The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to consider how we assess the qualities of those we choose to follow as community leaders.
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| Leadership and the Spirit |
In the passage from the First Book of Samuel, the seer is sent to Bethlehem where he anoints David as king.
* [16:1] David is anointed two more times after Saul’s death (2 Sm 2:4; 5:3). In 17:28, his brother Eliab is not aware of David’s selection. These repetitions and inconsistencies reflect the final editor’s use of multiple sources.1
Psalm 89 declares that forever God will keep steadfast love for David, and the covenant with him will stand firm.
* [89:28] Most High: a divine title, which is here extended to David as God’s own king, cf. Ps 2:7–9; Is 9:5. As God rules over the members of the heavenly council (Ps 89:6–9), so David, God’s surrogate, rules over earthly kings.2
The Gospel of Mark is Jesus pronouncement about the Sabbath.
* [2:27] The sabbath was made for man: a reaffirmation of the divine intent of the sabbath to benefit Israel as contrasted with the restrictive Pharisaic tradition added to the law.3
Mark Latta underlines the lesson we must learn is that we can’t read the secrets of another’s heart and we often do only judge on outward appearance. Samuel needed to know his natural inclination was to judge only on outward appearance, but he didn’t have to give into it.
He could seek the Lord and seek God’s heart and mind when looking at people. This is as it is for us. God was exhorting Samuel to Godly thinking. God can judge a person’s inner life and their inner heart. While God does not ask us to have that gift, the imperative is not to let the outward appearance—indeed the values of the world—interfere with our getting a sense of the real nature of the people God brings into our lives.4
Don Schwager quotes “The Lord of the Sabbath,” by John Chrysostom, 547-407 A.D.
"Doubtless he speaks of himself when he mentions the 'Lord of the sabbath' (Mark 2:28, Matthew 12:8, Luke 6:5). Mark relates a complementary saying about our common human nature, that “the sabbath was made for humans, not humans for the sabbath (Mark 2:27). Why then should someone who gathered sticks on the sabbath be censured? The law that was established earlier could not be scorned without jeopardizing the law to be given later. "The sabbath did confer many benefits, great blessings in the earlier dispensation. It made people more gentle toward those close to them. It guided them toward being more sympathetic. It located them temporally within God's creation and providence, as Ezekiel knew (Ezekiel 20:19-20). The sabbath trained Israel by degrees to abstain from evil and disposed them to listen to the things of the Spirit. "They would have stretched the law out of shape if, when he was giving the law of the sabbath, Jesus had said, 'You can work on the sabbath, but just do good works, do nothing evil.' This would have brought out the worst in them. So he restrained them from doing any works at all on the sabbath. And even this stricter prohibition did not keep them in line. But he himself, in the very act of giving the law of the sabbath, gave them a veiled sign of things to come. For by saying, 'You must do no work, except what shall be done for your life' (Exodus 12:16), he indicated that the intent of the law was to have them refrain from evil works only, not all works. Even in the temple, much went on during the sabbath, and with great diligence and double toil. Thus even by this very shadowy saying Jesus was secretly opening the truth to them. Did Christ then attempt to repeal a law so beneficial as the sabbath law? Far from it. Rather, he greatly magnified the sabbath. For with Christ came the time for everyone to be trained by a higher requirement." (excerpt from THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 39.3)5
The Word Among Us meditation on 1 Samuel 16:1-13 comments that in today’s first reading, God makes it clear that David, the youngest of Jesse’s sons, is to be Israel’s next king. God does this by having Samuel anoint him. Through this anointing, God fills David with his Spirit. God’s Spirit would now be with David through all the challenges he would face, including his forty-year reign as king.
It’s true; God’s Spirit really did rush into you when you were baptized, just as it rushed upon David. That’s because sacraments aren’t just religious ceremonies—they bring about what they signify. Just as King David’s anointing empowered him to fulfill his office, your baptism empowered and strengthened you. It equipped you as priest, to grow in holiness and to help others do the same; as prophet, to proclaim the truth of the gospel; and as king, to bring God’s kingdom into the world.6
Friar Jude Winkler comments that God has rejected Saul. The selection of David initiates a dynasty in Israel replacing charismatically chosen judges and leaders. Friar Jude discusses the significance of the factual error of Jesus as reported by Mark.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that the Desert Fathers and Mothers knew, as we should today, that empire would be an unreliable partner. They recognized that they had to find inner freedom from the system before they could return to it with true love, wisdom, and helpfulness. This is a useful dynamic for all of us who want to act on behalf of the world. If we stay immersed in culturally acceptable ways of thinking and doing, Christianity’s deep, transformative power is largely lost.
By solitude, the desert mystics didn’t mean mere privacy or protected space, although there is a need for that too. The desert mystics saw solitude, in Henri Nouwen’s words, as a “place of conversion, the place where the old self dies and the new self is born, the place where the emergence of the [person] occurs.” [3] Solitude is a courageous encounter with our naked, most raw and real self, in the presence of pure Love. This level of contemplation cannot help but bring about action.7
Contemplation is a means to raise our awareness of the gifts of others and illuminate the pitfalls in the programs of popular culture.
References
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