Day 118: King Saul Despairs
1 Samuel 27:8-12 David’s brutal slaughter of prisoners cannot be condoned, and neither can his outright lies to the Philistine leaders. This does show David’s resourcefulness and abilities as a warrior: he avoids Judah for fear of Saul while at the same time defeating Judah’s enemies and protecting himself from the Philistines through trickery. (CCC 2313)
Ch 28:8 Conjuring dead spirits was against the Mosaic Law, and any kind of divination is in violation of the First Commandment. The Church teaches that any consultation of mediums, seances, palm readers, astrological signs, horoscopes, or seers is gravely sinful since it at least implicitly seeks a preternatural intervention that involves demonic forces. This practice also reflects an inordinate desire to acquire knowledge and to control future events that are within God’s competence alone. (CCC 2115-2117)
Psalm 34 It is unusual for a psalm of praise to offer instruction to the faithful, but this psalm does precisely that. The first half of the psalm flows into verses 11-14, which resemble the wisdom literature of the Old Testament, before returning to the typical and standard words of praise. The Lord is rightly given credit for the protection and ultimate prosperity enjoyed by the righteous, whose righteousness not only consists in obeying the Law but also is primarily connected to humility and repentance before God.
“The Lord is always near those who sincerely invoke him, that is, those who have recourse to him with upright faith, firm hope, and perfect charity,” taught St. Ambrose. “In fact, he knows what you stand in need of even before you ask him for it; he is always ready to meet the needs of those who serve him faithfully” (St. Ambrose, In Epistolam Beati Pauli ad Philippenses, 4).
He keeps all his bones...broken: John states in his Gospel that this prophecy was fulfilled when the Roman soldiers found Christ already dead on the Cross and so did not break his legs, a method of speeding up death for the crucified (cf. Jn 19:36)
Evil shall slay the wicked: In reality, condemnations from the Lord are simply a result of the self-inflicted damage caused by sin. Those who lead virtuous and holy lives allow themselves to be protected, helped, and blessed by God. (CCC 336, 1706)
(*The Didache Bible RSV-CE Ignatius Edition, 2006)
Not only do we hear the story of David, who is so much on the run that he goes and lives among King Acshish of Gath
Remember, these are the people who are the ENEMIES of Israel
David is living amongst them in the land of the Philistines
One of the things we will see soon is that the Philistines don’t trust David, but King Acshish does
He trusts him because even though David goes on to raid the Amalekites, the Geshurites, and the Girzites, David is telling the king that he is raiding the Israelites
King Acshish thinks David has burned his bridges and that Israel will not take him back
Meanwhile, back in Israel, the Philistines are massing a huge army against King Saul
King Saul has been abandoned by God here and has no certainties when leading his people about what will happen
King Saul does what many of us do when GOD IS SILENT
He turns to something OTHER THAN GOD to have a sense of what he should do next
He consults a MEDIUM or a SEER or a WITCH of ENDOR (Hold up hold up….does this mean that the Starwars Universe takes place in the same universe as ours?? After all, the Ewoks lived on the forest moon of ENDOR!!!! 🤓)
Saul had, in the past, prohibited wizardry and mediums throughout the land
AND YET…
Saul is desperate
We can also be desperate that we are willing to do the thing that is COMPLETELY PROHIBITED
OUT OF FEAR
One of the reasons when we read this story and realize that we can see in Saul someone we RELATE TO
SOMEONE JUST LIKE MYSELF
WE KNOW RIGHT AND WRONG
AND YET…
When I am in a place of FEAR
When I am in a place of INSECURITY
When I am in a place of DESPERATION
Then doing the WRONG THING can be VERY VERY APPEALING
SAUL DOES THE WRONG THING
Saul consults the medium to talk to the prophet Samuel
What shocks some people is that the medium is actually able to connect to Samuel
Why is this shocking to us?
Sometimes, we have grown accustomed to thinking that it’s not real
Sometimes, we have grown accustomed to thinking that mediums are fake or charlatans or a hoax
There might be mediums that are fake
There might be mediums that are a hoax
AND YET…
We recognize the SPIRITUAL world is VERY VERY REAL
In fact, IT MAY BE MORE REAL than the MATERIAL WORLD (Because guess what? You and I are going to die one day, but spirits are ETERNAL)
The recognition is that Samuel’s soul was separated from his body since he was dead and his body was buried at Ramah
Samuel’s SOUL was very much in existence
Samuel’s GHOST
A GHOST is the SOUL that has been separated from the BODY of the person
So sometimes, we are tempted to have recourse to NECROMANCY
NECROMANCY is COMMUNICATING WITH THE DEAD
This is COMPLETELY FORBIDDEN in both the Old Testament, the New Testament, AND TODAY
CCC 2115: (Divination and Magic) God can reveal the future to His prophets or to other saints. Still, a sound Christian attitude consists in putting oneself confidently into the hands of Providence for whatever concerns the future, and giving up all unhealthy curiosity about it. Improvidence, however, can constitute a lack of responsibility.
The Christian attitude means that I put myself CONFIDENTLY into the hands of GOD HIMSELF for WHATEVER CONCERNS THE FUTURE giving up ALL UNHEALTHY CURIOSITY
So we TRUST GOD and put ourselves in HIS HANDS
GOD IS THE GOD OF ALL TIME
GOD IS THE GOD OF EVERYTHING
At the same time, we have to be aware of the fact that RIGHT NOW is the most important moment
Sometimes, THIS MOMENT is to prepare for THE NEXT MOMENT
Sometimes, the TASK OF THIS DAY is to prepare for TOMORROW
We only do the task of TODAY
But SOMETIMES we need to prepare for TOMORROW
There is such a balance of TRUST in God RIGHT NOW and being aware of the fact that the task of RIGHT NOW might be to PREPARE FOR TOMORROW
CCC 2116: All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to “unveil” the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire of power over time, history, and in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.
Saul was appealing to a medium to get an answer that GOD WOULD NOT PROVIDE
This is REMARKABLE
Tarot cards are NOT FUN
Ouija boards are NOT FUN
Horoscopes are NOT FUN
The Church does not condemn these things because they are silly
The Church condemns these things because they are DANGEROUS
There is POWER here
We need to recognize there is a SPIRITUAL WORLD
Angels are spirits after all
But there are also spirits that REJECTED GOD
These spirits are NOT TO BE MESSED WITH
That’s what we mess with when we consult horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, omens, lots, etc
We are dealing with something or someone OTHER THAN GOD HIMSELF
Some people will swear by these things
And they may have even gotten an answer they wanted
BUT THEY GOT IT FROM THE WRONG SOURCE
The medium in 1 Samuel doesn’t PRETEND that he can conjure Samuel up
HE ACTUALLY DOES IT
And it is to SAUL’S DETRIMENT
The same thing is true for ANYONE who calls upon these mediums, horoscope, ouija boards, etc
If that has been part of your life, PLEASE get rid of those things
BURN THEM
THROW THEM AWAY
GO TO CONFESSION
IT IS A SERIOUS SERIOUS VIOLATION OF THE FIRST COMMANDMENT
IT IS PLACING YOUR OWN ETERNAL SOUL INTO GREAT GREAT JEOPARDY
THIS IS REALLY HEAVY
What’s the consequence for Saul?
Oh, he’s going to die tomorrow says Samuel
DON’T BE AFRAID
JESUS CHRIST CONQUERS EVERYTHING
BUT…
WE HAVE TO TURN AWAY FROM ALL SOURCES OF EVIL LIKE THIS
WE HAVE TO TURN BACK TO THE LORD
REPENT
GO TO CONFESSION WHEN YOU HAVE THE CHANCE
GET RID OF ALL TRACES OF THESE THINGS IN YOUR LIVES
WE ARE CALLED HIGHER AND IT IS A GIFT
There is a spiritual world out there THAT WE ARE PART OF
At the same time, we need to TRUST IN THE LORD more than anything else
EVEN WHEN HE IS SILENT
DO NOT TRY TO TAKE CONTROL OF THE FUTURE IN YOUR OWN HANDS
It’s hard
SO KEEP PRAYING FOR EACH OTHER
PRAY FOR FR. MIKE
Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, we give you praise and we honor you today and we thank you. Thank you for your goodness. Thank you for making us a body and soul. Thank you for giving us life and breath in this world that you have created, this world you have made good, this world that is good but is unsafe, this world that is good but has been broken, and these hearts of ours that are good but broken. Lord God, we ask you to come into the brokenness, because all those things that you make are good. Even though they have been broken, you still love us. Even though we are broken, you still love us. And even though this world is broken, you still love it and you still can redeem it. You HAVE redeemed it by the Sacrifice, the Life, the Death, and the Resurrection of your Son. You have sent your Holy Spirit upon this world, this broken but good world. So that it may be holy, that we may be holy. Help us live a life consecrated to you this day and every day. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.”