20240111 SUPERSTITIONS: ATTEMPTS TO CONTROL GOD
11 January 2024, Thursday, 1st Week in Ordinary Time
First reading | 1 Samuel 4:1-11 © |
Israel is defeated and the ark of God is captured
It happened at that time that the Philistines mustered to fight Israel and Israel went out to meet them in battle, encamping near Ebenezer while the Philistines were encamped at Aphek. The Philistines drew up their battle line against Israel, the battle was hotly engaged, and Israel was defeated by the Philistines and about four thousand of their army were killed on the field. The troops returned to the camp and the elders of Israel said, ‘Why has the Lord allowed us to be defeated today by the Philistines? Let us fetch the ark of our God from Shiloh so that it may come among us and rescue us from the power of our enemies.’’ So the troops sent to Shiloh and brought away the ark of the Lord of Hosts, he who is seated on the cherubs; the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, came with the ark. When the ark of the Lord arrived in the camp, all Israel gave a great shout so that the earth resounded. When the Philistines heard the noise of the shouting, they said, ‘What can this great shouting in the Hebrew camp mean?’ And they realised that the ark of the Lord had come into the camp. At this the Philistines were afraid; and they said, ‘God has come to the camp.’ ‘Alas!’ they cried ‘This has never happened before. Alas! Who will save us from the power of this mighty God? It was he who struck down Egypt with every kind of plague! But take courage and be men, Philistines, or you will become slaves to the Hebrews as they have been slaves to you. Be men and fight.’ So the Philistines joined battle and Israel was defeated, each man fleeing to his tent. The slaughter was great indeed, and there fell of the Israelites thirty thousand foot soldiers. The ark of God was captured too, and the two sons of Eli died, Hophni and Phinehas.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 43(44):10-11,14-15,24-25 © |
Redeem us, O Lord, because of your love.
Yet now you have rejected us, disgraced us;
you no longer go forth with our armies.
You make us retreat from the foe
and our enemies plunder us at will.
Redeem us, O Lord, because of your love.
You make us the taunt of our neighbours,
the laughing-stock of all who are near.
Among the nations, you make us a byword,
among the peoples a thing of derision.
Redeem us, O Lord, because of your love.
Awake, O Lord, why do you sleep?
Arise, do not reject us for ever!
Why do you hide your face
and forget our oppression and misery?
Redeem us, O Lord, because of your love.
Gospel Acclamation | Ps118:88 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Because of your love give me life,
and I will do your will.
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 1:40-45 © |
The leprosy left the man at once, and he was cured
A leper came to Jesus and pleaded on his knees: ‘If you want to’ he said ‘you can cure me.’ Feeling sorry for him, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him. ‘Of course I want to!’ he said. ‘Be cured!’ And the leprosy left him at once and he was cured. Jesus immediately sent him away and sternly ordered him, ‘Mind you say nothing to anyone, but go and show yourself to the priest, and make the offering for your healing prescribed by Moses as evidence of your recovery.’ The man went away, but then started talking about it freely and telling the story everywhere, so that Jesus could no longer go openly into any town, but had to stay outside in places where nobody lived. Even so, people from all around would come to him.
SUPERSTITIONS - ATTEMPTS TO CONTROL GOD
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [1 SM 4:1-11; MK 1:40-45]
What is superstition? It is the attempt to control God by human actions, often through the use of some religious objects. Underlying this thinking is the unconscious attitude towards God as our opponent, a force or some power we must harness for our good.
Today’s recounting of the tragic double defeat of the Israelites in their battle against the Philistines is not so much of the battle itself but rather, it exposes the numbness of the conscience of the Israelites. Instead of learning from the first defeat, which was due to their failure to observe the Covenant, they used the Ark of the Covenant like a talisman to cover up their sins. Indeed, it is just like those who fail in life; instead of looking at themselves and reflecting on their failures, they try to find fault with others and external forces. In the book of Judges, and in line with the consistent message of the bible, whenever the Israelites suffered casualties and failures in their battles against their enemies, they would attribute it to God’s judgment on the people’s state of life, rather than on their enemies. In fact, they saw their enemies as God’s instruments to bring Israel to repentance.
But they never learnt their lessons. They became superstitious and sought to control God. They thought that by bringing the Ark of the Covenant into the battle field, they could twist the arm of God into helping them to win the war. They failed to realize that this God whom they worship is a Trek God and He would not be domesticated. The God we worship cannot be put into box and be used like a charm to fend off the power of our enemies, whether human or spiritual. God cannot be manipulated by men. This is what idolatry is all about. It is to put our faith in a statue or an object, believing that it has power in itself. To worship idols is to worship nothing. Perhaps, the leaders lacked the wisdom to see that their faith should be placed in God and not in things.
However, the real sin of the Israelites was not simply because of bad theology; placing their faith in things rather than in God. The elders could have believed that it was the Lord and not the Ark that saved them, because of His presence and His promise that He would fight the battle for them. Carrying the Ark to the battleground was thus a sign of their faith in God who was with them in their wars against their enemies. But then they failed to live out their covenantal relationship with God, and as in the case of Achan (cf. Josh 7), and in this instance, it was on account of the sins of Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, who both carried the ark of the covenant of God, that all Israel had to suffer because of the sins of a very few.
Indeed, we can wear all the medals we want, but if our lives are not in order, God will not protect us from harm and the work of the Evil One. When we live in sin, we are inviting the Evil One to be with us. We cannot choose God and the Evil One at the same time. The holiness of God is incompatible with a life of sin. The full horror of sins is seen in the reaction of Eli, who died not because of the death of his sons in the battle, but he was jolted out of his seat because of the loss of the Ark, and he broke his neck and died. His daughter-in-law who was expecting, too died at childbirth, not because of the loss of her husband in the battle but because the glory of God had left Israel. The name she gave to the children was Ichabod, ‘Where is the Glory’? The answer is clear, the Glory of God had left Israel (1 Sm 4.22).
The recounting of her death and that of Eli starkly contrast with that of Samuel. When Hannah gave birth to Samuel, there was great joy, prompting Hannah to praise God as her Saviour, and to prophesy future Israelite victories through a king (1 Sm 2:1-10). But for Eli’s daughter-in-law, the birth of her son brought death and mourning. She died regretting the disappearance of God’s “Glory … from Israel” (1 Sm 4:22). Her last words sum up the darkest day for Israel. As for Eli, he was a pitiful sight. An old man, who could hardly see, sitting by the side of the road, fearful and trembling because he could sense disaster ahead of Israel. He knew the end was near. The biblical message is clear. Samuel would lead Israel to victory in the future whilst Eli and his sons, representing the corrupt Israel of the judges’ period, came to an end. With the death of Eli, a whole generation of poor and weak leadership would pass away to make way for Samuel, the prophet and judge who would usher in the Kingdom of David.
In the gospel, this same message on the attempt to control the power of God is repeated. God’s actions is beyond the law of Moses. It was forbidden by the law of Moses for people to come into contact with those who had leprosy. Understandably, it was the deadliest of diseases in those days. Not only was it almost incurable and highly contagious, but it brought tremendous distress, alienation, and loneliness to the leper who was cut off from the community. It was to protect the common good of everyone. Hence, by all counts, not only was the encounter between Jesus and the leper forbidden, much less for Jesus to touch the leper.
However, this leper, instead of seeking to control God’s power, was willing to let God decide. He had complete faith in Jesus’ power to heal, but he had no way of knowing whether he would be accepted. He would have been ready to not just accept a negative response, but even a harsh response for coming near to Him. Hence, he “pleaded on his knees: ‘If you want to you can cure me.” In spite of his pitiable condition, he did not insist that he be healed, but in humility, he simply made a request. This should be the spirit of prayer. We do not try to manipulate God by placing conditions on Him like, if He does not grant us a certain petition, then we will not worship Him or help the poor. In prayer, as the Lord instructed us in the Sermon on the Mount, we can only ask, knock and seek.
At the same time, we cannot but praise the faith of the leper in Jesus. He was desperate to find a cure for his illness and be delivered from the consequences of his unbearable condition. He also wanted to be restored to the community. But the Mosaic Law dictated that only a priest could declare him clean and admit him back to the community. Jesus was not a priest and had no authority to declare that he was healed or admit him back to the community. This explains why after healing him, “Jesus immediately sent him away and sternly ordered him, ‘Mind you say nothing to anyone, but go and show yourself to the priest, and make the offering for your healing prescribed by Moses as evidence of your recovery.'” Apparently, the man did not follow Jesus’ instruction. He did not take the stern command of Jesus seriously, perhaps because he was confident that he was truly cured. Instead, we read, “the man went away, but then started talking about it freely.”
Finally, God’s mercy and compassion is beyond our imagination. We read that because the leper recounted the story of his healing everywhere, “Jesus could no longer go openly into any town, but had to stay outside in places where nobody lived. Even so, people from all around would come to him.” This is so ironical because in normal circumstances, if one touches a leper, both he and the leper would be unclean. But in the case of Jesus and the leper, both went away clean. For those who do not know Jesus, they would surely have excluded Him from the community because He was now unclean and hence had to say outside the town. Jesus who knew no sin took our sins upon Himself. By so doing, Jesus showed Himself to be not only above the law of Moses, or even His compassion for the leper, but that He would suffer with us to redeem us from our sins. Jesus became man, suffered and died for us, and then rose again to save us. As St Peter would later write, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Pt 2:24) Truly, this God we believe in is beyond our imagination.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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