The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to consider simultaneously the sins of King David and our need to surrender in faith to Providence.
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| Sin and consequence in the dark night |
The passage from the Second Book of Samuel relates David’s sins including adultery with Bathsheba and conspiring to have Uriah killed.
[11:1] At the turn of the year: in the spring.1
Psalm 51 asks deliverance from sin, not just a past act but its emotional, physical, and social consequences.
* [Psalm 51] A lament, the most famous of the seven Penitential Psalms, prays for the removal of the personal and social disorders that sin has brought. The poem has two parts of approximately equal length: Ps 51:3–10 and Ps 51:11–19, and a conclusion in Ps 51:20–21. The two parts interlock by repetition of “blot out” in the first verse of each section (Ps 51:3, 11), of “wash (away)” just after the first verse of each section (Ps 51:4) and just before the last verse (Ps 51:9) of the first section, and of “heart,” “God,” and “spirit” in Ps 51:12, 19. The first part (Ps 51:3–10) asks deliverance from sin, not just a past act but its emotional, physical, and social consequences. The second part (Ps 51:11–19) seeks something more profound than wiping the slate clean: nearness to God, living by the spirit of God (Ps 51:12–13), like the relation between God and people described in Jer 31:33–34. Nearness to God brings joy and the authority to teach sinners (Ps 51:15–16). Such proclamation is better than offering sacrifice (Ps 51:17–19). The last two verses express the hope that God’s good will toward those who are cleansed and contrite will prompt him to look favorably on the acts of worship offered in the Jerusalem Temple (Ps 51:19 [20–21]).2
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus uses parables of the growing seed and the mustard seed to underline our need to have faith in the Plan of God.
* [4:26–29] Only Mark records the parable of the seed’s growth. Sower and harvester are the same. The emphasis is on the power of the seed to grow of itself without human intervention (Mk 4:27). Mysteriously it produces blade and ear and full grain (Mk 4:28). Thus the kingdom of God initiated by Jesus in proclaiming the word develops quietly yet powerfully until it is fully established by him at the final judgment (Mk 4:29); cf. Rev 14:15.3
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, in the NYTimes, interviews Mark Galli, who cites King David, and who was overwhelmed by the vocal criticism and quiet praise after his editorial in a prominent evangelical magazine, Christianity Today, called for President Trump’s ouster.
I’ve been surprised by the ethical naïveté of the response I’m receiving to the editorial. There does seem to be widespread ignorance — that is the best word I can come up with — of the gravity of Trump’s moral failings. Some evangelicals will acknowledge he had a problem with adultery, but now they consider that a thing of the past. They bring up King David, but the difference is King David repented! Donald Trump has not done that.
Some evangelicals say he is prideful, abrasive and arrogant — which are all the qualities that Christians decry — but they don’t seem to grasp how serious it is for a head of state to talk like that and it does make me wonder what’s going on there.4
Scott McClure reflects on the recent birth of twin daughters as he shares that the Kingdom of God, as Jesus describes it, begins as the smallest of things yet, over time, develops into something far more than anyone would expect considering its humble beginnings. Miraculous growth follows the seed that is sown.
The Kingdom of God is inevitable. It is upon us. This is cause for joy amidst our sorrows. This is cause for hope amidst our despair. As you look upon all that has been created around you, all that God's finger has touched, may you and each one of us be inspired to join with God in the building of his Kingdom as long as we remain in the womb of this world.5
Don Schwager quotes Peter Chrysologous (400-450 AD), an early church father, who explains how the " tree of the cross" spread its branches throughout the world and grew into a worldwide community of faith offering its fruit to the whole world.
It is up to us to sow this mustard seed in our minds and let it grow within us into a great tree of understanding reaching up to heaven and elevating all our faculties; then it will spread out branches of knowledge, the pungent savor of its fruit will make our mouths burn, its fiery kernel will kindle a blaze within us inflaming our hearts, and the taste of it will dispel our unenlightened repugnance. Yes, it is true: a mustard seed is indeed an image of the kingdom of God. Christ is the kingdom of heaven. Sown like a mustard seed in the garden of the virgin’s womb, he grew up into the tree of the cross whose branches stretch across the world. Crushed in the mortar of the passion, its fruit has produced seasoning enough for the flavoring and preservation of every living creature with which it comes in contact. As long as a mustard seed remains intact, its properties lie dormant; but when it is crushed they are exceedingly evident. So it was with Christ; he chose to have his body crushed, because he would not have his power concealed….Christ became all things in order to restore all of us in himself. The man Christ received the mustard seed which represents the kingdom of God; as man he received it, though as God he had always possessed it. He sowed it in his garden, that is in his bride, the Church. The Church is a garden extending over the whole world, tilled by the plough of the gospel, fenced in by stakes of doctrine and discipline, cleared of every harmful weed by the labor of the apostles, fragrant and lovely with perennial flowers: virgins’ lilies and martyrs’ roses set amid the pleasant verdure of all who bear witness to Christ and the tender plants of all who have faith in him. Such then is the mustard seed which Christ sowed in his garden. When he promised a kingdom to the patriarchs, the seed took root in them; with the prophets it sprang up; with the apostles it grew tall; in the Church it became a great tree putting forth innumerable branches laden with gifts. And now you too must take the wings of the psalmist’s dove, gleaming gold in the rays of divine sunlight, and fly to rest for ever among those sturdy, fruitful branches. No snares are set to trap you there; fly off, then, with confidence and dwell securely in its shelter. (SERMON 98)6
The Word Among Us Meditation on 2 Samuel 11:1-10, 13-17 comments that David’s transgressions kept piling up, and the result, further on in the text, was a string of tragedies for David and his family. This story is probably one of the earliest examples of the age-old saying “The cover-up is worse than the crime.” From political scandals to family squabbles, we see this truth play out over and over again—and we see more and more people who end up feeling hurt and betrayed.
The answer sounds simple, doesn’t it? Just come clean. Admit the wrong you did, and try to make amends. But we know how hard this can be. We worry about how people will react. Will we lose our friends? Will the offended party find a way to forgive us? Or maybe we just want to avoid facing up to the real hurt we have caused people. You may be afraid of people’s reactions, but you never have to fear how God will react. For one thing, he already knows what you have done! But beyond that, he has promised to forgive your every sin, to heal your wounded conscience, and to keep you in the palm of his hand.7
Friar Jude Winkler concludes that the foreigner, Uriah the Hittite, was more observant of Jewish Law than King David. Faith grows as a special gift from God. Friar Jude comments that “hidden” is a better translation than “dark” for the work of 16th-century Spanish mystic and poet St. John of the Cross from God about the dark night of the soul. Friar Jude reminds us that greetings, smiles, and prayers are the mustard seeds that grow the Kingdom.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, shares thoughts about Denis the Areopagite, or Pseudo-Dionysius [who wrote in the late fifth to early sixth century], from the wonderful autobiography of good friend, Franciscan sister and scientist Ilia Delio.
To be united to God we must “break through” the sensible world and pass beyond the human condition to move beyond knowing to unknowing, from knowledge to love. In his De mystica theologia Denis wrote: “As we plunge into that darkness which is beyond intellect, we shall find ourselves not simply running short of words but actually speechless and unknowing.” [1] . . .
Christian mystics understood love as the core of reality and spoke of a deep relationship between love and knowledge. “Love is the highest form of knowing,” Saint Augustine wrote. [2] Gregory the Great said, “Love itself is a form of knowing” (amor ipse notitia est), meaning that the love by which we reach God implies a form of knowing above ordinary reason. [3] William of St. Thierry put it beautifully in this way: “In the contemplation of God where love is chiefly operative, reason passes into love and is transformed into a certain spiritual and divine understanding which transcends and absorbs all reason.” [4] 8
Fr Richard concludes that Wisdom is knowledge deepened by love. The wise person knows more deeply by way of love than by way of argument because the eye of the heart can see the truth of reality. Hence the wise person is one who knows and sees God shining through everything, even what seems ugly or despised.
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