Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Tuesday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time

(II Samuel 6:12b-15.17-19; Mark 3:31-35)
  
Does the world need God?  As probably half of the world’s population, we say that we do. But increasingly, especially in western societies, people act as if they do not need God.  Witness the lagging observance of Sunday as the Lord’s Day and the greater interest in retirement plans than in pursuit of eternal life.  Today’s first reading suggests that indeed a right functioning requires the worship of God.

When King David dances before the Ark of the Covenant, he is showing himself as the epitome of a renewed priesthood and well as of the kingship. He has just offered sacrifice to God.  Now he gives God exultant praise before the Ark which contains the Tablets of the Law.  His actions imply that the people must recognize God as author, sustainer, and legislator of their life.  Without God their strength will shrivel, and they will come to nothing.



If we look at what is happening around us, we should reach the same conclusion.  Not remembering Christ’s command to love one another, we are falling into the division of identity politics which often ignore the common good.  More devastating, not heeding God’s law concerning sex, many rob their children of full family life.  We also need God even more for His daily assistance that comes in more numerable ways than is possible to record.