Monday of the
Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
(II Samuel 15:13-14.30.16:5-13; Mark 5:1-20)
“The Son of Saul” recently premiered in the United
States. It retells the story of the
holocaust on the big-screen perhaps for the several hundredth time. Of course, it has a new perspective -- showing
the ordeal of giving a ritual burial in Auschwitz. Yet it raises the question
whether another movie exposing the genocide of Jews is necessary. Today’s first reading hints at an answer to
the question.
King David is being betrayed by his son Absalom. He has racked much ruthlessness in
solidifying the Jewish people. Now he has
to pay the price of his sins. He finds
the people drifting to Absalom a man of David’s prowess but not his
cunning. David does not hide his
faults. He even refuses to stop a crazed
man from proclaiming them in public.
Egregious sins like David’s in his time and the twentieth
century holocaust must be recollected. They
indicate the evil which humans are capable of perpetrating. They also glimpse at what forgiveness after
contrition brings. David will die in
bed. Germans are the most reluctant
people in Europe to experiment with physician-assisted suicide. These stories tell more than good coming out
of evil. They show the need for
repentance and reliance on God’s mercy.
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