1st Week of Ordinary Time 2024 - Friday - Earthly Kings and Personal Responsibility

 As I explained earlier this week, from now until Lent, our weekday first readings will be taken from the historical books of the Old Testament: I & II Samuel, I & II Kings.  

I Samuel opens in a dark time in Israel's history. The twelve tribes which had settled in the promised land had ignored the warnings of Moses and Joshua. They had been urged to  “faithfully keep and obey” the commands of the Lord. Instead of doing what was good and right in the eyes of God, they turned away from the covenant demands. 

Yesterday’s reading contained the account of how, as a result of Israel's infidelity to the covenant, the Philistines defeated Israel and carried away the ark of the covenant. But then, Under Samuel’s spiritual leadership, Israel repented of their sins, defeated the Philistines, retrieved the ark, and built new shrines for the worship of the one true God. 

Everything seemed great, when, as we heard in the reading today, the people make a disturbing request: “appoint a king over us, as other nations have.” This is not the first time the Israelites asked for a king. They had made the request of the judge Gideon to rule over them and to create a royal dynasty, but Gideon refused. Why is this a disturbing request? 

It was Israel's vocation to be God’s divinely chosen people and to be set apart from the other nations of the earth. They were not supposed to be like the other nations of the earth, which had earthly kings to dictate their lives. By asking for a king, by asking to be like the other nations, Israel is rejecting its true king and its own special vocation.

So we heard how God tells Samuel “Grant the people’s every request. It is not you they reject, they are rejecting me as their king.” And we know the rest of the story, how Israel is going to have some decent God fearing kings, and also some wicked kings that bring terrible suffering, who lead Israel to abandon the covenant, to worship false gods, to engage in forbidden immoralities. The rejection of God’s kingship over and over leads to israel being conquered by foreign powers, having families ripped apart and marched into exile.

This story reveals a very sad tendency, the tendency to abandon the responsibility of being God’s chosen ones, to give up the personal responsibility of living with God as your king. 

Yes, we have God appointed authorities in the church and we do need to obey legitimate authority, but no one can force you to live with God as your king, no one can force you to be a saint. If you live with God as your king, your life, your soul will prosper. But it really doesn’t matter who is Pope, who is president, who is mayor, who is pastor: if you personally do not make God your king, you will be miserable, you will be paralyzed.

But Jesus commands the paralyzed in the Gospel today, to get up and walk, walk in the true freedom of the sons and daughters of God, walk as a true subject of the Divine King, and the world will be astonished, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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That the preaching and teachings of the Pope, Bishops, and clergy may be a source of strength and guidance for the Holy Church.

That those in civic authority may submit their minds and hearts to the rule of Christ, the Prince of Peace and Hope of the nations.

For the liberation of those bound by evil, those committed to sin an error, those oppressed or possessed by evil spirits, and for the conversion of the hardest hearts.

For all the needs of the sick and the suffering, the homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, the underemployed and unemployed, immigrants and refugees, victims of natural disaster, war, and terrorism, for all those who grieve the loss of a loved one, and those who will die today, for their comfort, and the consolation of their families.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

O God, our refuge and our strength, hear the prayers of your Church, for you yourself are the source of all devotion, and grant, we pray, that what we ask in faith we may truly obtain. Through Christ our Lord.