Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai

1 Chronicles 22:1-19 David was a great warrior who conquered the enemies of Israel. Because of his involvement in so much warfare, he was not the one to build the Temple, which was to be a place of profound worship, symbolic of God’s presence; rather, it would be built by his son, Solomon, a man of peace, whose reign would inaugurate a period of great peace between Israel and its neighbors. David, however, had the crucial role of making the necessary preparations to initiate the elaborate construction of the Temple: he gathered the raw materials, designed its structure, and secured the labor force. In this way he was like Moses, who led the Israelites out of Egypt to the very threshold of the Promised Land but was not permitted to enter it.


Ch 22:8-9 Peace is based on a loving relationship between God and each individual, which is reflected in fidelity to the moral law. Due to the sin of Adam and Eve, which upset the natural order as willed by God, violence entered interpersonal and social relationships within the human race. Peace and violence are MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE; the presence of violence indicates that people are oblivious to or have chosen to reject Christ’s teachings. 


Psalm 36 This psalm contrasts those who choose evil with those who abide in the love of God. When evil is allowed to corrupt the human heart and soul, it is rendered less capable of choosing to do good through a sound moral life. Meanwhile, those who seek God and embrace his will increasingly grow in love for God and others as God’s grace continuously grows. A consequence of this union with God is fidelity, virtuous action, and wisdom. Divine light enables a person to participate in God’s very life. (Cf. St. John Paul II, General Audience, August 22, 2001)


In your light do we see light: Not only is this a reference to the divine illumination of truth, as St. John Paul II has pointed out, but the Church fathers also interpret it as God the Father’s eternal generation of God the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity. This truth with respect to God is echoed in the Nicene Creed when we pray, 


“God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God; 

begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father.”


Such divine illumination also brings to mind the Beatific Vision, which Pope Benedict XII described as “an intuitive vision, face to face, without the mediation of any creature that has the power of sight; rather, the divine essence is shown to them in an immediate and complete revelation, patently and clearly...and seeing it thus, they come to partake of the divine essence itself” (Benedictus Deus).

(*The Didache Bible RSV-CE Ignatius Edition, 2006)



“Lord, renew me. Renew my heart. Renew my soul. Renew your gift of grace inside of me, so that I can truly live in such a way, as a LIVING TABERNACLE, as a LIVING TEMPLE. Let me be a place of your spirit where your truth and your life abide. Amen”



Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven we give you thanks. We praise your name and we give you glory. We thank you for your justice because your justice is that you are right and you are true and you are fair. What we deserve you are willing to give. But we also thank you, Lord God, for your mercy. And we know that in your mercy you do not contradict justice, but in your mercy you fulfill justice in yourself and in giving your Son as the sacrifice for my sin, as a sacrifice for our sins. You show yourself to be a God of justice and mercy in your one heart as you are one God and you are one character truly consistent, just, and merciful. And so we thank you. I thank you, God, for your justice, that you are not fickle. I thank you for your mercy that you are love. Please receive our thanks and praise this day in Jesus’ name. Amen.”