and oppress me. My foes crush me all day long, for many fight proudly against me. Then my foes will be put to flight on the day that I call to you. This I know, that God is on my side. In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not fear; what can mortal man do to me?” In the gospel, Jesus also warned His disciples, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Mt 10:26-31)
This is shown clearly in the life of Jesus. He did not allow people to manipulate Him. When the unclean spirits called out His identity, they were seeking to have a hold over Him, as knowing the identity of a person is the way to control the person. Hence, Jesus silenced them and “warned them strongly not to make him known.” This was because the unclean spirits had evil intentions, not so much to publicize Jesus and announce Him as the Saviour but to give a wrong notion of an earthly, political and military warrior coming to restore the kingdom of Israel. If the people were to have this notion of the messiahship of Jesus, He would be accused of being the cause of the rebellion, triggering the political authorities and the Romans to step in to clamp down His mission which He had just only begun. Jesus was firm and He knew Himself. Unlike Saul who lacked self-confidence and become insecure, Jesus was very confident of Himself. He knew who He was and He would not allow others to dictate His mission. He was not seeking popularity or acceptance from the religious leaders. He would accomplish it in the way God wanted of Him, which eventually would be His death on the cross. But in His crucifixion and death, the Lord would once again show His power and might. Truly, self-awareness, self-confidence founded in the Lord’s strength is the key to overcoming envy.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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