MASS MURDER SUSPECT HADZIC DEMANDS HIS RIGHTS AT HAGUE

This blog provides a meditation on the Episcopal daily readings along with a headline from world news

2 Samuel 4:1-12

4When Saul’s son Ishbaal heard that Abner had died at Hebron, his courage failed, and all Israel was dismayed. 2Saul’s son had two captains of raiding bands; the name of one was Baanah, and the name of the other Rechab. They were sons of Rimmon, a Benjaminite from Beeroth—for Beeroth is considered to belong to Benjamin. 3(Now the people of Beeroth had fled to Gittaim and are there as resident aliens to this day).

4 Saul’s son Jonathan had a son who was crippled in his feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel. His nurse picked him up and fled; and, in her haste to flee, it happened that he fell and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth.

5 Now the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, set out, and about the heat of the day they came to the house of Ishbaal, while he was taking his noonday rest. 6They came inside the house as though to take wheat, and they struck him in the stomach; then Rechab and his brother Baanah escaped. 7Now they had come into the house while he was lying on his couch in his bedchamber; they attacked him, killed him, and beheaded him. Then they took his head and travelled by way of the Arabah all night long. 8They brought the head of Ishbaal to David at Hebron and said to the king, ‘Here is the head of Ishbaal, son of Saul your enemy who sought your life; the Lord has avenged my lord the king this day on Saul and on his offspring.’

9 David answered Rechab and his brother Baanah, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, ‘As the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life out of every adversity, 10when the one who told me, “See, Saul is dead”, thought he was bringing good news, I seized him and killed him at Ziklag—this was the reward I gave him for his news. 11How much more then, when wicked men have killed a righteous man on his bed in his own house! And now shall I not require his blood at your hand, and destroy you from the earth?’ 12So David commanded the young men, and they killed them; they cut off their hands and feet, and hung their bodies beside the pool at Hebron. But the head of Ishbaal they took and buried in the tomb of Abner at Hebron.

 It’s not an edifying tale. The question is: does David act out of a profound belief that God’s anointed should not triumph by murder but should act with justice; or out of a shrewd estimation that it’s good to get your enemies out of circulation but even better if you can disassociate yourself from any crime? The reader and perhaps the narrator also, are never quite sure. The narrator disturbs us with the suggestion that God understands and uses the ambiguous motives of his human partners. I wonder if we are disturbed because it asks questions about our own motives. I think that’s the case with me.

Mark 7:1-23

7Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, 2they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. 3(For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; 4and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) 5So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?’ 6He said to them, ‘Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,

“This people honours me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me;

7 in vain do they worship me,

teaching human precepts as doctrines.”

8You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.’

9 Then he said to them, ‘You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! 10For Moses said, “Honour your father and your mother”; and, “Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.” 11But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, “Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban” (that is, an offering to God)— 12then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, 13thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this.’

14 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.’

17 When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18He said to them, ‘Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, 19since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?’ (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20And he said, ‘It is what comes out of a person that defiles. 21For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, 22adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’

Irish PM says Vatican more concerned with reputation than evil done by priests

The Pharisaic reform of Judaism was meant to restore Israel as a whole people under the law, with all its citizens observing the holiness required of priests. It was directed against mere ritual in the name of obedience. But human beings always prefer ritual obedience to moral obedience. Jesus, speaking in the tradition of the prophets, reminds his hearers forcefully of the dangers of this type of religion. People know that defilement comes from the heart but religion can disguise this truth. It doesn’t matter whether we call it “Shariah Law” or “Torah” or “Salvation through Jesus”, anything that hides our evil intentions, or allows us to direct our attention elsewhere, is destructive. Anders Breivik held a self-made religion of white European culture which allowed him to kill white Europeans who disagreed with him without feeling defiled by his actions. Jesus’ sober clarity about the human heart is helpful.

This is my 500th blog in this series. Sit laus Deo Patri, summo Christo decus, Spiritui Sancto honor, tribus unus.

St. Paul: An Unauthorised Autobiography by Michael Mair (emmock) can be found on Kindle