Friday, 3rd Week of Ordinary Time (II)

January 30,2004

by Rev. Herbert Nichols

As we have seen this week, David was the first king Israel and Judah. Not only had he been chosen by God himself to be king, but God so favored him that he promised that the messiah would be born of his lineage.

We saw examples of humility and innocence in the life of this King during his early years. We might also remember how as a youth, he stood before and slew the Philistine giant Goliath.

Today’s reading, however, brings us from a young and wise and strong leader, to one who has grown older, darkened, and proud. In the first reading today David faces a different kind of Goliath, the Goliath of temptation and sin, and it is a major battle that he will lose.

In one action, David commits a package of sin, causing Bathsheba to violate her fidelity to her husband, deceiving and arranging for the murder of her husband in battle, violating his mission as king, anointed by God, and using his army to cover up his tracks.

One of the strangest weaknesses of human nature is that no matter what we have, we are never satisfied. We look forward to Christmas or some other celebration with great expectation; but the day comes without the fulfillment that we quite expected.

And if that fulfillment was not what we expected, it is soon over and the memory fades. We must not miss the significance of this restlessness, this yearning of the human heart.

Nothing short of God Himself can satisfy because we have been made for God. We should not be discouraged by the incompleteness of human experience, nor allow ourselves to be fooled by unanswered desires. Our restlessness and our yearnings that we have a higher destiny than this life can offer.

Even the bleakest unhappiness can be a joy if we recognize that the only reason we are unhappy is that life with God is the only source of true and perfect happiness. St. Augustine said it in these words: Our hearts were made for you 0 Lord, and they remain restless until they find their rest in Thee.