Thursday, January 26, 2006

Be Merciful, O Lord for We Have Sinned

That David! What a guy!

He has a fling with the wife of one of his soldiers who’s off fighting a war. She gets pregnant and David sends for her husband. To get him out of the picture, David tells Joab to send Uriah back into battle and to put him up front where the fighting is the fiercest. Then pull back leaving him there to die, which he does.

What was David thinking? He was king. He could have any woman he wanted. Why did he pick on one who was married?

God’s plan was for David to become a king after his own heart. Having committed the sins of adultery and murder, how could David be such a king?

We know David committed these sins, but we also know that he sought God’s forgiveness. The son of his illicit affair was Solomon, and as we know, the Messiah, Jesus Christ would be born of the house of David.

God forgave David’s sins, because David asked for forgiveness. How do we know that? Because, we just read it in today’s psalm.


“Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me.”

David praises God and asks for forgiveness.

“For, I acknowledge my offense,
And my sin is before me always;
“Against you only have I sinned,
and done what is evil in your sight.”

He admits his guilt and acknowledges that his sin has been against God, and only against God.

“I have done such evil in your sight,
That you are just in your sentence,
Blameless when you condemn.
True, I was born guilty, a sinner,
even as my mother conceived me.”

He admits that God is just in condemning him and that he was BORN a sinner, the result of original sin.

“Let me hear the sounds of joy and gladness,
The bones you have crushed shall rejoice.
Turn away your face from my sins,
And blot out all my guilt.”

He asks God again to turn away from his sins and free him from his guilt.

As descendents of David our response is, “Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.”

Isn’t it a wonderful thing to know that God forgave David’s sins and even allowed him to be the head of the family that would eventually be Christ’s family? How much more, then, will He forgive OUR sins? All we have to do is ask him.

The story of David and Bathsheba also reminds us that our leaders, whether they be spiritual leaders or political leaders, are not without sin. But, in spite of their sins, they can still be effective leaders. While their sin may be a sign of weakness, it doesn't mean that they can't accomplish great things. In fact, if they recognize their sins with humility, they might just be better leaders than they would have been if they had never sinned.

“Be merciful, O Lord for we have sinned.”

technorati tags:


Saturday, January 21, 2006

33rd Anniversary of Roe vs Wade


3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time January 22, 2006
Have you ever seen a cartoon showing someone carrying a sign that says, “REPENT, THE END IS NEAR”?

All three readings today are about “the end”. In our first reading, the Lord sends Jonah to Nineveh to announce to the people that in 40 days Nineveh would be destroyed. The people believed him, repented, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth.

When God saw their actions, He changed His mind and didn’t destroy them.

In the second reading, Paul tells the Corinthians that “time is running out”. “The world in its present form is passing away.”

Finally, in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus tells the Galileans, “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”

Three readings, three warnings. Scholars believe that the first reading, from the Book of Jonah was written about 500 B.C. Through all these thousands of years, we‘ve lived with the fact that God could destroy the world at any time. He did it once. He can do it again.


You remember that a lot of people thought that the beginning of the twenty-first century might be the end. One problem with that was that there were two schools of thought on when the millenium actually occurred. Was it January 1, 2000 or January 1, 2001. Either way, we’re still here.

Some of our protestant brothers and sisters believe that the end will come sooner, rather than later. Some denominations don’t believe in accumulating wealth because they don’t expect to be here to spend it. Others have actually predicted dates when the world would end. Of course, they’ve always been wrong. But, not to be discouraged, they would mumble something about their calculator batteries being dead, or a page missing from their calendar, and then cheerfully set another date.

But, does it really matter all that much? After all, each of us is going to have our individual “end” and thank God, we have no idea when it’s going to be. Whether Jesus comes back during our lifetime or not, He will judge us when our time comes, based on how we’ve lived our lives.

But, what about those who never have a chance to live their lives? What about the 40 million children who have been killed in the United States since 1973, the year the Supreme Court ruling on Roe vs. Wade made abortion legal through all nine months of pregnancy? Today marks the 33rd anniversary of that terrible decision.

33 years ago, I was 24 years old. I had hair. In fact, I had an afro. Jan and I had no children. Richard Nixon was president and we were still at war in Viet Nam. “The Godfather” won the Academy Award for best picture. “The Waltons” walked away with all the TV Emmies for drama and “All in the Family” was the best comedy series, even though “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” won most of the comedy awards.

Oakland beat the Mets in the World Series in 1973 and the Dolphins beat the Redskins in Super Bowl VII. The Los Angeles rams were 12-2 in 1973 and the St. Louis Cardinals were 4-6-1 for the third year in a row.

And here, in the greatest country on earth, we began killing nearly 3,000 unborn babies every day and called it a “choice”.

Jonah was very angry with God when He didn’t destroy Nineveh. After he had been punished for his own misdeeds, he couldn’t understand why God would spare the Ninevites. I wonder what Johah would think about the United States today?

We all wonder what eternity will be like. What will God say to us when we finally get the chance to see Him face-to-face? We know we’ll be judged for what we did in this life. I know I wonder what he’ll say to me. But I also wonder, what does God say to those tiny souls who are victims of abortion when they arrive on His doorstep in heaven? He can’t judge them. They never got the chance to do anything to be judged for. How do you explain to someone why their life was taken away from them before they ever had a chance to draw a breath? “I’m sorry but your death was someone’s ‘choice’”? What does He say?

I suppose He could say that you’re lucky not to be born to such selfish parents. Or that you didn’t have to go through all the trials and tribulations that come with living as a human being.

I wonder, has he ever said, “I’m really sorry. You were the one who was going to grow up and find a cure for cancer.” Or, “You were the one who was finally going to bring peace to the world.” But that would serve us right, wouldn’t it?

More than 40 million “safe and legal” abortions have been performed in the United States since 1973. I love that phrase “safe and legal”. Abortion may be legal, but it’s hardly safe. How can you call something ‘safe’ that ALWAYS takes a life? At the start of the procedure there are two beating hearts. At the end, only one. That doesn’t sound safe to me.

When two people leave on a vacation and you tell them to have a safe trip, don’t you expect both of them to come back alive? Isn’t that what “safe” means. But today, in the United States, where we’re guaranteed the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”, you can legally stop a beating heart and call it “safe”; call it a “choice”.

On September 11, 2001, three thousand Americans were killed by terrorists and the country was outraged, as we should have been. But three thousand more Americans were killed on that day, and on September 12, and on September 13, and every day since by abortionists, and the country hardly blinks an eye. After all, it’s legal. Isn’t it a woman’s right to choose?

Personally, I’ve never had an abortion. But, I really haven’t done much to stop them, either. I used to be one of those people who said, “I’m opposed to abortion myself, but I don’t think it’s any of my business if someone else has one.” And, I really didn’t want to hear any sermons about it. Some of you may be thinking that right now. I hope not, but you may.

And, I can’t say I don’t understand why you would feel that way, because I used to feel that way myself.

But, you know what? It IS our business. It’s our business because one of those 40 million babies might have grown up to cure cancer; or to end hunger; or to bring world peace; or maybe to marry one of my kids. It’s our business because legal abortion cheapens all life, including our own. As Catholic Christians, we’re united with every other person on earth. When one hurts, we all hurt. We may not feel it at the time, but we hurt just the same.

When God destroyed the earth with the great flood, what could those people have been doing that was any worse than murdering children? When He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, what could they have done that was worse? I can’t imagine what it might have been.

But, what can we do about it? We can join pro-life groups. We can picket Planned Parenthood. We can join the annual march to Washington D.C. But we can also do our part right here at home. We can pray for an end to legalized abortion. We can vote for candidates who are Pro-Life. We can write to our elected employees in Washington DC and Jefferson City. We can learn all we can about Pro-Life issues like embryonic stem cell research and work to prevent it’s becoming law.

We can also show our kids and grandkids, by our example and by our words, that we hold all life to be precious, from conception to natural death.


Categories: , , , ,

David and Saul

Today’s first reading paints an interesting picture. At the end of yesterday’s reading, Saul promises his son that he will not kill David. But today, we’ve skipped about five chapters forward and Saul is looking for David to do him in. Here’s where it gets interesting.

David is traveling with about 600 men. They’re hiding deep in a cave. That must have been some cave to hold David and all his men far enough away from the entrance that Saul doesn’t know they’re there. Saul has entered the cave to “relieve himself.” Meanwhile, his 3,000 soldiers are standing around waiting for him.

I don’t want to be indelicate here, but apparently Saul wasn’t standing up, if you get my drift. He’s in a very compromising position when David approaches him. David is able to sneak up behind him and cut off a piece of his cloak. But, he doesn’t kill Saul. He lets him go. He can’t bring himself to kill his king, even though the king was looking to kill David.

Then he follows him outside and calls after him. He tells Saul what he has done and has the piece of the cloak as proof. Saul is so grateful to David for sparing his life that he promises not to kill him and predicts that he will become king of Israel.

The responsorial Psalm, Psalm 57 begins, “Have mercy on me, O God; have mercy on me, for in you I take refuge. In the shadow of your wings I take refuge,
till harm pass by.” These words were written by David and could have been written about the events in the first reading.

I call to God the Most High, to God, my benefactor. May he send from heaven and save me; may he make those a reproach who trample upon me;
may God send his mercy and his faithfulness.
Our response is, “Have mercy on me, God, have mercy.”
Be exalted above the heavens, O God;
above all the earth be your glory!

For your mercy towers to the heavens, and your faithfulness to the skies.
David spared Saul’s life. Saul spared David’s life in return. Mercy begets mercy. It’s a valuable lesson that we should always keep in mind.

Saturday, January 14, 2006

John the Baptist

Imagine the scene in today’s Gospel. John is baptizing at the river Jordan. We’ve always heard that John was kind of a strange character. He had long, hippy-type hair. He dressed in animal skins. He ate bugs. Kind of wild and wooly, I guess.

Here he is today, standing in the water, probably at a place where lots of people would be passing by; maybe a popular river crossing point. As he’s traveled around, he’s gathered an entourage of people who follow him wherever he goes. So, here he is, standing in the middle of the river, baptizing. People are stopping to see what’s going on.

We can imagine that John was probably a boisterous guy, yelling to passers by to come and be baptized. People were stopping to see what all the commotion was about. John wasn’t baptizing with a handful of water like we do when we baptize a baby. He was grabbing people and plunging them into the water.

People were asking, “Is this the messiah? Is he the one we’ve been promised for so long?” John hears the questions and says, “One mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals.
I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Suddenly a stranger appears. He walks up quietly and joins the crowd watching John. John is caught up in the work of baptizing so many people when he looks up and sees the stranger, standing on the shore.

But he’s not a stranger to John. He has known him since he was in his mother’s womb. He walks over and embraces the stranger. “John” the stranger greets him. “Jesus”, John answers.

Jesus tells John that he wants to be baptized. John must have protested, especially considering what he has just told the crowd. But, Jesus is persistent. You don’t say “no” to Jesus, at least not if you know what’s good for you.

So, John walks to the center of the river with Jesus, prays over him, and plunges him into the water. Of course, the crowd has no idea what has just happened. It appears that Jesus is just one of many who have come to the Jordan to be baptized.

But, as Jesus wades back to shore, the sky is torn open, the spirit descends on him and a voice booms out from the heavens. “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” Now they know. THIS is the one; the one that they’ve been promised. The Messiah.

Even though John told the crowd that he wasn’t worthy to fasten His sandal strap, Jesus has come to be baptized by him. Jesus came as our brother. Even though He was the Son of God, He chose to be baptized by an ordinary man. Even today, He uses ordinary people to do His work. You and I are his arms and legs, his eyes and ears. That’s why we’re called the Body of Christ. As we approach Epiphany this Sunday, let’s all remember that He came to earth to save us and He still counts on us to help Him in his work.