Expectations Challenged

The Roman Catholic Lectionary contains passages from Scripture which clearly surprise us and challenge our expectations about the interaction of the Divine with people. The chosen people face conflict with the Philistines. As the Book of Samuel relates “So the Philistines fought; Israel was defeated, and they fled, everyone to his home. There was a very great slaughter, for there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot-soldiers. 11The ark of God was captured; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died.” (1 Samuel 4:10-11). Mark relates the story of Jesus cleansing a leper. This story is different. The leper senses the healing power of Jesus Spirit and requests a cure. After he is cleansed, he disobeys Jesus request that he tell no one. Mark records that Jesus need to restrict His public appearance as a result. These episodes invite us to look deeper at the relationship between Creator and Creature in a way which tries to remove us and our immediate needs from the centre of the picture. A Divine view is eternal and both infinite and immediate. The children of God live with the choices they make. This is fundamental. God is always present to share the consequence of our choice, good, bad and tragic. Devastating tragedy like that which has befallen Haiti always raises the question of “Where is God”? Stories of the restoration of life in Haiti will provide evidence of the healing and heroic actions of people in harmony with the Divine. The long term will bring hopefully bring changes in human behavior which will mitigate the severe consequences of these events.

Mystical Communication

“The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.” (1 Samuel 3:1). The Roman Catholic Lectionary today takes us to the story of the calling of Samuel. The communication between the Divine and people is necessarily of a mystical quality. Perhaps there are guidelines we can follow to enhance or ‘tune’ our receiver. Perhaps we miss messages because of the disposition of our being. Eli advised Samuel to lie quiet and wait. Jesus got up early and went to a deserted place to pray. The background of noise in our lives seems to comfort and keep us connected. As we extend the communication metaphor, we may be missing the message in the noise. Today the people of Haiti are waking to witness widespread death and destruction from a serious earthquake. In prayer, our indwelling Spirit is in empathy and support of these people. We are connected as brothers and sisters. We, like Samuel, need to listen for our call to action.