20260203 THE LOGIC OF THE HEART
03 February 2026, Tuesday, 4th Week in Ordinary Time
First reading |
2 Samuel 18:9-10, 14, 24-25, 30-19:3 |
David mourns Absalom
Absalom happened to run into some of David’s followers. Absalom was riding a mule and the mule passed under the thick branches of a great oak. Absalom’s head caught fast in the oak and he was left hanging between heaven and earth, while the mule he was riding went on. Someone saw this and told Joab. ‘I have just seen Absalom’ he said ‘hanging from an oak.’ Joab took three lances in his hand and thrust them into Absalom’s heart while he was still alive there in the oak tree.
David was sitting between the two gates. The lookout had gone up to the roof of the gate, on the ramparts; he looked up and saw a man running all by himself. The watch called out to the king and told him. The king said, ‘If he is by himself, he has good news to tell.’ The king told the man, ‘Move aside and stand there.’ He moved aside and stood waiting.
Then the Cushite arrived. ‘Good news for my lord the king!’ cried the Cushite. ‘The Lord has vindicated your cause today by ridding you of all who rebelled against you.’ ‘Is all well with young Absalom?’ the king asked the Cushite. ‘May the enemies of my lord the king’ the Cushite answered ‘and all who rebelled against you to your hurt, share the lot of that young man.’
The king shuddered. He went up to the room over the gate and burst into tears, and weeping said, ‘My son Absalom! My son! My son Absalom! Would I had died in your place! Absalom, my son, my son!’ Word was brought to Joab, ‘The king is now weeping and mourning for Absalom.’ And the day’s victory was turned to mourning for all the troops, because they learned that the king was grieving for his son. And the troops returned stealthily that day to the town, as troops creep back ashamed when routed in battle.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 85(86):1-6 |
Turn your ear, Lord, and give answer.
Turn your ear, O Lord, and give answer
for I am poor and needy.
Preserve my life, for I am faithful;
save the servant who trusts in you.
Turn your ear, Lord, and give answer.
You are my God, have mercy on me, Lord,
for I cry to you all the day long.
Give joy to your servant, O Lord,
for to you I lift up my soul.
Turn your ear, Lord, and give answer.
O Lord, you are good and forgiving,
full of love to all who call.
Give heed, O Lord, to my prayer
and attend to the sound of my voice.
Turn your ear, Lord, and give answer.
Gospel Acclamation | Jn14:6 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, says the Lord;
No one can come to the Father except through me.
Alleluia!
Or: | Mt8:17 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
He took our sicknesses away,
and carried our diseases for us.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Mark 5:21-43 |
Little girl, I tell you to get up
When Jesus had crossed in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered round him and he stayed by the lakeside. Then one of the synagogue officials came up, Jairus by name, and seeing him, fell at his feet and pleaded with him earnestly, saying, ‘My little daughter is desperately sick. Do come and lay your hands on her to make her better and save her life.’ Jesus went with him and a large crowd followed him; they were pressing all round him.
Now there was a woman who had suffered from a haemorrhage for twelve years; after long and painful treatment under various doctors, she spent all she had without being any the better for it, in fact, she was getting worse. She had heard about Jesus, and she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his cloak. ‘If I can touch even his clothes,’ she had told herself ‘I shall be well again.’ And the source of the bleeding dried up instantly, and she felt in herself that she was cured of her complaint. Immediately aware that power had gone out from him, Jesus turned round in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’ His disciples said to him, ‘You see how the crowd is pressing round you and yet you say, “Who touched me?”’ But he continued to look all round to see who had done it. Then the woman came forward, frightened and trembling because she knew what had happened to her, and she fell at his feet and told him the whole truth. ‘My daughter,’ he said ‘your faith has restored you to health; go in peace and be free from your complaint.’
While he was still speaking some people arrived from the house of the synagogue official to say, ‘Your daughter is dead: why put the Master to any further trouble?’ But Jesus had overheard this remark of theirs and he said to the official, ‘Do not be afraid; only have faith.’ And he allowed no one to go with him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. So they came to the official’s house and Jesus noticed all the commotion, with people weeping and wailing unrestrainedly. He went in and said to them, ‘Why all this commotion and crying? The child is not dead, but asleep.’ But they laughed at him. So he turned them all out and, taking with him the child’s father and mother and his own companions, he went into the place where the child lay. And taking the child by the hand he said to her, ‘Talitha, kum!’ which means, ‘Little girl, I tell you to get up.’ The little girl got up at once and began to walk about, for she was twelve years old. At this they were overcome with astonishment, and he ordered them strictly not to let anyone know about it, and told them to give her something to eat.
THE LOGIC OF THE HEART
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [2 SM 18:9-10,14, 24-25, 30 – 2 SM 19:3; Ps 86:1-6; Mk 5:21-43]
In the first reading, we read of the death of David’s son, Absalom. On the level of justice, it seems that he received his just deserts. For the crime of treason and rebellion, he deserved death. And as if by divine justice, his head was caught in the thick branches of a great oak. “He was left hanging between heaven and earth, while the mule he was riding went on.” This gave David’s men a great opportunity to kill him, and that was what Joab, the commander of the army, did. “Joab took three lances in his hand and thrust them into Absalom’s heart while he was still alive there in the oak tree.”
Logically, that was the right thing to do to an enemy. This was retribution for causing so many to die in the battle. We read how “the men of Israel were defeated there by the servants of David, and the slaughter there was great on that day, twenty thousand men. The battle spread over the face of all the country, and the forest claimed more victims that day than the sword” (2 Sm 18:7f). Even though Joab went against the wishes of King David to spare the life of Absalom (cf. 2 Sm 18:5), strict justice demanded that Absalom be adequately punished for his heinous crime against the king and the kingdom.
But this is not the way God would have dealt with us. God considers every one of us His sons and daughters. It is true that perhaps if Absalom had not been David’s son, David might not have considered sparing his life. However, Absalom was his son. This is where the heart has its own logic apart from the head. No matter how evil a son or daughter may be, he or she remains the child of his or her parents. It is said that with our loved ones we apply the law of love, but with our enemies we apply the law of justice. When there is love, we regard the person, even when he has wronged us, with compassion. This is the way God deals with us, because He loves us.
David’s attitude towards the death of Absalom prefigured the story of the Prodigal Father in the Gospel. Like the Father, he did not wish the death of his son. Like the Prodigal Father, “David was sitting between the two gates,” waiting for his son to return safely and restored. Like Jesus, who grieves over our sinfulness and self-destruction–as in the case of Judas and the stubbornness of the Jewish religious leaders–David too wept when he was told that Absalom had been killed. “The king shuddered. He went up to the room over the gate and burst into tears, and weeping said, ‘My son Absalom, my son, my son!'” Just like David, God weeps over us, as Jesus did over Jerusalem (cf. Lk 21:41-44).
Only those who love others as if they were their own will learn how to feel with the Father and with King David. The trouble is that most of us do not see others–especially our enemies–as our loved ones, or better still, as our own children. Hence, the approach becomes hard justice, an eye for an eye. Thus, we can understand the disappointment of Joab and his men when they heard how David mourned for his son. They felt betrayed and angry that David did not also consider how many had given up their lives to protect him from his enemies. Joab reprimanded the king, saying, “Today you have covered with shame the faces of all your officers who have saved your life today, and the lives of your sons and your daughters, and the lives of your wives and your concubines, for loving those who hate you and hating those who love you. You have made it clear today that commanders and officers are nothing to you; for I perceive that if Absalom were alive and all of us were dead today, then you would be pleased” (2 Sm 19:5f). Indeed, we can understand where Joab was coming from. Hence, he said, “So go out at once and speak kindly to your servants; for I swear by the Lord, if you do not go, not a man will stay with you this night; and this will be worse for you than any disaster that has come upon you from your youth until now” (2 Sm 19:7).
This same tension between love and the law is played out again in the Gospel. The first case is that of Jairus, one of the synagogue officials. He came to Jesus, “fell at his feet and pleaded with him earnestly, saying, ‘My little daughter is desperately sick. Do come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.'” As a synagogue ruler, he would have known that the Pharisees and the scribes considered Jesus a deviant rabbi who should not be welcomed or even acknowledged, much less shown such reverence. But in the face of his daughter’s imminent death, this father would do anything–even sacrificing his honour, dignity, and position as a synagogue leader–to have his daughter healed. Any parent would do anything to save his son or daughter.
The second instance was that of the woman suffering from haemorrhage due to her menstrual discharge and uterine disorder.According to the law of Leviticus, “when a woman has a discharge of blood that is her regular discharge from her body, she shall be in her impurity for seven days, and whoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening” (Lev 15:19). Consequently, she should not have been in social contact with anyone, lest she make them unclean. Yet, in her desperation, she came up behind Jesus “through the crowd and touched his cloak. ‘If I can touch even his clothes,’ she had told herself, ‘I shall be well again.’ And the source of the bleeding dried up instantly, and she felt in herself that she was cured of her complaint.”
What was Jesus’ response to both of these incidents? It was the way of love, the logic of the heart. Faith was lacking among the people, except perhaps Jairus, for they said to him, “‘Your daughter is dead; why put the Master to any further trouble?’ But Jesus overheard this remark and said to the official, ‘Do not be afraid; only have faith.’ And he allowed no one to go with him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. As far as Jesus was concerned, ‘The child is not dead, but asleep.’ But they laughed at him. So he turned them all out and, taking with him the child’s father and mother and his own companions, he went into the place where the child lay.”
In Jesus’ understanding, the truly dead are those who have no faith and are trapped in sin; the child was only asleep. “Taking the child by the hand, he said to her, ‘Talitha, kum,’ which means, ‘Little girl, I tell you, get up.’ The little girl got up at once and began to walk about, for she was twelve years old.” Jesus felt deeply for Jairus in his pain at losing his daughter. His only concern was to relieve the suffering of the little girl and her parents.
Similarly, even though Jesus felt the touch of someone who was unclean, He was able to transcend the law. “Immediately aware that power had gone out from him, Jesus turned around in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’ His disciples said to him, ‘You see how the crowd is pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’ But he continued to look all around to see who had done it.” His disciples could not see who was unclean, unlike Jesus. This revealed the weakness of the law in itself. Without someone declaring that he or she was unclean, those who touched such a person would become unclean without even knowing it. So, does it really matter in the end?
Jesus knew that the woman was unclean, yet He allowed her to touch Him because He placed the well-being of the person above ritual observance. The woman was suffering from embarrassment and inconvenience and was unable to be socially connected with others because of her illness. Yet she was freed by the Lord. “Then the woman came forward, frightened and trembling because she knew what had happened to her, and she fell at his feet and told him the whole truth. ‘My daughter,’ he said, ‘your faith has restored you to health; go in peace and be free from your complaint.'”
Furthermore, like Jairus, even though the woman’s faith was imperfect, the Lord met her at her level. She may have touched the cloak of Jesus with a certain superstitious understanding, much like some of our devotees today. People touch statues or use handkerchiefs to touch healers and sacred objects, believing that they will be healed of their illnesses or protected from harm. Some practices of popular religiosity may appear superstitious in nature and are often frowned upon by intellectuals and theologians who know the Scriptures well.
But Jesus did not stop her. He allowed her fragile faith to grow by revealing that it was not his cloak that healed her, but the power that went out from Him. Jesus is the one who heals, not a superstitious object or piece of clothing. We need to help our more naïve devotees move beyond the sacramental sign to the Lord who is our true healer. Yet we cannot simply suppress such expressions of faith and love, because these are the means that speak to ordinary and simple people. We must educate them, but we should not dismiss or prevent them from encountering the Lord in this way. We too must be patient and not overly judgmental of the simple faith of our lay people. What is most important is that they are brought to faith in Christ.
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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