These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.
King David was shaken, and went up to the room over the city gate to weep. He said as he wept, “My son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you, Absalom, my son, my son!” (2 Sam 18:9-10, 14b, 24-25a, 30-19:3).
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/020122.cfm
The death of Absalom pierces David’s heart. His anguished lament is the cry of every parent who has lost a child. Today is the feast of Saint Bridget, one of the three patron saints of Ireland.
As they approached Jesus, they caught sight of the man who had been possessed by Legion, sitting there clothed and in his right mind. And they were seized with fear. Those who witnessed the incident explained to them what had happened to the possessed man and to the swine. Then they began to beg him to leave their district. (Mk 5:1-20)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/013122.cfm
“Please, Mr. Jesus, go somewhere else!” As long as the poor man was suffering, “crying out and bruising himself with stones,” folks were fine, but with the crazy man fully clothed and in his right mind, the people become afraid and ask Jesus to please just go. Saint John Bosco (1815-1888) founded the Salesians to work for the education of youth.
Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, it is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. (1 Cor 12:31-13:13)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/013022.cfm
The readings for this Sunday are challenging: the call of the prophet Jeremiah to proclaim a word that will be rejected by kings, priests, and people; Jesus preaching about the faith of foreigners and angering the hometown folks in the process so that they want to kill him. Perhaps Saint Paul’s hymn to Love may seem to be a bit out of place. But when we look at the Cross of the Lord we begin to understand what it means to “strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts.” And as Saint Paul points out: “So faith, hope, love remain, these three;
but the greatest of these is love.”
Then Nathan said to David: “You have done this deed in secret, but I will bring it about in the presence of all Israel, and with the sun looking down. Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” (2 Sam 12:1-7a, 10-17)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/012922.cfm
David’s anguish over his sin being found out and his subsequent contrition is expressed with great pathos in today’s Responsorial Psalm (Ps 51): Free me from blood guilt, O God, my saving God; create a clean heart in me. Today's photo is of the Black Madonna, Our Lady of Einsiedeln.
The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab which he sent by Uriah. In it he directed: “Place Uriah up front, where the fighting is fierce. Then pull back and leave him to be struck down dead.” So while Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew the defenders were strong. When the men of the city made a sortie against Joab, some officers of David’s army fell, and among them Uriah the Hittite died. (2 Sam 11:1-4a, 5-10a, 13-17)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/012822.cfm
In order to cover up his sin with Bathsheba, David plots the murder of her husband, Uriah. Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) used “new-found” knowledge (the writings of Aristotle) to help explain the faith. Traditionalists were horrified, but knowledge won out. They say that poets make great theologians. Saint Thomas was an excellent poet, in fact, we still sing his hymns today. He is the patron saint of seminaries. Today's photo is from my Saint Meinrad Seminary days, taken around 1978.