Small change and big difference

We can contemplate in the texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today how an apparently small move can initiate large response and may create difficult consequences for ourselves and others. In the passage from the Book of Samuel where hear of David’s ill considered decision to do a census of the people who lived in the territory from Dan to Beersheba, the territory mentioned eight times in the Bible as the land of the Hebrew people. When this territory is viewed on a map we realize that most of the Bible's stories occur between Dan in the north and Beersheba in the south (approximately 150 miles) and within a dozen miles or so of a straight line joining the two cities on a map. Sr. Sarah Schwartzberg in her story about Gad the seer reminds us that the people of this land are heirs to promise to Abraham that his descendants would be more numerous than the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore (Gen. 22:17)?  Should not David simply trust in God to fight his battles for him? Did David lack trust in God? Friar Jude Winkler notes that David chooses the consequence of pestilence, an epidemic disease with a high death rate like plague, because it is delivered by God who is merciful. David proclaims his responsibility as shepherd for the transgression yet the corporate dimension of sin, as noted by Friar Jude, was understood in David’s time to have consequence for all. In contrast today, our attention on individual sin has let the protection of the environment, the unborn, and those in poor health and financial conditions, our corporate sins of omission, not receive the attention which the people of God need to bring. The ministry of Jesus as told in the Gospel of Mark has proclaimed the Presence of God in miracles of nature, healing and exorcism in the communities which are geographically very close to Jesus home. Coming home for Jesus resonates with Rev.Richard Gabuzda of Creighton University in that way where we may have found some distance occurs with friends, family and associates as they seem to misunderstand the development and deepening of our relationship with Jesus.  Friar Jude offers the consolation that it took the disciples and family of Jesus time to see clearly what He was bringing to people. The time of the cross and the resurrection brought some clarity to their confusion.