Today’s readings:
1 Samuel 4:1-11
Psalm 44:11-27
Mark 1:40-45
The Israelites were told by God to take the land, and they engaged in multiple battles in order to do so. The people of God today are told to retake the land being occupied by the enemy, and we need to engage in multiple spiritual battles to do so.
If we are to take the land, we need to become holy warriors, that is, soldiers engaged in the war who are holy instruments of a holy God. If we are holy warriors, then we have the victory. If not, we can and will be defeated.
This is what happened to Israel in one of its battles with the Philistines. “After a fierce struggle Israel was defeated by the Philistines” (1 Sm 4:2b). The elders of Israel could not understand why they were defeated. So they tried again, this time bringing the ark of the covenant. The presence of the ark energized the Israelites and struck fear in the hearts of the Philistines. But again, “the Philistines fought and Israel was defeated” (1 Sm 4:10a). In fact, “the ark of God was captured” (1 Sm 4:11a).
Why did this happen? Prior to this, we read about the wickedness of the sons of Eli the priest. Now in this battle “the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, accompanied the ark of God.” (1 Sm 4:4b). So the army of Israel was led by unholy warriors. The consequence of that was defeat.
In Psalm 44, Israel also laments that they had past victories and defeated their enemies, “but now you have rejected and disgraced us; you do not march out with our armies. You make us retreat before the foe” (Ps 44:10-11a). Again, the Israelites did not know why they suffered defeats. They claimed to be faithful to God. “All this has come upon us, though we have not forgotten you, nor been disloyal to your covenant.” (Ps 44:18).
Might this not also be the case with us at times? We love and serve God, we try to do His will, we live as covenanted members of MFC, but we suffer reverses in the Christian life and ministry. We wonder where is the victory. Well, we must examine well if we indeed truly are holy warriors. Yes we try to live out our covenant in MFC. Yes we give of ourselves and our resources with which to do our mission. But to what extent? How much are we growing in holiness? Since we are to be holy as God is holy, we are still a long way off, and we need to strive harder.
Where might we fall short, but not recognize that we are missing the mark?
* We do not pray without ceasing. We are not 24/7 for Jesus.
* We do not immerse ourselves in the word of God. So how can we fully know what is God’s will, by which we can build our house on rock?
* We do not give our tithe and so are thieves.
* We have strife and animosities with our brethren within the body.
* We fail in full appreciation of what it means to be a servant leader.
* We do not speak prophetically.
* There is continuing sin in our lives, including unconfessed works of the flesh such as hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy.
So whenever we suffer defeat in spiritual war, we need to examine ourselves. The goal is to be holy, to be founded on the Rock that is Christ. We need to be convicted of our sin. We need to be like the leper, who “came to (Jesus) and kneeling down begged him and said, ‘If you wish, you can make me clean.’” (Mk 1:40). And know this: Jesus does want us to be clean, to be holy.
There is one more aspect why we are not as victorious in this spiritual war as God intends us to be. MFC is an evangelistic and missionary community. We exist to evangelize. In fact, the Church of which we are a part is a missionary Church. We are in the army of Mary, but many who should be soldiers are not fully engaged in the war. There are those who are just coasting along. The spirit of evangelization has not seeped into their very being. Paul had said woe to him if he does not preach the gospel. It is the same with us. We are called to be evangelizers, and if we do not live out this call, if we are not zealous for this call, then we will experience woes, including defeat in battles.
Consider the leper who was cured by Jesus. Jesus told him, “See that you tell no one anything” (Mk 1:44a). This was because his time had not yet come. So did the leper obey? No! How could he contain the miraculous news of what had happened to him just to himself? So what did he do? “The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter.” (Mk 1:45a). He was told not to tell others, but he did so. As to us, we are told to tell others, but we do not do so. And so our army suffers defeats and have great difficulty in taking the land.
But if we evangelize as holy warriors? Then Jesus will be known and loved. Just as then, as it should be today, “people kept coming to him from everywhere.” (Mk 1:45d).
* * *
Comments